"Rudy's training to fight Shaq," "Only fighter I dislike more than Jon Jones" - Fans react to Ciryl Gane sparring with NBA player Rudy Gobert

Ciryl Gane has not competed since defeating Serghei Spivac via second-round TKO last September last year. He is set to return to the octagon next month when he faces Alexander Volkov at UFC 308. MMA Factory, where the No. 2-ranked heavyweight trains, recently shared footage of him sparring with Rudy Gobert.

Championship Rounds shared the footage to X, captioning the post:

"Ciryl Gane sparring with Rudy Gobert 👀🔥 🎥 @mmafactory_fr #UFC #MMA #NBA"

Check out the footage of Ciryl Gane sparring with Rudy Gobert below:

Fans shared plenty of reactions to the footage, with @onetimecards joking that Gobert has finally gotten tired of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal calling him out:

"Rudy's training to fight Shaq lol he's tired of the bullying"

@Brasil_Politik claimed that Gane is the only fighter he dislikes more than Jon Jones:

"The only fighter I dislike more than Jon Jones. This idiot bragged about only training when he had a fight scheduled..."

@mmaboxingsniper hoped that Gane faces Tom Aspinall when 'Bones' retires:

"I think the fight to make once Jones retires is Ciryl Gane vs Tom Aspinall. I think Ganes style is something Tom hasn’t seen before so he could cause problems for Tom"

@ihab23 noted that being choked out by Draymond Green caused Gobert to train in mixed martial arts:

"Draymond choking him out on national TV really got him flustered."

@Calibos420 claimed the footage reinvoked memories of the iconic fight scene between Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

"Kind of reminds me of Bruce Lee when he was training Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 70s. 😀"

Check out the best fan reactions below:

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Ciryl Gane's coach denies claims of ducking heavyweight opponents

Tom Aspinall recently accused Ciryl Gane of turning down bouts with him, Sergei Pavlovich, and Curtis Blaydes. Fernand Lopez recently denied those claims, revealing he accepted a bout against the only opponent he was offered.

Speaking to Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie, the MMA Factory coach stated:

"Where is the proof of that? Who said that? Who said that Ciryl said no to him? Ciryl never said no to him. He couldn’t fight and even when the UFC was asking - I could show you the message - the message was, 'oh, we know that this is the frame of time that we gave you to do the movie, but still we are trying. Can you let down the movie and come do this?' And this is too much."

Lopez added:

"Ciryl would have gotten sued. He would have gotten sued and go to court and pay tons of money to Netflix to stop that movie from going. The only offer for UFC 300 was Pavlovich and Pavlovich said no."

Check out Fernand Lopez's comments below (starting at the 20:44 mark):

Lopez added that matchmakers informed him Pavlovich would not be ready to fight at UFC 300 in April. Instead, he faced Alexander Volkov at UFC on ABC 6 in June, suffering a unanimous decision loss. Gane will now face 'Drago' in a rematch of his unanimous decision victory at UFC Fight Night 190 in June 2021. It will mark 'Bon Gamin's first non-headlining bout since UFC 256 nearly four years ago.