Despite their concerns, Ciryl Gane is assuring fans that he is not heading into his fight against Jon Jones with a broken hand.
A photo of Gane at media day on Wednesday (seen below) caused a stir online, as fans and pundits pointed out some swelling around his right hand. Prior to this upcoming fight, ‘Bon Gamin’ underwent surgery to repair it after his third-round KO of Tai Tuivasa at UFC Paris this past September.
“So I’ll be out of action for a few months, guys, to heal my hand that broke during the fight with Tai,” tweeted. “I will use that time to heal some other injuries as well and come back stronger than ever in 2023. I’m coming back for that belt, and I’m not going ANYWHERE.”
Fast forward to now, and fans are worried that Gane may have rushed his return for this opportunity against Jones. However, the MMA Factory product quelled those concerns during the pre-fight press conference on Thursday.
“She is healthy, really healthy,” said Gane. “I’ve got no problem, any sensation. Just after the injury, since the injury to today, nothing. Nothing. Everything is perfect.”
Dr. Brian Sutterer — the sports medicine doctor known for his injury explanations on Youtube — also chimed in on why Gane still had swelling on his right hand.
“I would not at all be concerned that this is a new injury,” said Sutterer. “This to me, looks like stuff we could expect to see based on his recent history of a very publicly known surgery to his right third metacarpal.
He continued, “The No. 1 thing to bust any concerns here about a big, new injury is that this location where we see the scar and that little area of some swelling is right at his third metacarpal…that area of swelling is right where we would expect it to be located based on somebody’s who has had a fracture and then a surgery in that area. Remember, after a surgery, you’re going to have some scar tissue formation that could possibly build up. And in particular individuals with darker skin color, they’re more at risk of something we call keloids, which are basically more prominent scar tissue formation at the site of some injury or some surgery.
“So after surgery, you can simply just have some scar tissue formation. Sometimes, you might get a small fluid collection in that area, something like a seroma. And you could also get different ganglion cysts that form around that site or potentially off of the tendons in the area. So there’s a lot of very benign, very normal expected things that this would most likely be because of how it corresponds so directly with the site of Gane’s surgery.”
Jones and Gane vie for the vacant UFC heavyweight championship in the headliner of UFC 285 on Saturday.
About the author: Kristen King is a writer for Bloody Elbow. She has covered combat sports since 2016. (full bio)
