Don't get all the "rushed" talk regarding Gane, dude arguably didn't lose a round in his career heading into this fight and that included wins over 3 fighters ranked in the top 10, how many more dudes was he supposed to fight before fighting Francis? He was up 2-0 and was a bonehead decision away from probably winning 3-2, and this is after Francis has been blowing away everybody since the Lewis debacle.
He never really faced a good wrestler. Or at least, no one actually took him to the ground. It’s always been standup or him successfully defending takedowns.
This is why he should’ve fought Blaydes before Francis. He would’ve put up a GREAT fight and given him a lot to experience. Especially coming off his losses and layoff he def would’ve been more willing to wrestle.
But Dana decided to play politics to try and fukk over Ngannou and ended up fukking up one of his potential superstars.
Ehh, it’s just fighting tho. Hopefully, Gane doesn’t get that rematch he begged for and they slide him Blaydes to test himself.
Ngannou is 50/50 out of the UFC for a while tho. I think Dana is willing to fukk over the potential money just to spite dude.
I can see him just saying fukk it all and fighting Tyson Fury for a huge payday and retiring from MMA.
He’ll be out probably the rest of the year with his knee surgery anyways. I really don’t think we’ll ever see him in an octagon ever again unless UFC rolls out the red carpet (which ain’t happening on Dana’s watch).
Horrible timing for this fight had it gone either way. A real career blunder for the loser.
That leaves Gane vs Stipe for the vacant probably. I can see Gane taking it, IF he works on his ground game. Because trust everyone is aiming for that now.
And even if that scenario works out. Gane can never really be a superstar now because he got exposed and there’s a good chance he’ll never be able to rematch.