UFC Fight Night 190 results: Ciryl Gane stays perfect, well-orchestrated plan tops Alexander Volkov

For 25 minutes, Ciryl Gane put together arguably the most complete performance of his career.

Gane (9-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) kept the pace of the fight mostly how he wanted it en route to a unanimous decision win over former Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov (33-9 MMA, 7-3 UFC). Gane picked up a pair of 50-45 scores and a 49-46. He finished with the third most significant strikes in a heavyweight fight in UFC history.

The heavyweight bout was the UFC Fight Night 190 main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It streamed on ESPN+.

Volkov’s best offense throughout the fight came from his leg kicks. But many times, they came as counters, and they never seemed to take Gane out of his ability to control the pace and distance against a taller opponent.

Gane looked quick in his early striking and stayed light on his feet in the center of the cage. A minute in, Volkov came forward and landed nicely, but Gane worked through it and went back to low kicks. Volkov answered with kicks of his own, but midway through the round Gane through a front kick that was on the money and seemed to sneak through Volkov’s hands. Just past three minutes into the frame, Gane tried for a takedown, but abandoned it and went back to the middle. With 30 seconds left, after trading kicks back and forth, Gane landed a big left that popped Volkov’s head back. He followed it moments later with a solid combination.

In the second round, Gane kept Volkov backing up nearly throughout. Gane mostly stayed clear of Volkov’s heaviest stuff, then came right back forwarded. With 75 seconds left in the round, Volkov landed maybe his best combination of the fight. But Gane came right back in. Gane got slightly more aggressive with 45 seconds left, but couldn’t put Volkov in trouble.

In the middle frame, the story continued to be Gane doing work with his hands and Volkov attacking with leg kicks. And though those leg kicks were landing at high levels of frequency, they didn’t seem to hamper Gane much. Midway through the round, Gane started to turn the pace up and added a jumping knee into his offense. Volkov’s face was bloodied up late in the round, likely courtesy of repeated Gane jabs.

Volkov landed a few punches in the fourth that seemed to be his best of the fight with his hands. Moments later, Gane had a brief takedown attempt that he couldn’t finish. Volkov tried to keep himself always within range of a threat, but he never seemed to put Gane in any kind of trouble.

The fifth round featured an accidental eye poke from Gane, and it appeared to be deep. Volkov needed a couple minutes to recover, and Gane got a warning with 40 seconds left.

Gane stayed unbeaten with the win, including his first six in the UFC. After back-to-back knockouts of Walt Harris and Alistair Overeem, Volkov finds himself back in the loss column.

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