Ciryl Gane retained the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 334 on November 14, outlasting Josh Hokit by unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden in New York. All three judges scored the five round main event 48-47 for Gane, in a fight the UFC named Fight of the Night, with the official results published by the UFC.
iimiTV previewed this title fight before the card and covered the co-main event, Kayla Harrison’s submission win over Amanda Nunes, earlier today. The main event was the last open item on the card, and it delivered the closest fight of the night.
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Five rounds, one round in it
Gane started the sharper of the two, but Hokit dragged the fight into his pace across the middle rounds, pushing the champion backwards and building momentum through rounds two and three. Gane found a second wind in the fourth and took the final ten minutes, which is where the fight was won. The pair combined to break the record for the most combined strikes in a UFC heavyweight fight, and Gane also broke Hokit’s own divisional record for strikes landed in a single fight.
The most exciting heavyweight bout he had ever seen. (Former UFC champion Merab Dvalishvili, reacting to the main event)
First defence, first loss handed out
The win was Gane’s first defence as undisputed champion, a status he took in September after Tom Aspinall vacated the belt through injury, and it followed his second round TKO of Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 in June. For Hokit, the defeat was the first loss of his career, arriving less than a year after he earned his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series and in his first title fight. Gane paid tribute to the challenger after the decision, and both men took home the Fight of the Night bonus.
The rest of the UFC 334 card
The co-main event ended inside the distance, as Kayla Harrison submitted Amanda Nunes with a rear-naked choke at 1:29 of round four to retain the women’s bantamweight championship, a Performance of the Night showing. Caio Borralho took a clean unanimous decision over Yousri Belgaroui, 30-27 on all three cards, and Uros Medic and Kevin Holland fought to a majority draw. On the prelims, Stephen Thompson stopped Charles Radtke by TKO in round three and Terrance McKinney knocked out Jim Miller in the first round.
UFC 334 closes with its heavyweight division settled for now: a champion who has defended, a challenger whose stock rose in defeat, and a main event that will sit on the shortlist for fight of the year.
