Maui’s Zane loses by decision in UFC contender series fight
Maui’s Zach Zane, a 2008 Baldwin High School graduate, lost a decision to Justin Gonzales on the Dana White Contender Series 18 fight card in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
The result snapped an eight-fight win streak for Zane (12-8) — he beat Kealii Kanekoa for the X1 title in March when he jumped up two weight classes to fight at 170 pounds. Gonzales improved to 10-0 with Tuesday’s win.
“The guy was tough, but he wanted to hug me more than fight,” Zane said via phone. “I mean, hats off to him. No excuses for me. I wanted to go to war, but it’s OK, you know? We all go through ups and downs in life. This is a learning lesson for me.”
Zane said his immediate future is now up in the air.
“We’ll see, man — I don’t know what’s going down, maybe LSA, a UFC feeder, so maybe I will go to that show and work my way back up,” Zane said. “I just had an eight-fight winning streak, so I just lost this one — back to the drawing board.”
Zane said he was down a bit after Tuesday’s fight, but he is ready to bounce back.
“My heart’s a little sore, but my spirit’s still high,” Zane said. “I’m not a quitter. I know a lot of people look up to me in my journey, so I don’t want to let anybody down.”
Zane had a scheduled ONE Championship fight in Indonesia canceled in November because of a mis-diagnosed MRI.
“It was a false thing from the MRI in Hawaii,” Zane said. “I did an MRI in Vegas and I was all cleared. It was just a weird mishap.”
He won a contest over Kris Berberich on UFC Fight Pass in Alaska before his victory over Kanekoa in March.
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.