Jon Jones sized up Ciryl Gane for the first time in person as the rivals faced off ahead of their UFC heavyweight title fight.
Jones and Gane meet in the main event of UFC 285 in Las Vegas on Saturday night with the promotion's vacant heavyweight title being on the line after Francis Ngannou's UFC exit in January. Jones makes his return to the octagon after a three-year layoff as the consensus greatest MMA fighter of all-time has been bulking up to heavyweight since his last light-heavyweight title defence against Dominick Reyes in February 2020.
Following their press conference on Thursday afternoon, Jones and Gane came face-to-face onstage as UFC boss Dana White held the title one of them will claim between the rivals. There was no time for smiles from either man as Gane looked dead in Jones' eyes whilst the former light-heavyweight king sized up the Frenchman before they shared a brief nod of respect at the end of their staredown.
Jones labelled Gane the most "incomplete fighter" in the top-five of the heavyweight division on Wednesday and Mirror Fighting asked 'Bones' to explain his comment at the press conference. "I realised that he doesn't really have much wrestling. He relies on evasion and trying to get away. He relies on jiu-jitsu instead of solid takedown defence. He does have the striking down, I don't think defensively he is a very strong kickboxer. Two other big holes are jiu-jitsu and wrestling," Jones said.
Gane missed out on the chance to win the UFC heavyweight title when he lost to former training partner Ngannou last January. 'Bon Gamin' admitted that he didn't work enough on his wrestling whilst preparing to fight Ngannou, but has corrected that mistake during his preparations to face Jones.
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"I did a lot of mistakes against Francis on the wrestling game, because I expected him to strike so I was not expecting that," Gane said. "Everybody knows the wrestling game of Jon Jones so I am very focused on that. We've been working on that and we're going to be ready for him. Everybody knows that Jon Jones it the greatest of all-time, so that's why I respect him and his career."
The co-main event of UFC 285 features a women's flyweight title fight between current beltholder Valentina Shevchenko and top-contender Alexa Grasso. Several unbeaten prospects such as Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Garry are competing on the card whilst wrestling standout Bo Nickal makes his UFC debut at the event.
