Has the 40-Year-Old Former Title Challenger Become the Middleweight Gatekeeper?
The epitome of determination and dedication has been the calling card in the career of Middleweight contender Jared Cannonier. At 40 years old Cannonier still feels like he has enough left in the tank to make one more push toward UFC gold. However, after two crushing defeats against two upstarts in Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho, many wonder if this might be the last time we see the Killa Gorilla in the UFC. Will Cannonier have a huge win to start 2025 or has his time at the top sadly passed him by?
This Saturday, February 15th, The main event on the main card is a Middleweight showdown between the number seven-ranked Jared Cannonier and unranked Gregory Rodrigues. “I guess you can consider me the sacrificial lamb in that regard, right? This is the name of the game: we fight each other,” Cannonier stated during his press conference Wednesday night. In 2022, Cannonier challenged then-champion Israel Adesanya for the Middleweight title but came up short. Since then he has gone two and two with those two losses coming back to back in 2024. This is going to be a tough fight against a hungry rising contender riding a three-fight winning streak.
Cannonier even at his age has the skills and speed to still be one of the top Middleweights in the world. Unfortunately, due to his glass chin from cutting so much weight over the years, I don’t see him being able to reach his goal. I believe he has some fun fights left in him and possibly a few more wins but with the next title fight in his division being between reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev the matchups problems both fighters can give Cannonier is significant. His next fight against Rodrigues is not going to be easy either. Robocop hits hard and pressures aggressively throughout the fight. If he can land just one big shot on Cannonier’s chin I don’t see him being able to eat it at this point in his career. I’m not sure if another loss is the dagger for Cannonier but don’t be surprised if he can pull off a vintage performance like he has in the past. He was written off in his fight in 2023 against Marvin Vettori and he put on a masterclass striking display. I believe he has one more big-time performance left in him
