Jon JonesvsCiryl Gane

Setup

UFC 285 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jon Jones returned to MMA after a 3-year layoff (his last fight was Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 in February 2020). The bout was for the vacant HW title — Francis Ngannou had vacated to negotiate with the UFC over PPV bonuses and ultimately left for the PFL. Ciryl Gane had lost the interim title fight to Ngannou at UFC 270 and entered UFC 285 as the highest-ranked available contender.

Jones had spent the 3-year layoff bulking up to heavyweight, gaining roughly 35 lbs of mass. He weighed in at 248 lbs for UFC 285. Gane weighed in at 247 lbs.

The fight

Round 1: Jones closed distance, secured a body lock against the cage, and brought Gane to the ground within 1 minute. From top position, Jones immediately worked into back control with hooks. The guillotine choke set up from front headlock position — Jones secured a high-elbow guillotine, sat back into full guard, and squeezed.

Gane tapped at 2:04 of round 1.

What changed

The win made Jones a two-division UFC champion (LHW + HW). The specific takeaways:

• The bulk-up worked: Jones's added mass did not appear to slow his footwork or wrestling. The takedown entry against Gane was clean.
• The cardio question was answered for round 1: the 3-year layoff did not visibly affect Jones's first-round explosion
• The technical level was preserved: Jones's chain-wrestling from top position to back control to submission was textbook

Significance

UFC 285 was the long-anticipated Jones HW debut. The win added the HW title to his LHW résumé and made him the 4th simultaneous 2-division UFC champion (after McGregor, Cormier, Cejudo, Nunes). The 1-round submission was the cleanest HW title win of the 2020s.

The follow-up: Jones missed UFC 295 (the originally-scheduled defense vs Stipe Miocic) due to a pectoral tear; he eventually defended at UFC 309 against Miocic in November 2024 by 3rd-round TKO. The Tom Aspinall unification never happened; Jones vacated in early 2025.