Jared Cannonier is clearly frustrated, and it's not hard to see why. All it takes is one look at the UFC's middleweight rankings to understand his angst.
Oh, Cannnonier is ranked plenty high. He's No. 4 going into Saturday's bout against No. 7 Nassourdine Imavov in the main event of UFC Fight Night at the KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Ky. But when Cannonier looks at the rankings, he realizes it's likely to be a long time before he gets into the title picture again.
Cannonier lost his only title shot when he was beaten by unanimous decision in Las Vegas at UFC 276 to Israel Adesanya on July 2, 2022. Since then, he's defeated Sean Strickland, who went on to beat Adesanya and win the world title, and Marvin Vettori, who is ranked No. 5.
But as he sees the picture, he's on the outside looking in for a while. It's expected that new champion Dricus Du Plessis will make his first defense on Aug. 18 at UFC 304 in Perth, Australia, against Adesanya. On June 22, former champion Robert Whittaker, who is No. 3, will face unbeaten No. 10 Khamzat Chimaev in Saudi Arabia, with the winner in line for a title shot.
Strickland decisively defeated Paulo Costa at UFC 302 on June 1 and is ranked No. 1. He's campaigning for a bout with Du Plessis and has a great argument. He defeated Adesanya clearly and lost to Du Plessis in a bout that could have gone either way. And No. 6 Brendan Allen has won eight in a row and nine of his last 10.
So much is going on, and Cannonier was forced to sit idly by and watch a lot of the machinations unfold. With any luck, he'd have been in a vastly different position, but he's a veteran and he gets how it works.
"It's hard to see what's going to happen with this whole title picture in the next year or so," he said.
After his June 3, 2023, win over Vettori, he was training for a bout with Roman Dolidze when he received a call from the UFC. Costa had to pull out of a bout in Abu Dhabi against Whittaker, and the UFC wanted Cannonier to replace him. When he got the call from his manager, he had just arrived at the gym to train. He tentatively agreed, but said he wanted to speak to his coaches and get their blessing.
In training, though, disaster struck.
"My hip and my leg hit the ground at the same time," Cannonier said. "The impact, the pressure, went right to the MCL and I had a Grade 2 tear which required surgery."
That meant no to the fight with Chimaev and forced him to pull out of the bout with Dolidze.
The games and the fights don't stop in sports despite one athlete's injury, and all Cannonier could was watch as others made moves and put themselves into superior position.
Even the fight with Imavov isn't one likely to help him much. He's won four of his last five, including that win over Strickland, but Imavov is ranked seventh. Beating Imavov isn't going to move Cannonier up.
So for Cannonier, the key is simply to show that he's fully healthy and raised his game to yet another level with an impressive victory on Saturday.
He set a UFC middleweight record against Vettori with 249 significant strikes landing, shattering the old mark of 186. He plans a similar performance against Imavov on Saturday.
"My goal is always to be better than the last time and continue to grow and progress myself as a mixed martial artist," Cannonier said. "I want to be a better fighter than I was previously, so that's exactly what I'm planning on doing. Ever since my Adesanya fight, my goal has been to increase my output and increase the pressure that I put on people. In my last performance, I broke a record in doing so and I plan on being better than that [on Saturday]. So if Nassourdine can last five rounds, if he can survive five rounds, then that's a testament to his chin, because I definitely plan on finding it."