Fernand Lopez addresses Ciryl Gane ducking accusations from Tom Aspinall, Curtis Blaydes

Fernand Lopez wants to clarify some accusations of Ciryl Gane allegedly ducking fights.

Gane (12-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has been subject of criticism for not fighting, and Lopez thinks that notion is unfair. Lopez is both Gane’s manager and head coach.

Gane hasn’t competed since finishing Serghei Spivac last September in Paris. Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) revealed that before drawing Curtis Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 304 headliner, the UFC tried to book him against Gane, but Gane declined.

Lopez says Gane did indeed turn down the fight offer for UFC 304, but only because he had already committed to filming a movie with Netflix – and the UFC was well aware of that. Lopez also denied Blaydes’ claim that Gane was offered a fight against him.

“The first and the only time that the UFC ever offered Tom Aspinall was for July (27),” Lopez told MMA Junkie. “Before that, people are messing up everything. Tom Aspinall is calling out Ciryl. When you call out someone, that doesn’t mean anything. Like Ciryl called out Tom Aspinall, and Tom Aspinall just said, ‘I don’t want you, I’m looking forward. I’m waiting for Jon Jones,’ which makes sense because you only look forward and try to have more money, more challenge.

“So, Jon Jones is the challenge for Tom Aspinall now. …If you get in the cage with Jon Jones, with Francis Ngannou, why should he be scared? I mean this is his job, but it’s only about timing, it’s only about the opportunity. No one gave me any offer for (Jailton) Almeida. No one gave me any offer for Curtis Blaydes. You can talk to Mick Maynard, Dana White, Hunter Campbell. No one gave any offer for Tom Aspinall before July (27), no one gave any offer for Curtis Blaydes. Never whatsoever. So people keep saying Ciryl is ducking, ducking. He’s not ducking anyone. If making a choice is ducking, then you don’t understand the game.”

Lopez says Gane was willing to fight Aspinall at UFC 300 in April, but Aspinall was expecting a bigger fight. By the time Gane was offered Aspinall at UFC 304, he had already committed to filming his movie.

“I asked Mick Maynard and Hunter to put Tom Aspinall for UFC 300,” Lopez explained. “But they couldn’t because Aspinall was expecting Jon Jones to accept the fight. I will not ever say Aspinall is ducking Ciryl. This guy is a monster, he’s a brave guy. But when Ciryl call him out, and he said no to Ciryl, it’s because he has a better offer. He’s expecting better. He wants for himself, for his family, for his legacy, he wants to fight Jon Jones which makes sense. I totally understand him. That’s the game. But that’s not honest for him to say Ciryl ducked him.

“Where is the proof of that? Who said that Ciryl said no to him? Ciryl never said no to him. He couldn’t fight and even when the UFC was asking, and I could show you the message. They were like, ‘We know that this is the frame of time that we gave you to do the movie, but still we are trying. Can you let down the movie and come do this?’ This is too much. Ciryl will get sued and go to court and pay tons of money to Netflix to stop that movie from going. The only offer for UFC 300 was Pavlovich and Pavlovich said no.”

Pavlovich wound up fighting Alexander Volkov last month at UFC on ABC 6, losing a unanimous decision. Now, Gane will run things back with Volkov at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi after defeating him convincingly in June 2021.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.