UFC 265: Ciryl Gane dominates, blasts Derrick Lewis with third-round TKO to become interim heavyweight champion

After picking apart Derrick Lewis with smooth movement and precision striking over the first two rounds, Gane blasted him with an uppercut and finished the show moments later with a right hand and relentless hammerfists to get the third-round TKO in the main event of UFC 265 on Saturday night. The most significant victory of his career to date improved the French fighter's record to 10-0 and more importantly, had him crowned the UFC interim heavyweight champion of the world at the Toyota Center in Lewis' hometown of Houston.

The victory also sets up an imminent showdown with Gane's former teammate and current UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

"Let's go!" Gane said after extending his winning streak. "Just let's go."

After softening up Lewis with a series of leg kicks that nearly took "The Black Beast" off his feet, Gane landed a sweeping right uppercut that hurt the Houston fighter. He followed that by detonating massive right hands of his own and three lefts to boot. While Lewis tried valiantly to fight back, landing a left hand, Gane put him down with a short right before teeing off with left hands and several right hammerfists onto the head to get the third-round stoppage against the UFC's all-time heavyweight knockout leader.

The decisive output was preceded by two rounds of a masterclass from Gane, who picked Lewis apart with clean jabs, stinging leg kicks that went unchecked and constant movement that negated the hometown fighter's noted one-punch power.

If it wasn't apparent before, it's more than apparent now that Ciryl Gane, the new interim heavyweight champ, is a problem for the division.

Here's how the entire UFC 265: Lewis vs. Gane pay-per-view event went.