I rewatched Gane-Ngannou and believe Gane unquestionably won at least three rounds. It was a reasonably bad decision by the judges but calling it a robbery is tough given the lack of damage inflicted by Ciryl Gane. I believe most honest observers rewatching it without the commentary would come to the same conclusion. Ciryl Gane made poor decisions during the fight but a far too giddy commentary team heaped unwarranted praise on a very injured Francis Ngannou as they cheer-leaded him to an undeserved come from behind victory. In doing so, they distorted what actually occurred in the fight, and created a narrative built mostly from fiction.
The prevailing narrative that has come out of the fight has been "Ngannou wrestled his way to victory". In reality, during the first round there were three extended sequences of cage wrestling on the octagon wall and Francis Ngannou lost every single one. The first one was initiated by Ciryl Gane fifteen seconds into the fight and he was able to hold Ngannou on the octagon wall for roughly twenty seconds before disengaging. The other two wrestling sequences during the first round were initiated by Francis Ngannou and he was quickly reversed both times by Ciryl Gane who was able to land knees and body shots before disengaging. There was a fourth during the second round initiated by Ngannou and Gane was able to get himself off the cage wall within fifteen seconds. Ngannou won the final three exchanges which occurred between rounds 3-5 and turned them into takedowns but he did not end up leveraging a single takedown into meaningful offense and subsequent damage to his opponent.
Francis Ngannou deserves a break for his lack offense during the fight. It was clear while rewatching that he was very injured and as a result could not inflict meaningful damage on Gane. Ngannou had to hold onto Gane every time he swung during the first two rounds because he could not maintain his balance. Because of this Ngannou did not actually land anything even slightly significant or damaging to Gane during the entire fight. His most meaningful piece of offense was his body slam takedown in the third round which he did not use to inflict damage. Let me be clear, Gane was not landing massive shots himself, but the shots he was landing were heavier, hit Ngannou clean, and landed at higher volume. Gane clearly won the first two rounds of the fight but Ngannou also clearly should not have been fighting because he was not able to generate force without holding onto something likely due to fear of falling over. Francis did a great job walking down Ciryl Gane and cutting off the cage, even with his limited movement, this was very impressive considering his injury but it gave off a misleading impression that he was far more active than he actually was.
When round three began Gane threw a naked kick, lazily, and was immediately body slammed to the ground by Ngannou in what was far and away Francis's most significant offensive maneuver of the fight. As impressive as this body slam was Ngannou did not do anything with it. Gane was back to his feet within ninety seconds and was taken down again but again did nothing with his second takedown. Ngannou deserved to win the third round but it was by no means a dominant round. Gane actually landed the two most significant strikes of the third round; a spinning elbow and a head kick.
Round 4 is when the commentary began heavily distorting what was occurring and began cheerleading Ngannou. Gane landed roughly ten leg kicks in the first ninety seconds of the fourth round. Gane then started kicking the body and jabbing which forced a few body shots and kicks out of Ngannou. Francis did though spend nearly the entirety of the first two minutes just getting hit by Gane without offense of his own. Ngannou attempted a takedown roughly two minutes into the round and after thirty seconds of resistance got Gane to the ground. Francis did not though do anything with that takedown in the form of significant strikes, submission attempts, or advancing his position. Francis spent the final two minutes of the round controlling Ganes back but was simply hanging onto it while Gane attempted to get up. With twenty seconds left Francis landed a knee to the body of Gane while he was attempting to use the cage wall to get up, this was his most significant strike of the round and only significant ground strike. Ngannou's offensive output was non-existent in the fourth round to the point that Gane landed nine more significant strikes despite being controlled for almost three minutes; Ngannou landed 0 significant strikes to the head. Back control alone is not enough, at least under the unified rules, such that a fighter should win a round solely on the basis of back control. Damage is favored above all else.
Ngannou had his lowest offensive output of the entire fight in the fifth round The round began with Gane landing a big elbow in the first fifteen seconds. Gane was walking Ngannou down after spending most of the fight on his back-foot. A minute into the round Gane took a very fatigued Ngannou down without resistance. Ngannou did try to explode up after fifteen seconds but Gane was able to hold him down. Francis made a second attempt to muscle his way back to his feet which resulted in Gane dropping back for a leg lock that was not there. This allowed Ngannou to sweep and Gane was on his back with three minutes to go. Less than 10 seconds later Gane outmuscled Ngannou to get back to his knees before dropping back for a heel hook. Gane was squeezing hard, burning his arms out, he must have really thought he had the submission. He was credited with a submission attempt. Ngannou then seemingly tried to stand up but Gane went for yet another leg lock. He again squeezed on it as hard as he seemingly could, burning his arms out even more, but it just wasn't there. This submission attempt allowed Ngannou to reclaim top control with roughly two and a half minutes remaining. If it sounds like I have only been writing about Ganes offense in the 5th round it is because other than Ngannous sweep which he held onto for all of 10 seconds he had no meaningful offense in the entire round. Ngannou with his arms clasped behind the back of Gane did absolutely nothing for the last two and a half minutes of the round. He was not trying to advance position or inflict any damage. Ngannou was not credited with a single significant ground strike nor ground strike attempt. Gane made a few attempts to getup and was able to get to his knees a few times but with roughly thirty seconds left Gane stopped resisting and instead prevented Ngannou from attempting to get off any big strikes during the last fifteen seconds.
Francis had no offensive output in the final round and did not do anything with his sweep. He without question did not deserve to win the round. Gane clearly won the 1st, 2nd, and 5th round off of meaningful offense/damage. He also did far more damage in the 4th round despite the control time Ngannou racked up and should have been awarded it. Gane made many poor decisions in the fight, most notably not standing up when he was having his way with a very fatigued Ngannou in the fifth round. However, unless rounds are not being awarded to a fighter as a punitive measure for poor decision-making then Ciryl Gane without question won the 1st, 2nd, and 5th round and should have won the fight.
