White wants to book Ngannou-Gane 'ASAP,' hoping for Paris

UFC president Dana White is already looking ahead to the impending heavyweight title-unification bout between Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane.

White said he hopes to schedule a fight featuring the former teammates "ASAP," after Gane captured the interim belt with a third-round TKO of Derrick Lewis on Saturday.

He added that Paris would be an ideal location for the unifier, since Gane is from France and the African-born Ngannou used to live there before relocating to Las Vegas in 2017. But White isn't sure whether Paris will be a viable option given current COVID-19 restrictions.

"It couldn't play out any better than it has," White said of Gane's win setting up a showdown with Ngannou. "The only kink in the whole perfect story is the crazy shit that's going on in the world right now. So I don't know. In the perfect script, yes, we go to France and we do that fight there. That would be amazing. But I don't know. We'll have to see how it plays out."

White showered Gane with praise after his destruction of Lewis in Saturday's pay-per-view main event. Gane, who made his UFC debut less than two years ago, improved to 7-0 in the promotion with the victory.

"(Gane) completely shut (Lewis) down, put on a clinic, looked good doing it, made it look easy against a guy who can turn the lights out with one punch," White said. "This kid's super talented. ... The guy couldn't have shined any more than he did tonight."