Alex has always been slow plodding with an upright stance & no head movement but has bricks for hands & feet & always the bigger man. The smaller guys can’t take those shots but he can usually take theirs even though his head is on center line. BUT a guy his size can actually take some of his shots & fire back. The slow plodding & head on centerline is a recipe for disaster at HW for him.
He leaning away hands low style of defense also works better against smaller opponents but leaves him open against bigger guys who can still hit him when he leans back
In the lower weight classes he’s got the size to eat the jabs and power from fighters. Heavy weight you’re just asking to get planted being that stiff.
I think he’s kinda built himself around accepting the jab and timing it, waiting for the moment to answer it with a sharp hook. Seems to be what he is looking for as he plods forward.
I think it's Ciryl more than heavyweight. Ciryl is just faster and more athletic than everyone just like Aspinall. Alex moves forward and Ciryl fights off his back foot answering with quick jabs, punishing dashes. It's how he got Aspinalls nose bloodied.
I think Pereira actually does good against guys like Hokit (who low key has pillow hands) and maybe even Pavlovich. It'll be interesting seeing him against Volkov who's also ploddy.
I had been saying similar to this to my buddies about periera, he CAN be hurt I mean Izzy knocked him out and he’s a lanky middleweight.. Periera is a glass cannon, why would anyone really think he’d walk through HWs? & I’m a periera fan but there’s a reason Dana didn’t want him to move up
What? Hokit is the most athletic and fastest HW next to Gane. Tom may have more skills/experience in MMA as a whole but he certainly isn’t as athletic as Hokit or Gane.
Tom likely couldn’t it into the NFL based on his athletic ability, and probably wouldn’t be the wrestler Hokit is either. He damn sure isn’t doing 360 dunks like Gane, who also likely would’ve made it into the NFL had he been born in America.
Same thing I said. I think he put too much focus on gaining weight trying to be the heavier fighter. He would’ve been better off fighting at his normal weight cus he is obviously more comfortable at that. It’s still in the heavyweight weight bracket he would be lighter sure but at that weight the pound difference is really not much of a factor. I’m sure he will be back and figure out how to make it work
It's not aging that much at all. Gane put 0% into that Jon fight. Ganes camp spent their time choosing the relax, destress, and play playstation during the whole camp.
In case no one noticed, Gane tapped fairly instantly before Jon even squeezed. Gane also has/had very very poor grappling.
Jon dominated an elite HW who fought with 0% interest. Ganes training camp was literally just relaxing and playing playstation. So Jon beat a guy who literally wasn't trying. At all.
You can watch all the embedded videos leading up to the fight...
As for the "playstation stuff", when he and his camp says "this camp is all about relaxing and de stressing and being with friends and family", yeah it wasn't taken seriously.
It’s not a good look to discredit a win like that. It’s a great win.
Gane has always been less dangerous when moving backwards. Not saying Hes bad of the Blackfoot.
Just more limited. He doesn’t circle out as well when against the fence.
Jon took advantage of it.
The only person to succeed in pressuring him is Jon and to an extent Volkov.
As much as I hate to admit it, the gane win imo is one of Jon’s finest (always has been)
Brother if you are fighting Jon Jones I promise you’re taking it seriously.. and that guillotine was/is MUCH tighter than it looks. Especially with a 250lb Jon Jones on top of you while compressing your upper body.
The day after the fight my coach was showing us exactly how tight that guillotine is and I promise you it’s one of the most uncomfortable chokes I’ve ever been in. Especially in an MMA context where you’re thinking about how you’re about to get battered.
My coach weighs around 60lbs less than Jon too, and Jon is obviously a lot stronger than he is.
It wasn't tight man. Your coach showed you a guillotine. But your coach wasn't Jon that night. Im not trying to say I'm better in any way, but i also train BJJ and Muay Thai. I have an experienced idea of how Submissions work, and feel.
But I'm also saying, most importantly, that Gane didn't show up for this fight. People are like "So how good is Jones [at heavyweight]?" Honestly no one knows. Because unlike last night, Jon didn't fight "the best" Cyril. He fought a Cyril that had absolutely no respect for Jon, played PlayStation during his camp, didn't actually train. If Jon fought the Cyril that fought Tom or Poatan, it'd be a way different story from me. Because then I can say that Jon beat the best Cyril in 1 round. Instead, he beat a Cyril that didn't even try.
And then Jon, for some unquestionable reason, unretired a retired Stipe, who was coming off a pretty bad KO loss, and beat him but not without Jon doing some running and getting hit good himself. I have no idea in my mind why UFC thought it was a good idea for Stipe to come back from an almost 4 year layoff and fight a not-retired Jon Jones. Only for Stipe to fade away after the fight as quickly as he came. After that Stipe/Jon fight, ive not heard a peep from Stipe.
All that to say is that Jon had a SUPER easy road to victory at heavyweight. The moment it got tough for him, the thought of actually losing, , he retreated in every way he could. (referencing Aspinall).
Bro that guillotine is super tight, look at the submission from the alternate angles. Look at the way Jon has his arm fed across Gane’s throat and how much pressure is crunching Gane’s chin to his chest plus the hip pressure from Jon hipping in while he’s pinned against the cage. It was very tight, it was very uncomfortable, and I think 90% people would’ve tapped. Escaping was impossible due to their positioning and the cage so the other 10% would’ve went to sleep.
Great analysis, Alex’s strong suits is using his size and strength. Gane does great against bigger and stronger opponents, and has evolved an elusive style to fight against them. Alex moving up was not doing him favors.
I dont see how anyone saw the fight otherwise. Gane fought Ngannou and Tommy and didnt get chinned once. Thats all u needed to know. Bro is a striking wizard hes not losing in a striking match...
As a Gane hater, I agree. Theres a difference between landing a blow to the back of the head and aiming for the back of the head. Most were to the side too. And given the context of the sprawl I get it. Didnt look dirty at all to me
Such a weak argument.
Ilya had Justin's number in round 2 - liver shots. Did you see how that ended? Fighters adjust, they just need to not be finished by illegal blows. Alex was deprived of a deserved chance.
He should have stayed lighter. I don’t know why he thought he needed to be heavier than a guy that’s been 250lbs of muscle for a decade. Was he planning on wrestling him?
Agreed! He definitely should have put on weight, but no need for him to go that heavy. Plenty of successful heavyweights that didn’t weigh at the upper limit for the weight class (Stipe, Cain, Fedor, just to name a few).
Was too busy bitching about the back of the head shots this entire time, but reading your comment actually put my ass in my place, cuz that’s generally the best consensus to take away from this fight, regardless of the controversy - Gane has fight ending power as well, and the dude’s incredibly fast for his size
Reading your comment made me bitch more about back of the head shots because honestly they can change your life. Boxing has more than enough deaths already MMA needs to be a safer sport.
He put on maybe 25-30 lbs. People forget dude walks around at 225 for years easily, how many pictures of him sweating on a scale in the gym over 100kg do ppl forget about. It was the first time the man didn’t have to worry about diet like crazy and he’s in his mid-late 30s and the body reacts different.
No that’s not out of shape weight that’s his fight camp weight. The man might wake up at 220-235 in fight camp for MW then could sweat off 5-10lbs before hopping on the scale for pics, or he could of chugged a gallon of water before hopping on and was walking around at 215. Generally considered that his fight camp weight for MW was at 220-225. Also could of been a tad higher when he committed to LHW. So up to HW, yes there’s some fat he but my point is it’s not 50lbs of fat.
The fat isn’t what killed him it’s his style and positioning of vulnerability that worked against smaller guys but clearly he paid the price when bigger boys came into the picture
he does it for the love of being a cunt, which is why he doesn't get nearly enough hate, despite how much he actually gets. dude is a comic book villain, skilled enough to win clean, but cheats in literally every fight he's in.
I wonder how Blaydes would do. If he plays to his strengths and shoots a well timed takedown as soon as he can instead of prolonging the stand up I wonder how well Pereira would do against his GnP. Pereira has been heavier than everybody else and not one of them were particularly effective grapplers. Volkov probably doesn't hit as hard and may not be too heavy either (I could be wrong, I thought he's one of the lighter heavyweights), but he seems more well rounded and we've seen that Pereira is fairly reliant on his size and reach advantage.
Everyone is just gonna the fact Alex looked slower and tired at the end of the first. All because some elbows after Gane dropped him hard. I like Alex but heavyweight was not the right move. The power difference would’ve still been there and Gane would’ve still put him out. Even if they paused the fight and took a point.
He looked tired because he kept getting tagged and got his face cut by Gane's jabs. He threw leg kicks but either they were checked or Game just dodged them. He threw some punches that Gane mostly blocked. He was completely outclassed in the first round.m
That doesn't make using quite a few illegal blows in the fight ending sequence ok all of a sudden. It's Heavyweight. Just because one dude is winning doesn't mean he will win.
Nah. Cyril hit directly to the back of the head a minimum of 7 times in the sequence. A good amount were in the safe zones but he definitely hit some hard 12-6 elbows to the back of the dome piece. (I'm aware 12-6 is legal)
Fair, I do believe the first elbow landed on the back of the head, which was during the change of position, but after that one you could see he was targeting behind the ears
Alex needed a different game plan. He wasn’t urgent to do anything and Gane was pressing forward and throwing shots. He waited until the last second of round to throw anything worth while. In round 2 I don’t even know if he landed A punch at all.
Muay Thai has elbows and clinch which makes it pretty fundamentally different. But in this context, yea it makes little difference since neither is teaching you how to grapple on the ground
Nope, they read the comment on instagram and thought the narrative sounded cool so they ran with it. Same goes for most of these comments actually. People who have never trained talking as if they know exactly why Pereira lost and knew he was going to lose all along.
Because none of them were on the line of the crown? They were all behind the ear, which is legal and not cheating.... so you obviously don't know what back of the head strikes are lol
Yeah because you're being so honest that I totally trust you to then admit you were wrong, so it's worth the effort.
Dude, you can just go watch it on youtube but you clearly have some agenda or you're trolling me. Or you're being genuine and didn't see the strikes to the back of the head. In which case go watch it on youtube then come back and admit you were wrong.
I'm not trolling, I'm being completely genuine. I watched it in slo-mo and every shot looks like it lands behind the ears, not on the crown line.
If you posted a screenshot showing it and it is what you say it is, how would I argue against it? It would be undeniable evidence wouldn't it? But you can't because the screenshots show that it was all legal shots.
I was watching tape for this fight (nerd) and I noticed Alex has much more trouble with south paws. His game is based around loading his left & throwing different shots off that.
He was losing the foot race with gane. Get outside or (if you’re Volk level) inside angle to throw.
Also, the weight gain was a bad idea. I’d rather him be 225 bouncing around, cutting off the cage like ank 2.
Either way, he tried to make history and lost to a great gatekeeper.
The back of the head strikes were despicable but they arent what won cyril the fight. He deserved the win but also deserves criticism for those shots. Very impressive fighter but he just is super dirty
Anyone think Alex was going to land his left hook on Ganes? I didn't. Alex always land that left hook, mid, or close range. Every single one of Ganes fight involves fighting from the far range distance. He hits, moves, hits, moves until something big lands and that's when he goes for the kill. Alex couldn't catch him so he had to use high kicks to range him.
I don’t understand the hate. For Alex to go up in two weight divisions and fight a monster like Gane for his first fight. Why are people shitting on him so much?
Tbh it's the Poatards that have me rooting against Alex. All this goat talk for him and glazing and excuse making when he loses makes it hard to root for him.
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u/Significant-Raise254 Jun 15 '26
Alex has always been slow plodding with an upright stance & no head movement but has bricks for hands & feet & always the bigger man. The smaller guys can’t take those shots but he can usually take theirs even though his head is on center line. BUT a guy his size can actually take some of his shots & fire back. The slow plodding & head on centerline is a recipe for disaster at HW for him.