Athletes
Jared Cannonier’s Recalculated Outlook On Fighting
Middleweight Jared Cannonier Uses Coaching To Expand His Fighting Knowledge Ahead Of His Main Event Clash Against Marvin Vettori at UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Cannonier
Six months removed from his split decision victory over Sean Strickland in December, UFC middleweight contender Jared Cannonier returns to the Octagon to challenge Marvin Vettori in “Tha Killa Gorilla’s” third consecutive main event.
Last summer, Cannonier earned his first crack at a UFC title when he challenged 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 276, International Fight Week’s premier event, last summer. Despite not getting his hand raised after 25 minutes, Cannonier didn’t make the fight easy for the champion and has since taken valuable lessons back to the gym as he starts preparing for his second middleweight title run.
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The first thing Cannonier saw when rewatching the fight is that he was too reactive to Adesanya’s offense rather than proactive, allowing “The Last Stylebender” to land strike after strike without fear of receiving damaging blows in return. Cannonier’s first step in correcting this was having responses to those strikes pre-determined and ready in his pocket so he can fire them whenever he sees the opportunity arise.
While only being out struck 163-141 against the champion, Cannonier noticed how difficult it was to actually reach the target on a lot of his attempts, so figuring out how to close that distance was his top priority during training camp in preparation for Strickland.
“Hitting my opponents,” Cannonier described as his biggest area of improvement. “At the top of the division, I’ve come to realize these guys are a lot harder to hit, especially after my fight with Israel. That’s one thing I’ve been working on since then. I’m learning how to open them up, find those openings, create those vulnerabilities if they’re not going to present them to me, and capitalize on them with speed, power and much ferocity.”
In his bout against Strickland, Cannonier still ended up on the lower end of strikes landed, however, he sacrificed quantity for quality, and his overall damage through 25 minutes earned him the victory on two of the judges’ scorecards.
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Since that night, Cannonier’s taken on a new challenge in training that he hopes will provide him with a new perspective on fighting in preparation for Vettori at UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Cannonier this Saturday at the UFC APEX.
“Life has been good,” Cannonier said. “I’m staying busy, staying in the gym. Business as usual; gym, home, more business. I’m coaching a little bit more this year, cornering my guys, cornering my teammates. Spreading my wings in that role, working on my retirement plan, if you will. Just a few other things, but mostly in the gym, as always, working on myself, getting better and I’m excited.”
Main Event Preview | UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Cannonier
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Main Event Preview | UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Cannonier
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“[As a coach] you get to dissect techniques and dissect opponents. [You view fighting] from a different approach, a more analytical approach. I’ve absolutely taken advantage of that aspect of coaching. [I’m] learning how to do these techniques, learning how to transmit these techniques and translate them to my teammates so they can understand it. In doing so, I learn how to understand it in different ways, so you just get different perspectives on what we do here in mixed martial arts.”
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The recalibrated Cannonier will put his new tools on display this Saturday against Vettori, a former UFC middleweight title challenger and the current No. 3 ranked contender at 185 pounds. Cannonier speculated that fans will give Vettori the grappling advantage leading into this fight but is curious as to where they’ve seen Vettori’s dominant grappling in the Octagon.
While fans haven’t seen much of Cannonier’s grappling either, since six of his nine UFC wins across three weight divisions have come by knockout, “Tha Killa Gorilla” ensures his supporters that if the fight hits the mat, he’s more than capable of finishing the fight quickly.
“I could say the same thing everybody else says, that this is a good matchup for me and a bad matchup for him but, it’s a fight,” Cannonier said. “I feel when I approach any of these fights, I want to impose myself in every aspect of the fight. I think the general consensus is he would have a grappling advantage even though we haven’t seen much of his grappling in the Octagon, and we’ve seen very little of mine, because when I get on top of somebody it doesn’t really last long. I’ve been expanding my repertoire in combat, and I’ve grown miles as far as grappling goes, so, I’d say he has little advantages in this fight. I feel like I have the striking advantage, the speed and strength advantage. They say he’s tough and he can take a shot and give a shot, but he ain’t felt my shots yet.
“It’s never been easy for anybody who wanted to grapple me. We saw what happened to the last person who was grapple heavy. Kudos to him for going forward. Brunson shot like 13 times in that fight, but it didn’t end well for him.”
UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Cannonier took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas on June 17, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
