Ryan Bader shares his thoughts on the upcoming Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane heavyweight title fight at UFC 285

Bellator Heavyweight Champion Ryan Bader kept it brief when discussing the UFC Heavyweight Championship fight between Ciryl Gane and Jon Jones.

Gane vs. Jones is scheduled to headline UFC 285 on March 4. The event will take place inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’ll be Jones’ first bout since February 2020. This bout was made for the UFC’s heavyweight prize after the previous champion, Francis Ngannou, and UFC couldn’t come to terms on a new deal. As a result, the gold has been vacated.

Ryan Bader on Jon Jones’ Heavyweight Debut

While many are questioning how Jones will look after being out of the Octagon for three years, it doesn’t appear Bader believes that rust will hinder Jones. During a post-Bellator 290 media scrum, Bader made it clear how he thinks Jones will fare against Gane at UFC 285 (h/t Damon Martin).

“I think he takes care of business pretty easily in that one,” Bader said.

There was a time when both Bader and Jones were rising prospects in the UFC’s light heavyweight division. With both of their stocks soaring, Bader and Jones went one-on-one at UFC 126 back in 2011. Jones won the fight via second-round submission, and he went on to challenge Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Jones battered “Shogun” en route to a third-round TKO finish.

Last month, Jones told John Morgan of The MMA Underground that he’s actually been physically ready to fight for a few months now.

“I felt my psychical size and strength was ready to go about four months ago. Dana says there was never a Stipe fight on the line but there was, there was, they just couldn’t come to an agreement. I’ve been trying to prepare for Francis, I did a whole training camp preparing for Stipe, and now we got Ciryl Gane,” Jones added.

“Bones” also said that he’s been training “non-stop” for three years. He claims to train twice, and sometimes three times a day.