Rejuventated at Middleweight, Jared Cannonier Doesn’t Care About Rankings
Jared Cannonier struggled early during his Ultimate Fighting Championship tenure, but since moving to 185 pounds he has been a wrecking machine inside the Octagon.
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Hermansson began the second with low kicks, but when he got too close to the American on the inside, Cannonier dropped him with a right uppercut on the jaw. Cannonier dove onto him and unloaded dozens of punches before referee Marc Goddard pulled him off, ending the middleweight scrap 27 seconds into the frame. Cannonier’s last three victories have come by knockout or technical knockout.
“After a win like that, I feel on top of the world,” Cannonier said
of his triumph. “I guess I was the better man tonight. Jack tried
his best, he’s a warrior and I expected nothing less from him.”
After he losing back-to-back fights to Jan Blachowicz and Dominick Reyes at light heavyweight, Cannonier turned things around at middleweight, earning finishes of David Branch, Anderson Silv and now, “The Joker.” The early struggles against Hermansson on Saturday were a microcosm of how his career had turned around last autumn.
“I feel that I can overcome just about anything, anything anybody can throw at me,” he said. “I was more than ready for tonight’s challenge. I was happy to receive that energy from Jack and I was even more happy to give it back to him.”
The middleweight division has become one of the most intriguing in all of MMA these past few years, and “The Killa Gorilla” would be a huge problem for any opponent considering recent performances. However, Cannonier was quick to dispel any trash talk or call-outs.
“I don’t know what’s next for me,” he said. “I don’t care about rankings. All I care about is winning the next fight.”
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