Francis Ngannou defeats Ciryl Gane, defends heavyweight title at UFC 270
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, January 22, 2022 for the first pay-per-view event, as well as the first and second title fights of the year, on the UFC 270 fight card.
UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou headlines the event opposing interim champion Ciryl Gane, while a trilogy ensues for the UFC flyweight championship between champion Brandon Moreno and former champion Deiveson Figueiredo.
Click here to see how our flyweight title bout went.
Reverting back to the main event, Ngannou has won his last five bouts, all via knockout, since losing back-to-back bouts in 2018. Gane on the other hand has gone 7-0 inside the octagon since August of 2019, capturing the interim championship in his latest outing against the last man to defeat the undisputed champion.
That being said, the Ngannou is 2-0 against professional kickboxing champions going into this fight. Will he make that 3-0 tonight against Gane, who went 13-0 as a kickboxer?
Continue reading to see how this epic heavyweight championship main event went down:
Official Result: Francis Ngannou def. Ciryl Gane via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46)
Ngannou comes out swinging heavy to start the fight, forcing Gane to tie up with him. Gane actually controls round one with his clinch and hand fighting, tiring the champion out before the rounds end, or so it’d appear.
Gane then fights on the outside for the entirety of round two, picking Ngannou apart throughout, and things aren’t looking so good for the Cameroonian prodigy, and he’s now down two rounds to zero.
However, Ngannou catches a kick of Gane’s in round three and violently slams him into his half guard. He remains on top for about a minute before Gane makes it back to his feet.
Gane then wears on Ngannou along the fence, before he’s taken down again to end round three.
The champion showed a glimpse of hope in the middle round, and continued that into round four, as he continues to use his wrestling and keep Gane on his back.
The fifth round comes around and it’s 2-2 going into it.
All Ngannou has to do is secure another takedown and stay on top in order to defend his throne.
However, Gane gets the jump and secures a takedown to start the fifth. The champion hits a beautiful sweep and gets back on top though, that was really a sight to see, it was so perfectly executed by someone we had no idea could do that.
Gane then wraps up a heel hook, and after adjusting it a couple times, comes incredibly close to finishing the fight with it. How crazy would this have been? In the middle of round five nonetheless.
Ngannou is able to get out of it though and remains on top for the rest of the fight.
From being down two-zip, to completely switching up the gameplan and winning the final three rounds, Francis Ngannou proved exactly why he’s a world champion tonight. This was his first victory that ever went the distance as well.
Gane falls to 10-1, while Ngannou climbs to 17-3 tonight at UFC 270.
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