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Jared Cannonier believes he deserves the first crack at Sean Strickland.
At UFC 293, Strickland shocked the MMA world, upsetting Israel Adesanya to become the new middleweight champion. In the aftermath of the massive upset, a number of names have jumped to the top of the list of possible contenders for the new champion, including a rematch with Adesanya and the man Strickland replaced at UFC 293, Dricus du Plessis. But given that he beat Strickland less than a year ago, Cannonier believes he should have dibs.
“Me, of course,” Cannonier said on The MMA Hour when asked who Strickland’s first title defense should come against. “That’s what I’m saying. He should fight me in his first title defense. Everybody is saying they should do the rematch with Israel — I don’t know what’s in his contract. I don’t know if he has those rematch clauses in his contract for every title defense he has or what, but we hear the talks of that happening, we hear the talks of Strickland vs. du Plessis maybe, or even the talks of Strickland vs. Chimaev if he beats Costa. But if anybody has a stake to claim, it would be the champ because he’s been a great champ. But the way he lost that fight, the fact that he just came back from a rematch weighs heavy on his argument, I’d say.
“My argument is I’ve already beaten the champ. I’ve beaten the No. 3 guy. If you don’t want to give me the champ, give me the contender. That would be du Plessis. Or give me Israel. Everybody is talking about [Khamzat] Chimaev as if he’s a contender, but he’s not. He may be a contender at welterweight, but at middleweight, that’s a different story. So I think they’re waiting for this test in [Paulo] Costa to play out, to inflate him and pump him up to that title fight that I’m sure he wants very bad, especially now that the title has changed hands the way it has.”
Cannonier won a split decision over Strickland in the main event of UFC Vegas 66 back in December, and then took home a unanimous decision win over top contender Marvin Vettori in June. Those performances allowed Cannonier to serve as the backup fighter at UFC 293, a role that has occasionally led to fighters receiving title shots. Cannonier made it clear he was not promised a title shot when he took the backup role, but says he does believe it should put him in position to fight the new champion.
“I personally feel that should at least put me in consideration,” Cannonier said. “If you’re considering me to be the backup, you should at least be considering me to fight for the title, especially now that the title has changed hands to a person who I recently beat.”
Unfortunately for Cannonier, neither his win over Strickland nor his role as backup fighter at UFC 293 seem to be garnering him much traction in the title conversation.
UFC CEO Dana White said after UFC 293 that Adesanya deserves the rematch before slightly walking those comments back this past week, and as Cannonier noted, du Plessis, Paulo Costa, and Khamzat Chimaev all appear to be in the running. And that’s why, Cannonier says, he’s being so vocal.
“It seems like I have to [call for it] because I have a bigger stake to claim to this next title but my name isn’t getting mentioned,” Cannonier said. “I’m hearing a lot of people not mentioning my name, but they’re mentioning these other people’s names. I’m thinking, wow, has everybody not seen what I’ve done? I fought the last two champions. I fought the champion and lost that fight, but it wasn’t a dramatic loss. He didn’t just hammer me in that fight.
“But I’ve grown since that fight, and I’ve beat the current champ with just an inkling of what I’ve developed into now. You saw what I’ve done with that development since that last fight with my next fight. I’m breaking records with this newfound potential of mine, and now I’ve found even more. I feel like I’ve grown even more.
“I guess that’s why I’m running my mouth now, because I’m in a position where running my mouth could have career-altering implications: A title fight. Winning that title is career-altering as we all know, so I’m grabbing hold of this bull while I can. I’m going to wrestle his ass down, put him in a choke or bash his f****** head in.”
And so, in light of this new vocal approach, Cannonier took the opportunity to call out Strickland directly, claiming that Strickland disappointed himself and the fans in that fight, and that they need to settle things up properly.
“Take a look at the last fight. Everybody is saying that he won that fight, but I don’t feel that way. If that fight continued on, if there were no rounds to that fight, he would have eventually gotten finished and knocked out,” Cannonier said. “He was dodging big shots, he wasn’t walking me down, screaming in my face. He wasn’t the Sean Strickland you guys have grown to love as your champion. He even said it himself, he fought like a b**** in that fight.
“So if he wants to redeem himself, get his man card back, as a champion he needs to see me. He did his thing against Israel. That’s a nice little check on his man card, but there’s still a ‘Gorilla’ stamp on his man card that he didn’t fight the way he fights. He didn’t do ‘the man dance’ like he said he wanted to do. That’s the Strickland that I wanted to see, that’s the Strickland that I was looking forward to fighting.
“That’s the Sean Strickland that I was expecting. The Tarzan vs. the Killa Gorilla. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Either he’s going to prove the stories true, that this man lived amongst gorillas and became the clan leader of gorillas, or we going to show them what would really happen when these fools came to the jungle and tried to live amongst gorillas. That’s what I want to see. And this is the best opportunity to make that happen. What better way to make that happen?”
And should the UFC ultimately decide that Cannonier is in fact the next man up, he’s got the whole thing planned out for how everything should go.
“We can do it at the end of the year, or UFC 300. It will be the best card. I’ve already got it laid out for you guys,” Cannonier said. “You put me and Strickland, Tarzan vs. the Killa Gorilla as the main event. Then you put Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya as the co-main event. That’s going to pump up your pay-per-views. If the UFC doesn’t believe me vs. Strickland is a strong enough thing, you’ve got that as a co-main event. That’s like two main events right there on one card. That’s going to explode the PPVs.
“Then to further roadmap the middleweight division, you put the winner of Chimaev vs. Costa as the feature fight. … That’s going to set out the title picture for the middleweight division for at least the next year, year and a half.”
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