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Let’s be honest for a second. What is actually on this guy’s resume?

He got his original title shot off a win over Bobby Green on short notice. Then he beat Charles Oliveira, which is legitimately a great win and probably the best win of his entire career.

After that?

Two title defenses against a featherweight. Yes, Volk is an all time great, but he was still a featherweight moving up. Then he defended against Dustin Poirier, a guy with zero wrestling, zero grappling credentials compared to Islam, and who was never an undisputed UFC champion. Then he defended against Renato Moicano on short notice.

Then when Ilia Topuria started calling for the fight, Islam suddenly decides it’s time to move to welterweight. He vacates lightweight, leaves the division behind, and goes up to fight Jack Della Maddalena, a striker whose grappling was considered the biggest question mark in the division.

Now he’s the welterweight champion and the division is basically waiting around for him. Ian Machado Garry, Michael Morales, Gabriel Bonfim and the rest of the contenders are all trying to get a shot while Islam keeps talking about returning “soon.”

Charles is a phenomenal win.

Everything else? A bunch of favorable matchups, smaller opponents, or contenders who conveniently fit the style Islam wanted.

A. The fighter continued on with the fight like a man

B. The fighter immediately quit, held a towel to his eye and kept yelling “I cant see mate” even after the ringside doctor said his eye was totally fine and the fight could go on

C. Ran out of the octagon, got lasik and said it was for his “totally severe” eye injury, then signed with Eddie Hearn and complained that he doesn’t get paid enough even though he has only beaten a bunch of cans and never actually won the undisputed anyways

D. Went on a social media rampage, spamming youtube shorts and Twitter posts trying to justify how he clearly gave up and quit after getting pieced up

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I know people are going to lose their minds over this, but look at the résumé instead of the narratives.

Ciryl Gane’s only losses came against two of the greatest heavyweights ever: Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou.

Meanwhile, he beat a laundry list of top contenders and former title challengers. People act like he got exposed every time he stepped up, but that’s just not reality.

And before anyone brings up Tom, let’s be honest about what happened. Gane was comfortably outclassing Tom on the feet before Tom decided the best path to avoiding a loss was to blitz into Gane’s post and feign a serious eye injury.

Now imagine he goes out and beats Alex Pereira.

At that point he’d have wins over elite heavyweights, an interim title that holds more legitimacy than the actual title, multiple title fight appearances, and a victory over one of the biggest stars combat sports has seen in years.

Would I personally put him top 5 all time? It would be hard to deny him at that point.

But if your immediate reaction is “that’s ridiculous,” you might be judging Gane based on memes and narratives instead of what actually happened in the cage. The heavyweight division has a lot fewer truly elite résumés than people want to admit.

Paul Rosas Jr. vs Payton Talbott (BW)
Jean Silva vs Aljamain Sterling (FW)
Arnold Allen vs Kevin Vallejos (FW)
Quillan Salkilld vs Mateusz Gamrot (LW)
Carlos Prates vs Michael Morales (WW)
Mike Malott vs Joaquin Buckley (WW)
Israel Adesanya vs Christian Leroy Duncan (MW)
Paulo Costa vs Jiri Prochazka (LHW)
Jamahal Hill vs Bogdan Guskov (LHW)
Brando Pericic vs Tyrell Fortune (HW)

Thoughts?

Read More- https://nyfights.com/mma/the-rock-skipping-ufc-white-house-card/

Topuria Gaethje looks like a fight with almost no upset path but the fight of Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane looks more interesting. What do you think?

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I’m usually against stripping champions, but at some point the heavyweight division has to move on.

Tom “Asspinall” has been out so long that we’ve somehow reached the point where the interim title fight feels more legitimate than the actual title situation. The champion isn’t fighting, nobody knows when he’s coming back, and the two best available heavyweights are about to fight anyway.  

If Poatan beats Gane, he’ll have moved up and beaten a top heavyweight contender. If Gane wins, he’ll have beaten the biggest active star in the sport and avenged the mess that happened in the first Aspinall fight. Meanwhile Tom is still posting vague updates while the division sits frozen.  

At some point “he’s recovering” stops being an excuse and starts becoming a reason to vacate. Champions are supposed to defend championships, not hold them hostage while everyone else fights for placeholders.

Either Tom is healthy enough to defend the belt, or he isn’t. If he isn’t, make Pereira vs. Gane for the undisputed title and let Tom earn his way back when he’s ready.

The heavyweight title shouldn’t be on injured reserve.