The rising middleweight contender had his momentum brought to a halt in his first main event spot.
Gregory Rodrigues had a huge opportunity on his hands coming into UFC Vegas 102 this past Saturday night at the Apex.
Following a three-fight win streak, the Brazilian earned the chance to take on a top 10 opponent in former title challenger Jared Cannonier.
‘Killa Gorilla’ was able to bounce back into the win column at 40-years-old with a performance that somehow defied age.
Rather than the fight turning into a coming out party for Rodrigues, it was a reminder that he still has some work to do in order to push for a spot in the rankings.
Michael Bisping says that Gregory Rodrigues’ efficiency cost him against Jared Cannonier
Gregory Rodrigues started his first UFC main event very well after taking the first round on all three scorecards.
Jared Cannonier even hit the floor two times in the opening five minutes but was able to recover and use his wrestling to weather a difficult start to the fight.
Over time, the 19-fight UFC veteran started to turn things around before he landed a huge elbow to drop Rodrigues towards the end of the third round before stopping him just 21 seconds into the fourth.
Whilst the composure and experience of Cannonier has received a lot of plaudits in the aftermath, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping believes that Rodrigues isn’t currently well equipped to fight five rounds.
The UFC Hall of Famer recapped the fight in a recent YouTube video where he said that the Brazilian shone too bright in the early stages before burning himself out.
“In round two, we started seeing a very different fight. Gregory Rodrigues is really big for the weight class so I’m guessing that he has a monster weight cut. Also, he’s big, he’s fast, he’s powerful, he’s got that fast twitch muscle fiber. I always say, and it’s a cliché at this point, you can’t be a sprinter and a marathon runner at the same time, it’s just impossible. He’s really, really good in the first round, he’s got world class jiu-jitsu that he seemingly never uses these days.”
Ultimately, Bisping believes that for how impressive a turnaround it was from Cannonier, Rodrigues opened the door for him by fading in the fight.
“You’ve got to be able to maintain that pace and he couldn’t do that.”
This fight will be a big lesson for Gregory Rodrigues
Gregory Rodrigues is certainly no stranger to digging deep having come through some incredible back-and-forth wars during his UFC career.
His main event clash with Jared Cannonier may have earned them both a fight of the night bonus but ‘Killa Gorilla’ is far too technical and experienced to get into a brawl unlike some of Rodrigues’ former opponents.
‘Robocop’ is certainly dangerous and we’ve seen Cannonier prove on multiple occasions that he is incredibly durable even in his recent losses to the likes of Caio Borralho and Nassourdine Imavov.
If Rodrigues is able to learn from this experience, he should offer a much more sustainable threat if he gets a second main event spotlight in the future.