Ngannou vs. Gane is a better fight.

Gane has begun to generate some buzz about what a fight against the champion Francis would be like.

While Ngannou vs. Jon Jones is clearly the biggest fight UFC can make in terms of overall appeal right now, could a champion vs. interim champion brawl be bigger and more important to Ngannou’s career than a superfight against Jones?

As for Luque, his performances inside the octagon certainly put him in contention as a future title contender. If his timing was different, his resume certainly warrants consideration for a title shot. But with current title challengers Colby Covington, Leon Edwards and Gilbert Burns standing in his way, could Luque benefit more from a high-profile opponent like Nate Diaz rather than another highly ranked contender?

Looking ahead, the long-discussed and twice-postponed fight between Rafael dos Anjos and Islam Makhachev has been rebooked for UFC 267 in Oct. Could this high-profile fight dictate a future lightweight title fight?

Finally, Cody Garbrandt’s loss to Rob Font ended his hopes of regaining the UFC bantamweight title and likely precipitated his move to flyweight. Can he afford anything more than a spectacular knockout in his 125-pound debut?

Our panel, with Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi, Phil Murphy and Carlos Contreras Legaspi, delves into the week’s biggest stories to separate what’s real from what’s not.

Win is a bigger fight for Ngannou than Jones.
Okamoto: It’s not real. However, it’s not as far off as you might think, and when 2021 began, the mere suggestion that a Gane fight could somehow compare to a Jones fight would have been unthinkable. The idea of Ngannou, the scariest man on the planet, fighting Jones, arguably the greatest of all time, has always been an obvious super fight. It might be the biggest fight UFC can make right now that doesn’t involve Conor McGregor.

Gane was a good prospect for 2021, and probably could have even been earmarked as a future title challenger down the road.

Especially once the backstory is better known: that these two were once training partners, and Ngannou left the team and won his title with another gym. And once the public catches on to the fact that Gane is not only a real challenge to Ngannou, but is actually the favorite of some to beat him, the interest will be there.

If UFC somehow finds a way to bring this fight to Paris, where they trained together, the scenes will be incredible. Because of Jones’ inactivity and the dominance Gane has shown, there are now multiple money fights in the heavyweight division.