The current narrative is that champion Francis Ngannou will make his first defense against Derrick Lewis, unless former light heavyweight champ Jon Jones sneaks in to turn the title shot into a big-money fight.
Saturday’s unanimous decision victory over Alexander Volkov might insert Gane into the title picture, but realistically he’ll be on the periphery at best.
Alexander Volkov • Tanner Boser vs.
Against Volkov, who is just a year and a half older than him but has been in the game a long time, Gane ramped up the aggression as the fight wore on.
4 in the ESPN heavyweight rankings, is fast with his hands and also his footwork, and he is poised as he stands in front of his opponents.
But Gane would be well served to ramp up things just a bit in order to put his own personal stamp on the heavyweight division, to give the other contenders something to think about beyond fast hands delivered at a leisurely pace.
He has the fundamentals to carry him to the top, whenever the gridlock above him allows for a new contender to enter the picture.
Gane: In a perfect world, Gane would continue to take a step up in competition and fight a Lewis or Miocic, but it’s unclear if either one of them would take that fight when they know a title shot is cinched up.
But how about the winner of the scheduled fight between upstart Chris Daukaus and Shamil Abdurakhimov, which is scheduled for July 24? Daukaus has won three straight in the UFC, all by KO/TKO.
Tanner Boser, who has competed in that weight class for all but one bout in his 29-fight career, controlled the standup action against undersized Ovince Saint Preux in the first round and finished the longtime light heavyweight in Round 2.
After being picked apart in Round 1, Saint Preux, who had fought just once before at heavyweight, got a takedown early in the second and tried to set up a submission from top position.
Valiev held off a Barcelos onslaught in the second round and held on for a majority decision win in a battle of surging bantamweights.
Valiev outpointed Barcelos in a solid first round and was looking good in the second before Barcelos dropped Valiev with a combination, and then landed a monstrous uppercut.
The Dagestan native has not lost since a fight in World Series of Fighting back in 2016.
Fili looked tremendous from start to premature finish with big punches that twice dropped Pineda in the first round, with kicks to the head that wobbled him, with kicks to the body that made him sag.
Early in Round 2, during an exchange near the cage, Fili tried to push Pineda away and poked him in the eye.
The fighter from Sacramento, California, came in having lost two of his past three, so the win would have been a boost.
Means said he fell back in love with wrestling during this training camp and used takedowns well in the first and second rounds.
Moicano, 33, came in having lost three of his past four, but this was as dominant a performance as he has turned in.
In the final round, Nzechukwu came out with a barrage of punches against a tired Marques en route to a TKO victory, 20 seconds into the third.
Nzechukwu, 29, a Nigeria native fighting out of Dallas, has won three straight, and his last victory over Carlos Ulberg in March also came from a big rally.
Rakhmonov remained unbeaten by controlling every second of the fight everywhere it went.
For Prazeres, who is 39 and from Brazil, it was his second straight loss following an eight-fight winning streak.
As Alves was getting up, Wells landed a hard combination, then finished on the ground with more punches, posting a knockout at 30 seconds of the second round.
Wells, from Philadelphia, was making his UFC debut as a former Cage Fury Fighting Championship welterweight champion.
Then, early in Round 2, he switched to southpaw and landed a kick to the liver area of Villanueva, who collapsed to the canvas at 56 seconds of the round.
Avila damaged Stoliarenko in every round with her fists and then got the finish with her grappling skills.
But Rosa dodged much of the aggressive striking and shifted the momentum midway through Round 1 with strong grappling, then fended off a late submission threat by Jaynes to secure the decision .
The incredibly tough Medeiros ate all of them, and when Hadzovic started running out of steam in the final round — not unlike what happened with Diaz and Leon Edwards at UFC 263 earlier this month — Medeiros took over.
The Bosnia native, who fights out of Denmark, picked up his first win since February 2019.