LAS VEGAS – Jared Cannonier remembers the first time he met Israel Adesanya. It was Nov. 3, 2018, the night he defeated David Branch in his middleweight debut at UFC 230. Adesanya also fought and won earlier in the evening against Derek Brunson in just his fourth UFC bout. Both men got TKO finishes.
Cannonier was already a fan of Adesanya’s at that point and afterward spoke with him backstage at Madison Square Garden.
“I introduced myself to him and congratulated him on his fight, because I got to watch his fight,” Cannonier told reporters Wednesday at UFC 276 media day. “It was kind of interesting, because he was respectful, but I felt like he was kind of sizing me up at the same time. He even said, ‘Yeah, we’ll see each other.’ And I was like, ‘Well, if we do, let’s have a good-ass fight.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah.’ He pretty much reaffirmed or, you know, reasserted the fact that we’ll fight. It’s pretty interesting that here we are now.”
Three-and-a-half years later, Cannonier (15-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) will challenge middleweight champion Adesanya (22-1 MMA, 11-1 UFC) in the UFC 276 headliner Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. Cannonier’s first UFC title shot comes after winning five of his past six fights, including back-to-back wins over Kelvin Gastelum and most recently a TKO of Brunson this past February.
Whereas Adesanya will be looking to make his fifth title defense, this is the biggest opportunity of Cannonier’s career. But he’s not treating it any differently.
“Emotions aren’t too different from normal fight week,” Cannonier said. “I’m not putting too much extra pressure on myself. Fighting is stressful enough, if you will. Not that I’m taking it easy or anything, I work hard regardless. And I’m coming in with the same self-belief, the same confidence, the same energy – BDE – that I plan on using to get the win.”
Adesanya has said that he’s planning a masterpiece at UFC 276, a la Anderson Silva’s brilliant dismantling of Forrest Griffin in 2009. If you think Cannonier cares one iota about that, you’d be wrong.
“I don’t really think about what other people say, so I don’t have any thoughts on what he said or what he’s saying,” Cannonier said. “My thoughts are only on what he’s going to attempt to do Saturday night and what I’m going to do Saturday night. There’s a lot of people saying a lot of different things, and damn near all of them are counting me out. Why would I even pay attention to what people say that’s on the negative side of me getting my win? That doesn’t serve me, that doesn’t help me, that doesn’t bring me any sort of joy, so I’m not focusing on that. It doesn’t hurt me. Those are just words floating out in the air.”
He continued, “I’m not gonna contribute my energy to that bullsh*t. So I refuse to even go there: ‘Here, lemme think about what they’re thinking and the thing and the betting and blah.’ No, I ain’t got no time. I’ve got a fight on my hands, and all my energy needs to go to that.”
Bottom line: Cannonier, who is a 3-to-1 betting underdo via Tipico Sportsboook, is well aware of the monumental challenge in front of him having to face a crafty, technical fighter like Adesanya.
And he’s ready for it.
“It could be a clean fight if one can control that torrential ocean of techniques that he’s throwing at you,” Cannonier said. “That’s a tall order right there. That’s a tall task to do. But it’s possible. I don’t need to throw as many techniques as he’s throwing at me to make it work, too. So I plan on using all the right skills, all the right techniques to make the fight that I can be the beneficiary of the exchange here. …
“If I could touch him once and put him to sleep, that’s perfect for me.”