UFC 276: Jared Cannonier doesn’t care what people say about him (Video)

Jared Cannonier doesn’t care for talk of anyone else, let alone Israel Adesanya, heading into his UFC 276 title fight

Jared Cannonier is set for his first UFC title shot, as he’ll challenge Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title in the main event of UFC 276.

Cannonier doesn’t have a long history at middleweight, but, according to Cannonier, he and Adesanya do have some history together stretching back to his divisional debut.

At UFC 230, Cannonier scored an early second-round TKO of David Branch, while Adesanya finished Derek Brunson late in the first round. Both men competed on the pay-per-view portion of the card, and it was there, Cannonier says, that he introduced himself to Adesanya — and it felt Adesanya was already preparing for a fight between the two of them.

“We came face-to-face, and I introduced myself to him and congratulated him on his fight because I got to watch his fight,” Cannonier said at his UFC 276 media day scrum. “And it was kind of interesting because he was respectful but I felt like he was kind of sizing me up at the same time. And he even said that. ‘Yeah, we’ll see each other.’ ‘Oh, well, should we do, let’s have a good-a** fight.’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah.’ He pretty much reasserted the fact that we will fight again.

“So this thing has been brewing for quite a long time way before the videos that we’ve seen out there and all that stuff. It is what it is. I’m happy to be in this position. I’m happy to have the challenge that Israel is going to bring. I expect it’s going to bring a different level out of me.”

UFC 276: Jared Cannonier feels he can put Israel Adesanya to sleep with one punch

Cannonier represents Adesanya’s first new challenge at middleweight in about two years. Since his win over Paulo Costa, Adesanya has unsuccessfully challenged for light heavyweight gold and defended the 185-pound belt in rematches with Marvin Vettori and Robert Whittaker.

Despite the fresh challenge, Adesanya is going in expecting to “f*** him up,” comparing his fight with Cannonier to Anderson Silva’s thrashing of Forrest Griffin from UFC 101.

Cannonier, however, isn’t paying any mind to Adesanya’s words, or anyone else’s for that matter.

“I don’t really think about what other people say, so 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. So there’s a lot of people saying a lot of different things. And damn near all of them are counting me out. So why do 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. That doesn’t hurt me. Those are just words floating out in the air. I’m not going to sit here and try to catch them like a guy with a butterfly net…they can sit out there and do their thing and those words will eventually die. And I’m going to continue to thrive.”

With Adesanya’s master-class striking and the power that Cannonier possesses, some feel that Cannonier will need to put on a scrap and out-box — and make the fight a dirty one — in order to claim the championship.

But Cannonier already has an idea for the perfect fight performance in mind.

“It can be a clean fight if one can control that torrential ocean of techniques that he’s throwing at you,” Cannonier said. “So that’s a tall order right there; that’s a hard task to do. But it’s possible. I don’t need to throw as much techniques as he’s throwing to me to make it work. So I plan on using all the right skills, all the right techniques, so I can be the beneficiary of this exchange here; so I can win. Yes, I will be employing techniques, but it will it won’t be no tic-for-tac sort of thing.

“I’m not going to technique-for-technique with this guy. Like I said before, I’m not trying to have a Fight of the Night with him. You know, I want to get a Performance of the Night. I want to go out there, handle my business, put my hands on him. If I can touch him once and put him asleep, that’s perfect for me. But a fight is a fight. He’s going to resist, naturally, and I’m prepared for that.”

UFC 276: Israel Adesanya vs. Jared Cannonier takes place on Saturday, July 2, 2022, live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. Follow along with FanSided MMA, who is on-site, for all your news and highlights.