There are some UFC fighters who, no matter how hurt they might be, can never be counted out – and Jared Cannonier is certainly one of those ‘comeback kings’.
After being dropped twice inside the opening round, the ‘Killa Gorilla’ rallied in the third and fourth, walking through fire to knockout Gregory Rodrigues in the UFC Vegas 102 main event.
Whilst the popular middleweight contender failed to call out anyone specific in the octagon, he would reveal his plans for a stellar 2025 at the UFC Fight Night post-fight presser.
Jared Cannonier targets Sean Strickland or Israel Adesanya next
Speaking at the post-fight press conference, Jared Cannonier stated that for his next UFC fight, he’d “like a ranked opponent for sure” – ideally someone with a higher ranking than him.
“I think I’m definitely getting a ranked opponent after that victory; I would like someone ranked higher than me,” Cannonier explained from his #7 spot, although he knows that there’s only a limited number of doors open to him.
“Unfortunately, all of the people ranked higher than me are either in line to get a title shot, or are going to wait for a title shot, or just beat me – but I’m not going to rule anything out… Shoot man, if they said, ‘Hey Jared, we need you to fight Dricus next for the belt’, I’d be like ‘Hell yes, I’m ready’.
“Yeah, well four people in the rankings ahead of me have beaten me, and I’m ranked #7 – that means there’s three people ahead of me who I haven’t fought or haven’t beat; two people I haven’t fought are Dricus and Khamzat, the other five people are [fighters] I’ve fought so.”
When asked whether he’d be willing to entertain long-awaited rematches with former champions Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya, Cannonier simply stated: “Absolutely; as long as I keep winning – you know what I mean – yeah.”
Cannonier famously lost a unanimous decision to Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title in July 2022, bouncing back to defeat Sean Strickland via split decision just five months later.
After Strickland lost to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312, he dropped one place and now retains the #2 spot in the rankings.
Israel Adesanya was knocked out by Nassourdine Imavov earlier this month and is currently ranked #4 – with both superstars coming off losses, it would certainly make sense for the UFC to make one of those two rematches vs Cannonier next.
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Fighters react to Cannonier’s comeback KO at UFC Vegas 102
Cannonier’s comeback KO was ‘super impressive stuff’, one so good that it had UFC fighters both past and present losing their minds on social media.
“These are typically the fights where Robocop comes back and wins. Really cool to see Jared Cannonier bounce back this way! Very impressive,” said new UFC Hall of Famer inductee Kelvin Gastelum.
“Wow what a comeback he still got it,” noted UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.
“Rodrigues head must be crazy hard!!! Cannonier landed a CLEAN hook and his hand bounced back while Rodrigues head stood still!! THATS CRAZY!! Lol,” screamed Cory Anderson.
“2-0 for 40+!!!” said fellow UFC Vegas 102 winner Angela Hill, who scored a split decision win earlier in the night.
“Wow, Canonier steals round 3 with that short elbow and GnP and now seals the deal in round 4 with a TKO stoppage,” stated Kenny Florian, adding “RoboCop struggles again with efficiency/pacing himself.”
Jared Cannonier is now 18-8 as a professional and is 2-2 since that aforementioned victory over Sean Strickland in late-2022 – could 2025 be the year of the ‘Killa Gorilla’?