Ciryl Gane is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines following UFC 310. The former interim heavyweight champion stormed out of the Octagon after securing a highly controversial split decision victory over Alexander Volkov at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
‘Bon Gamin’ eventually returned to the cage to conduct his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. During the interview, Ciryl Gane informed the UFC legend that he had broken his toe early in the match. Just two days later, however, he took to social media to disclose that he had actually fought through a significantly more severe injury at UFC 310.
On Monday morning, Ciryl Gane shared a foot X-ray revealing that he had suffered three broken bones. The French fighter pointed out the three toes that had been damaged when he kicked his opponent during the bout. He wrote on his Instagram story, “It was not only the push [big toe] but also the two metatarsals that gave way at the beginning of the first round, which means that there was no more foot, but we didn’t give up and fought with it.”
Gane followed this revelation with a picture of himself smiling and giving a thumbs up, suggesting he remains in good spirits despite the nasty injury that could keep him away from training for a while. Once he is healed, Gane is likely just one more win away from another title shot after previously falling short against Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou. If Tom Aspinall defeats Jones, Gane will likely be the challenger to the Englishman’s reign.
Alexander Volkov expressed his fury over what he perceived as a ‘robbery’ following his fight with Gane. The 6ft 7in Russian launched an angry rant at the judges of UFC 310, specifically targeting Adalaide Byrd, who was one of the two cage-side officials that scored the fight 29-28 in favor of Gane.
“Hello everyone, I just want to say first that it was a b***** decision, for sure,” Volkov stated during his post-fight press conference. “I don’t know what we’re going to do with the decision; I am absolutely sure that I won the fight.” He further questioned, “How can the guy who was less active and come out with more damage win? I don’t understand this,” focusing much of his criticism on Judge Adalaide Byrd, who scored the bout 29-28 for Gane.
“This is the same judge who judges boxing and MMA? I don’t understand, this state is the fighting capital of the world. I don’t know what to say… How is it possible that the same person can judge two different kinds of sports?” he added. Volkov continued to express his disbelief: “I don’t understand how a person that is not professionally learned in this sport, can either not be requalified to judge this sport, or just not be f***** fired.”
“Maybe she liked the body of Ciryl Gane more,” he remarked, implying that the judges’ decisions may be influenced by factors unrelated to performance. “It’s the same as in our sport; if you’re not professionally fit to fight in the UFC, it’s likely that you’re going to get fired – and it should be the same with everybody else. If you can’t professionally do your job, you shouldn’t do it.”
Volkov concluded by stating, “We for sure will do this [appeal], but I do not believe that it’ll work… If they accept this judge, who did this scorecard, they just fire her and then the decision can change.”
