What’s next for Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac after UFC Paris?

In the main event of UFC Paris, a heavyweight bout headlined the card as Ciryl Gane took on Serghei Spivac.

Gane entered the fight coming off a first-round submission loss to Jon Jones back in March for the vacant heavyweight title. Prior to that, he scored a KO win over Tai Tuivasa to return to the win column after losing a decision to Francis Ngannou for the heavyweight belt. Spivac, meanwhile, was riding a three-fight win streak and was coming off a first-round submission over Derrick Lewis.

Ultimately, it was Gane who won by second-round TKO as he dominated the scrap on the feet. The Frenchman kept the fight standing and pieced up Spivac to the body and head before the ref stopped it. Now, following UFC Paris, here’s what I think should be next for both fighters.

Ciryl Gane

Ciryl Gane returned to the win column in a big way on Saturday night in Paris, France. Gane entered the fight with a lot of doubters following the loss to Jones, and he helped silence some by dominating Spivac and showing off some nice takedown defense.

With the win, Gane is back in the title picture, but he did say he was in no rush to fight for the belt again so soon. There is a possibility that both Jones and Stipe Miocic retire after their fight in November, and if that happens, it’s likely Tom Aspinall will face Sergei Pavlovich for the vacant belt. If that does happen, Gane is in a weird spot where he has fought most of the top heavyweights, but facing the winner of Curtis Blaydes vs. Jailton Almeida makes sense.

Serghei Spivac

Serghei Spivac was looking to prove he belongs as a legit heavyweight contender at UFC Paris but that didn’t come to fruition. Instead, Spivac couldn’t get the fight to the mat, and had no answers for Gane’s striking and ultimately suffered a TKO loss.

With the loss, Spivac is back to the drawing board but still remains a top-10 heavyweight. A logical next fight is to face the loser of Tai Tuivasa vs. Alexander Volkov which takes place at UFC 293 this Saturday. Spivac beat Tuivasa back in 2019 and lost by submission, so enough time has passed for a potential rematch, while the Volkov fight would be a fresh matchup.