'I did a mistake': Ciryl Gane laments on his crushing loss against Jon Jones at UFC 285

2023 marked the return of the purported GOAT in UFC, Jon Jones. After a three-year hiatus, Jones made his return at UFC 285 and was straightaway given the title opportunity. He fought Ciryl Gane at the Pay-Per-View and captured the gold in the first round of the highly-anticipated fight. As Gane was seen as a formidable competitor in front of Bones, thus, the UFC fraternity was started after witnessing him going down without putting up a fight. As months have passed since the culmination of the event, Gane has finally laid weight on his loss and highlighted where it all went wrong in the fight.

3 things you need to know

• Jon Jones made his UFC return at UFC 285 after 3 years
• Jones faced Ciryl Gane at the Pay-Per-View and won via submission in round 1 of the fight
• Jones won the UFC Heavyweight title after defeating Gane

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Ciryl Gane laments on his loss against Jon Jones

Ciryl Gane has had some ups and downs in his career in UFC, yet, the fight fans haven't denied the fight IQ that the French citizen possesses. He is often been termed as a Heavyweight who moves like a Middleweight, and hence when he was up against Jon Jones or against Francis Ngannou, on both occasions, the eyes on him to beat the behemoths. However, he could bring the goods on both occasions, and specifically against Jones, it got over before he could settle. In an interview with MMA Junkie, Gane lamented what transpired at UFC 285 and admitted that he made a mistake.

“I don’t know why exactly, but I cannot manage my distance very well during some moments, and I did a mistake,” Gane said. “It wasn’t possible to manage the distance, and I did some stuff to break this atmosphere, and I did a mistake at this moment. Maybe he knew already I’m going to do this mistake, and he took his opportunity. During all the camp Fernand Lopez told me every time we started training, jab and no big hand. Just jab. And what I did? A big hand. Big mistake, and he took the opportunity.”

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Is Jon Jones relatively slower in the Heavyweight division?

Daniel Cormier said Jones looked visibly slower at heavyweight, and although Gane only stood with him for a few seconds, he agreed that Jones did not look too fast in there.

“He was not fast,” Gane said. “Maybe he was not fast, but I was not good, too. I didn’t manage my distance. I was not good, but I remember he was not fast. He didn’t have fast hands. He had power because he touched me, I don’t remember where, but he landed some punches with power, but not fast.”