Preview: Israel Adesanya vs. Jared Cannonier
Jared
Cannonier’s chase for the ever-elusive brass ring figures to
end in a matter of days, one way or another.
The 38-year-old Texan will challenge
Israel
Adesanya for the undisputed
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight crown in the
UFC 276 headliner on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Cannonier enters the Octagon on the heels of back-to-back
victories, his momentum legitimate but tenuous after years of trial
and error. He last appeared at UFC 271, where he put away
Derek
Brunson with a volley of elbows in the second round of their
Feb. 12 pairing.
Ahead of Cannonier’s forthcoming showdown with the incomparable
Adesanya, here are five things you might not know about him:
1. He stood out on the regional circuit.
Cannonier started his mixed martial arts career with six
consecutive finishes, five of them inside one round, and then laid
claim to the Alaska Fighting Championship heavyweight title with a
split decision over famed journeyman
Tony Lopez
at AFC 104 on Jan. 22, 2014. He made his UFC debut less than a year
later.
2. Maximized potential resulted from wise choices.
“The Killa Gorilla” operates out of the star-studded
MMA Lab camp in Glendale, Arizona, where he trains under John
Crouch and shares the mat with a number of world-class stablemates,
from former UFC and
World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion
Benson
Henderson to Sean O’Malley,
Kyler
Phillips and
Alex
Caceres.
3. He repackaged himself more than once.
Cannonier has recorded victories in three different weight classes
since he joined the UFC roster in January 2015. He has gone 5-1 as
a middleweight, 2-3 as a light heavyweight and 1-1 as a
heavyweight.
4. Quality has confounded him.
Three of the Dallas native’s five professional defeats have come to
former UFC champions. Cannonier dropped a unanimous decision to
Glover
Teixeira at UFC 208 on Feb. 11, 2017, lost a unanimous verdict
to
Jan
Blachowicz at UFC on Fox 26 on Dec. 16, 2017 and wound up on
the wrong side of a unanimous decision against
Robert
Whittaker at UFC 254 on Oct. 24, 2020.
5. He knows his way around.
Cannonier has fought in seven different countries during his
20-fight career. He has gone 12-2 in the United States, 1-0 in
Croatia, 1-0 in Brazil, 1-0 in Denmark, 0-1 in Canada, 0-1 in Chile
and 0-1 in the United Arab Emirates.