Ciryl Gane Wins Interim UFC Heavyweight Title With Second‑Round TKO

The stoppage positions Gane to face undisputed champion Tom Aspinall for a unification bout once Aspinall is medically cleared.

Overview

Ciryl Gane stopped Alex Pereira by TKO at 1:27 of the second round to claim the interim UFC heavyweight championship.
Gane rocked Pereira with a left jab followed by a right hook that dropped him, then landed follow-up blows against the fence that forced the referee to stop the fight.
The outcome came at UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn on June 14, 2026, and immediately drew praise from peers such as Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou.
Some commentators raised questions about whether any of the finishing strikes landed to the back of Pereira’s head, prompting limited scrutiny of the sequence.
Pereira had moved up in weight to chase a third divisional title and entered as a former two-division champion while Gane is a former interim champion, a result that reshapes the heavyweight title picture and likely leads to a unification with Aspinall when he is cleared to fight.