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Coach hopeful for September return for Ciryl Gane, eyes Sergei Pavlovich
Fernand Lopez, the head coach of Ciryl Gane, is hoping his pupil will return in September.
Gane is coming off a first-round submission loss to Jon Jones for the heavyweight title back in March. The loss was disappointing and according to his coach, the plan was to take some time off as both of them realized there was a hole in Gane’s game which was his grappling.
“He was very affected. As soon as the fight ended, he was like, ‘Jeez, I f*cked up. What just happened?’ It happens. No matter the people who try to criticize you and what was wrong with your wrestling,” Lopez said to MiddleEasy. “Actually, you know what? Curtis Blaydes is a good wrestler, but the wrestling does not help every time. You can train hard. You can train very good on wrestling, but you will always be under a couple guys in the UFC in the wrestling department. You need to complete that game. We need to do that. We need to train on that so we try to do that right now. We’re just back on board, trying to figure out and train in all the areas of wrestling, grappling, and all the departments.”
After spending time in the gym, Fernand Lopez says Ciryl Gane still wants a bit more time and eyes a return in September. When he does return, Lopez mentions Sergei Pavlovich as the next opponent which makes sense.
“September,” Lopez said and then added who he thinks should be next: “Sergei Pavlovich would be a good opponent.”
Ciryl Gane (11-2), is now 1-2 in his last three with both losses coming for the heavyweight belt as he was submitted by Jon Jones and dropped a decision to Francis Ngannou. In the fight between them, he beat Tai Tauivasa by KO. Gane is also the former interim heavyweight champ and holds notable wins over Derrick Lewis, Junior dos Santos, and Alexander Volkov among others.
