With heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou unable to defend his title over the summer, the UFC has decided the time is now for Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane to have an opportunity at a championship. Lewis and Gane will battle for the interim heavyweight championship at UFC 265 on Aug. 7 in Houston, UFC president Dana White told ESPN's Brett Okamoto.
Ngannou won the title in March, scoring a brutal knockout of Stipe Miocic. UFC wanted Ngannou to defend the belt in either June or August, according to Okamoto. With the champion unavailable in either month, White and Co. decided to implement an interim strap just four months after crowning an undisputed king.
"This comes as a complete shock. To make an interim title so soon, if you look at the history of this division, it comes as a surprise. We hope to get clarity and figure out something with the UFC soon," Marquel Martin, Ngannou's agent, told Okamoto.
To Martin's point, Miocic's championship trilogy with Daniel Cormier saw the belt defended in July 2018, August 2019 and August 2020, far longer stretches between title defenses than the three months since Ngannou won the title, all with no interim title fights.
Gane is coming off a dominant win over Alexander Volkov this past Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night. The victory ran Gane's career record to 9-0, largely dominating the action in all of his professional fights.
Lewis is riding a four-fight winning streak, most recently defeating Curtis Blaydes in February. After Ngannou's championship-winning victory, White named Lewis as the first challenger for Ngannou's title. That came as UFC legend Jon Jones was preparing for a move up to the heavyweight division but had entered into a bitter public dispute with the promotion over pay for a potential heavyweight title fight.
Presumably, the winner of the fight between Lewis and Gane will result in a layoff for the new interim champion before they can move to a unification bout with Ngannou, setting back any potential title fight for Jones well into 2022, if the sides are able to come to terms financially.
