UFC Paris represents landmark moment for French MMA – just two years after country legalised the sport

There may be no better man to headline France’s first ever UFC event than Ciryl Gane.

Mixed martial arts’ leading promotion has not exactly had an abundance of French fighters on its roster since its inception in 1993, which is no surprise given the nation did not even legalise the sport until two years ago, but Gane occupies an intriguing place in the timeline of French MMA.

Like many of his combative compatriots, the 32-year-old spent a portion of his career competing abroad. But, having only started training in the sport in 2018 – the same year in which he began his professional career – Gane has not had to wait long for a homecoming. Still, he has more than earned his place in the UFC Paris main event this Saturday, when he takes on Tai Tuivasa.

“It’s a really great question,” Gane told The Independent earlier this year, when asked whether the UFC’s arrival in France and the country’s legalisation of MMA came sooner or later than he expected.

“I [actually] don’t know at this moment how much time it’s been legalised! There are a lot of guys, like my coach Fernand Lopez, who fought for this legalisation since a long time ago – and some guys more than Fernand. Me, I just arrived. I started in 2018, I did some fights, then France legalised MMA in 2020. And just after, I had this match-up with Francis Ngannou. So, for me it was really quick, it was a little bit normal.

“This is exactly like my career: For me it’s normal to do just four years and to be on top, but some guys tried to do that since a long time ago. But it’s good, because we have a lot of fans and fighters in France, and [the ban] was a real problem for all of these guys.”

Gane trains in Paris under Lopez at MMA Factory, a 15-minute train ride from the Accor Arena, where UFC Paris will play out this weekend.

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For 43-year-old Lopez, who was born in Cameroon and moved to France aged 19, UFC Paris will mark a major milestone in a long journey spent campaigning for the legalisation of MMA in his adopted home contry.

“We were trying to do something, but people around us didn’t know what we were talking about,” Lopez reflected to the UFC this week. “The government would only allow MMA training for one or two hours at other sports associations, because it wasn’t an official sport. I wanted to open my gym to teach and train whenever I wanted; that’s why I opened MMA Factory [in 2013].”

Gane, nicknamed “Bon Gamin” (“Good Kid”), kickstarted his pro MMA career in Canada, securing two stoppage wins in 2018 and adding another in 2019. That was all it took for the athletic anomaly – one of the quickest and most dynamic heavyweights that MMA has ever seen – to be handed a UFC contract, and within two years he had won seven straight fights under the company’s banner to claim the interim heavyweight title. Gane, just three years after beginning his MMA training, had become the first ever French fighter to hold gold in the UFC.

Gane’s path, which he had trodden in uniquely graceful fashion for a man of his size, led to Francis Ngannou. A former teammate of Gane, Ngannou had made it to France after numerous failed attempts to cross the European border from his native Cameroon. When Ngannou won the UFC heavyweight title in March 2021, his own unique journey was complete. He was even celebrated by some in France as the country’s de facto first UFC champion. Five months later, though, Gane would stop Derrick Lewis with ease to take the official title of France’s first UFC champion – if not the official title of heavyweight king.

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A huge unification bout between Gane and Ngannou headlined the UFC’s first pay-per-view event of 2022, with Gane outpointed by the injured knockout artist after a surprising show of efficient wrestling from Ngannou. That defeat – Gane’s first – could have been the defining moment of “Bon Gamin”’s career; instead, that moment could come with his historic appearance at UFC Paris.

“For my first fight in Paris, it’s exactly the same like my other fights,” he insisted. “My training camp is exactly the same, I’m really focused on Tai Tuivasa. But yes, it’s a little bit special because it’s Paris – the first time in my country, in front of my family and my friends. But this doesn’t put more pressure on me. I’m just happy [about it], no pressure; not now, maybe later...”

“I have been dreaming about [a UFC event in France] for a long time, and I had been thinking that I won’t witness this in my lifetime,” Lopez added.

“I really hope that Ciryl will enjoy the process, because this is about him. When he gets in the arena and the arena starts to cheer for him, I really hope he soaks in all this energy and brings a good fight to his opponent.”

While less historic than this weekend’s event, the UFC’s two London cards this year galvanised the British MMA fanbase considerably. Gane and Lopez will hope that UFC Paris follows suit, inspiring more young French fighters to pursue a career in the sport and encouraging the UFC to return to the country promptly.

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“To have UFC in Paris is gonna help to have more light on the young [French] fighters,” said Gane, who is joined on this Saturday’s cardd by compatriots Benoit Saint-Denis, Fares Ziam and Nassourdine Imavov. “This is gonna help us have more French fighters in the UFC, 100 per cent.”

While the UFC’s hugely successful London events in March and July propelled MMA into a new sphere in Britain, Leon Edwards’ welterweight title win against Kamaru Usman in August took it to another level.

Edwards’ knockout of Usman made him the second British champion in UFC history. Given the reaction to that result and achievement, Gane becoming the UFC’s first French title holder would surely be even more influential in his home country.

Gane’s journey back towards the UFC heavyweight title begins against Tuivasa this Saturday. Similarly, MMA’s journey in France is just getting started.