Ciryl
Gane’s penchant for landing illegal blows undoubtedly has his
opponents concerned.
Gane (14-2) faced Alex
Pereira (13-4) for the interim heavyweight title in the co-main
event at
UFC White House on June 14. Gane rocked Pereira with a jab
early in the second round and followed up with vicious shots,
forcing “Poatan” to turtle-up. Gane then dropped multiple 12-to-6
elbows at the back of Pereira’s head, which are officially illegal
blows. However, there was no acknowledgement from referee Herb Dean that
any of the blows landed by Gane were illegal. While Pereira still
managed to return to his feet, Gane, smelling blood, followed up
with a vicious flurry to secure a standing technical
knockout.
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Foreshadowing?
Sean
O’Malley knocked out Aiemann
Zahabi in the second round of their bantamweight matchup on the
same card. “Suga” revealed that Pereira was specifically reminding
the referee about illegal back of the head shots during the rules
meeting. O’Malley also recalls that this was not the first time
Gane landed back of the head shots while finishing an opponent.
“You know what’s funny, in the rules meeting when Pereira was
talking to the ref, they were having the translator go over, like,
‘Back of the head,’” O’Malley said on YouTube. “Because I remember when Gane finished
[JDS] and elbowing him in the back of the head.”
Gane has often been called out by fans and pundits for throwing
illegal blows. Gane poked heavyweight champion Tom
Aspinall simultaneously in both eyes at UFC 320 last year. The
fight ended in a no contest, as the eye poke was unintentional.
Gane has previously landed back of the head shots on Junior dos
Santos and Tai Tuivasa
while finishing them.