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Ciryl Gane needs a win to resume his hunt for the UFC heavyweight gold.

The Frenchman, a former interim heavyweight champion, has been defeated in two of his past three outings in the cage (against Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones) but gets an opportunity to get back in the win column this Saturday night in his home country of France when he fights Sergey Spivak in the UFC’s latest event in Paris.

Gane is widely regarded as one of the finest strikers in the sport’s heavyweight division but has been undone in his two recent defeats due to grappling-heavy approaches from Ngannou and Jones. Spivak, owner of seven submission wins in his 16 career victories, is 6-1 in his past seven, with his only loss coming at the hands of the division’s rising star Tom Aspinall.

The Moldovan clearly presents the type of grappling acumen which could cause Gane problems — but if the Frenchman can keep the fight on the feet in front of what will be a fiercely partisan crowd inside the Accor Arena in the French capital, he will be confident of navigating a path towards a win.

Too remind yourself of exactly the type of threat that Gane presents in the stand-up game, check out his September 2022 win against Tai Tuivasa below: