Fernand Lopez desires to make clear some accusations of Ciryl Gane allegedly ducking fights.
Gane (12-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has been subject of criticism for not fighting, and Lopez thinks that notion is unfair. Lopez is each Gane’s manager and head coach.
Gane hasn’t competed since ending Serghei Spivac last September in Paris. Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) revealed that before drawing Curtis Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 304 headliner, the UFC tried to book him against Gane, but Gane declined.
Lopez says Gane did indeed turn down the fight offer for UFC 304, but only because he had already committed to filming a movie with Netflix – and the UFC was well aware of that. Lopez also denied Blaydes’ claim that Gane was offered a fight against him.
“The primary and the one time that the UFC ever offered Tom Aspinall was for July (27),” Lopez told MMA Junkie. “Before that, persons are messing up every part. Tom Aspinall is asking out Ciryl. While you call out someone, that doesn’t mean anything. Like Ciryl called out Tom Aspinall, and Tom Aspinall just said, ‘I don’t want you, I’m looking forward. I’m waiting for Jon Jones,’ which is sensible since you only look forward and check out to have more cash, more challenge.
“So, Jon Jones is the challenge for Tom Aspinall now. …If you happen to get within the cage with Jon Jones, with Francis Ngannou, why should he be scared? I mean that is his job, however it’s only about timing, it’s only concerning the opportunity. Nobody gave me any offer for (Jailton) Almeida. Nobody gave me any offer for Curtis Blaydes. You’ll be able to seek advice from Mick Maynard, Dana White, Hunter Campbell. Nobody gave any offer for Tom Aspinall before July (27), nobody gave any offer for Curtis Blaydes. Never in any way. So people keep saying Ciryl is ducking, ducking. He’s not ducking anyone. If making a selection is ducking, you then don’t understand the sport.”
Lopez says Gane was willing to fight Aspinall at UFC 300 in April, but Aspinall was expecting an even bigger fight. By the point Gane was offered Aspinall at UFC 304, he had already committed to filming his movie.
“I asked Mick Maynard and Hunter to place Tom Aspinall for UFC 300,” Lopez explained. “But they couldn’t because Aspinall was expecting Jon Jones to simply accept the fight. I won’t ever say Aspinall is ducking Ciryl. This guy is a monster, he’s a brave guy. But when Ciryl call him out, and he said no to Ciryl, it’s because he has a greater offer. He’s expecting higher. He wants for himself, for his family, for his legacy, he desires to fight Jon Jones which is sensible. I totally understand him. That’s the sport. But that’s not honest for him to say Ciryl ducked him.
“Where is the proof of that? Who said that Ciryl said no to him? Ciryl never said no to him. He couldn’t fight and even when the UFC was asking, and I could show you the message. They were like, ‘We all know that that is the frame of time that we gave you to do the movie, but still we try. Are you able to let down the movie and are available do that?’ This is just too much. Ciryl will get sued and go to court and pay tons of cash to Netflix to stop that movie from going. The one offer for UFC 300 was Pavlovich and Pavlovich said no.”
Pavlovich wound up fighting Alexander Volkov last month at UFC on ABC 6, losing a unanimous decision. Now, Gane will run things back with Volkov at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi after defeating him convincingly in June 2021.
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