UFC star Jon Jones sends warning message ahead of heavyweight clash with Ciryl Gane

UFC star Jon Jones has issued a warning message to upcoming opponent Ciryl Gane after the French heavyweight claimed he has ‘barely trained’ in recent months.

The two UFC giants are set to share the octagon on March 5th in a contest for the heavyweight title and the verbal battles have already begun to take place between them.

Jones – who hasn’t fought since his February 2020 win over Dominick Reyes – took to social media to fire back at Gane, who claimed his preparations for their upcoming fight have been slow. 

According to La Sueur, the French fighter claimed: ‘I’m lazy, that’s the truth. I only train when a fight in announced.

‘I had my fight against Tai [Tuivasa], barely trained since then, and now I’m back [at] it since the [Jon] Jones fight has been announced’.

Jones, who will be making the move up to heavyweight for the first time in his career, quickly responded to Gane with a Tweet saying: ‘I smell a trap, either way doesn’t matter, I’m training my ass off’.

The former light-heavyweight champion hasn’t fought since February 2020 and subsequently announced his intention to bulk up and move up a division. 

His last performance inside the octagon came marred in controversy as a number of fans suggested that he’d been outclassed by Reyes – despite being awarded a unanimous decision victory.

Gane, on the other hand, won his last fight in convincing fashion but not before being outclassed by Francis Ngannou in his first attempt at the heavyweight title. 

Jones was expected to return to the UFC and take on heavyweight champion Ngannou, before the latter snubbed an offer which would have made him the highest-paid heavyweight of all time.

Ngannou subsequently left the organisation in search a better payday and Jones has previously admitted that he’d hoped to have faced the Cameroonian fighter.

‘It does (take something away). I feel like Francis is the more intimidating of the two. I feel like he’s more known in America,’ Jones said.

‘Francis is this big scary intimidating man, where Ciryl is relatively unknown. Obviously Francis has the belt, so taking it from him would have been nice.’

UFC 285 will be Jones’ first fight at heavyweight and he has been out of action since vacating the light-heavyweight title more than three years ago. 

English fighter Tom Aspinall says Jon Jones’ elite wrestling could be hampered at heavyweight because his physical advantages diminish against bigger men. 

‘Jon Jones is an amazing wrestler’, Aspinall told Jamal Niaz. ‘The massive advantage he has amongst the light heavyweights is he’s got a massive reach advantage. 

‘So he gets a lot of his takedowns with the length of his arms and the leverage that he gets behind his takedowns. I’m not discrediting his wrestling – his wrestling is amazing.’