Fernando Lopes wants to clarify some accusations of Ciryl Gane supposedly avoiding fights.
Gane (12-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has been the target of criticism for not fighting, and Lopez thinks that idea is unfair. Lopez is Gane’s manager and head coach.
Gane has not competed since finishing Serghei Spivac last September in Paris. Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) revealed that before the draw Curtis Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 304, the UFC attempted to book Gane, but Gane refused.
Lopez says Gane actually turned down the UFC 304 fight offer, 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 first and only time the UFC offered Tom Aspinall was in July (27),” Lopez told MMA Junkie. “Before this, people were messing everything up. Tom Aspinall is calling Ciryl. When you call someone out, it doesn’t mean anything. As Ciryl called Tom Aspinall, and Tom Aspinall just said, ‘I don’t want you, I’m anxious. I’m waiting for Jon Jones,’ which makes sense because you just look ahead and try to have more money, more challenges.
“So Jon Jones is the challenge for Tom Aspinall now. …If you walk into the cage with Jon Jones, with Francis Ngannou, why should he be scared? I mean, this is his job, but it’s just a matter of time, it’s just a matter of opportunity. Nobody made me an offer for (Jailton) Almeida. Nobody made me an offer for Curtis Blaydes. You can talk to Mick Maynard, Dana White, Hunter Campbell. Nobody made an offer for Tom Aspinall before July (27), nobody made an offer for Curtis Blaydes. Never. So people keep saying that Ciryl is dodging, dodging. He’s not shying away from anyone. If making a choice is dodging, then you don’t understand the game.”
Lopez says Gane was willing to fight Aspinall at UFC 300 in April, but Aspinall was hoping for a bigger fight. When Gane hosted Aspinall at UFC 304, he had already committed to filming his movie.
“I asked Mick Maynard and Hunter to put Tom Aspinall in for UFC 300,” Lopez explained. “But they couldn’t because Aspinall expected Jon Jones to accept the fight. I will never say that Aspinall is dodging Ciryl. This guy is a monster, he is a brave guy. But when Ciryl calls him and he tells Ciryl no, it’s because he has a better offer. He’s hoping for better. He wants it for himself, for his family, for his legacy, he wants to fight Jon Jones, which makes sense. I totally understand it. That’s the game. But it’s not honest of him to say that Ciryl dodged him.
“Where is the proof of this? Who said Ciryl said no to him? Ciryl never said no to him. He couldn’t fight and even when the UFC was asking, I was able to show you the message. They said, ‘We know this is how long we’ve given you to make the movie, but we’re still trying. Can you ditch the movie and come do this? This is too much. Ciryl will be sued, go to court and pay Netflix a lot of money to stop the film from being shown. The only offer for UFC 300 was Pavlovich and Pavlovich said no.”
Pavlovich ended up facing Alexander Volkov last month at UFC on ABC 6, losing via unanimous decision. Now, Gane will get things back on track with Volkov at UFC 308 on October 26 in Abu Dhabi, after defeating him convincingly in June 2021.
For more information on the card, visit the MMA Junkie events hub to UFC 304.
