Ciryl Gane has brought in some specialist help ahead of his return in June.
Alex Pereira faces the challenge of getting used to being a heavyweight ahead of his upcoming interim title fight at the White House.
Many expect his blockbuster clash with ‘Bon Gamin’ to play out as a striking contest due to both men’s preferred skillsets.
To prepare for this, Gane has been working alongside some elite kickboxers in order to sharpen his weapons for a high-level showdown with ‘Poatan’.
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Ciryl Gane brings in Artem Vakhitov to help him prepare for Alex Pereira’s striking
A recent post shared by Artem Vakhitov on Instagram showed the former GLORY champion doing some light sparring with Ciryl Gane.
With cameramen and coaches standing back, the two strikers got a feel for each other’s movement and range while wearing boxing gloves and shin pads.
Vakhitov had his GLORY light heavyweight title reign ended by Alex Pereira back in 2021 before he avenged his loss later that year to become the final opponent to defeat ‘Poatan’ in kickboxing.
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After their two fights, Pereira convinced Dana White to offer Vakhitov a UFC contract following a win on Contender Series, though the Russian turned this down.
He returned to kickboxing last year at GLORY 100, where Vakhitov challenged Rico Verhoeven for the heavyweight title but lost a unanimous decision.
Gane not being known for his grappling has led to many believing that he will need to out-strike Pereira in order to beat him on June 14.
UFC StatsCiryl GaneAlex PereiraAverage takedowns landed per 15 minutes0.680.11Takedown accuracy25%50%Takedown defense47%79%
As the stats above show, ‘Bon Gamin’ has a higher average takedowns landed per 15 minutes than Pereira but has a lower success rate when it comes to takedown accuracy and defense.
2026-04-20 21:00:00
