LAS VEGAS – Jared Cannonier may have seen his momentum slow a bit following an October loss to Robert Whittaker, but “The Killa Gorilla” plans on changing that Saturday night.
“As far as my energy goes, I’m picking up right where I left off,” Cannonier told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s media day at the UFC Apex. “You know, I’m a better fighter than I was back then. Even going through the injuries, I’ve gotten better, and no, I didn’t take any steps back. No.
“Losing that fight to Robert the way that I lost it, can’t nobody take anything away from me with that.”
The loss suffered is an easy fix. Winning erases that completely. The injuries Cannonier referenced aren’t always as easy to remedy.
Cannonier suffered a broken arm in the UFC 254 setback but saw matters complicated when the bones weren’t properly healing after his first treatment.
“The first attempt, the surgery didn’t take,” Cannonier said. “It was declared a non-union, so we had to do the surgery again with some added medical wizardry, magic stuff, and did a bone graft, gave me a bone stimulator to help with thing. So, you know, just focusing on recovery, focusing on not getting too far out of shape, and with the help of the physical therapists, implementing a strength-and-conditioning regimen at the same time as recovering the arm.
“It was great. It was fun. It was another step in the journey, if you will, as opposed to a hitch in the wheels or a step back or anything like that.”
Cannonier, 37, admits he was initially concerned about the diagnosis. After all, a professional fighter needs to have full faith in the stability of his limbs. But Cannonier credits an aggressive treatment plan for getting him healthy again.
“It wasn’t fun to go and see the X-rays and see that the bone wasn’t quite healing as fast as I thought,” Cannonier admitted. “But I’m not a professional. It’s my first time experiencing or seeing anything like that. I trusted my doctors. My surgeons showed a little concern, but, you know, he had to do his job to keep me from flipping out and doing anything crazy, so he didn’t sit on it too long.
“Usually they wait a whole six months until they make that declaration, but he knew that I didn’t want to take that chance, and I was like, ‘Do the surgery. Let’s get it going.’ Like, OK, let’s go, and we did it, and it took this time. The arm feels great and I’m ready to get back to work.”
Cannonier (13-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) now faces Kelvin Gastelum (17-7 MMA, 11-7 UFC) in the headlining bout of Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 29, which airs on ESPN from the UFC Apex.
Cannonier admits Gastelum, who currently sits at No. 12 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie middleweight rankings, is a little further down the division’s pecking order than he might have liked. After all, Cannonier does sit at No. 4 on the same list. But Cannonier said he also respects “The Ultimate Fighter 17” winner for taking the fight.
“Well, all the other top-ranked opponents were all booked,” Cannonier said. “As far as my career goes, that’s not the one that I want, so Kelvin isn’t ideal, given the position I want to continue to fight – I want to fight for the title. But in a sense, Kelvin is ideal because I respect him a lot, you know?
“I understand who he is and what he is and what he’s done from his performances. I can see the things that he’s capable of, and I just know the sport. I know the game, and we know how fights go, so I know I can see what Kelvin has brought in his last fights, and I’m well aware of the danger he presents in there.”
Prior to his recent loss, Cannonier was looking like a real force in the UFC’s middleweight division. With an impressive victory on Saturday, Cannonier believes he’ll be right back in a similar position.
“Luckily, the people who book the fights and cut the checks, they see that, as well,” Cannonier said. “So I’m glad we got competent people running the show.”
To see the full interview with Cannonier, check out the video above.
After second surgery to repair broken arm, Jared Cannonier ‘picking up right where I left off’
