Jared Cannonier stepped up to the challenge and delivered one of the best performances of his career as he picked up a dominating unanimous decision win over Marvin Vettori at UFC Vegas 75. The Killa Gorilla broke several records in this five-round war and earned a $50k bonus as the UFC awarded this main event matchup as Fight of the Night.
After earning a hard-fought win against The Italian Dream, Cannonier sat down for the post-event press conference. During this interview, the number four-ranked middleweight was questioned about his thoughts on facing Khamzat Chimaev. Jared Cannonier welcomed the idea of fighting The Borz under one condition and that was the fight should be a contender bout.
Jared Cannonier would be willing to fight Khamzat Chimaev after #UFCVegas75 – under one key condition.
Full interview: https://t.co/nTWzroV6tF pic.twitter.com/y54JjUMZ5r
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) June 18, 2023
“Does that fight give me a title shot? I don’t know, he’s not even ranked in middleweight. So I mean, I know he’s popular. Everybody wants to see him do his thing and stuff like that.” If they call me and say, ‘Hey, how’s that for contenders match? That’s a yes,” said Jared.
Why can’t UFC book a fight for Khamzat Chimaev?
It’s been nine months since Khamzat Chimaev last stepped inside the UFC octagon. He rag-dolled Kevin Holland in his last bout and picked his sixth straight UFC win, subsequently, everyone was expecting The Borz to make a quick return and aim for the title. However, there is no concrete update regarding his return and fans are wondering why the promotion has no answer for his absence.
There are a number of reasons why UFC is in dilemma, Chimaev who was supposed to fight Nate Diaz in his last fight missed weight by a huge seven-pound margin. A win over The Stockton Slugger would have been enough for him to earn a welterweight title shot. But after missing weight, the promotion does not want to take any risk by straightaway offering a title shot.
Therefore Chimaev decided to move up a weight class and compete for the middleweight belt. The Borz was linked to numerous fighters like Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa for his 185-pound debut. But due to reasons unknown, the promotion was unable to book those matchups and now both Whittaker and Costa are scheduled to fight different opponents later this year.
The UFC cannot offer Chimaev a direct shot at the middleweight title as he is yet to beat anyone at the top there. Moreover, they want to utilize his star power and book him carefully. With that being said, there are rumors that Chimaev might face former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in a 185-pound bout next.
Should Jared Cannonier get the title shot next instead of Dricus Du Plessis?
Many fans argued on Twitter about whether Jared Cannonier should be the one fighting for the number one contender spot instead of Dricus Du Plessis after The Killa Gorilla’s dominating unanimous decision win over Marvin Vettori. If you consider rankings then yes, Cannonier should be the one getting a shot at the middleweight belt.
But Israel Adesanya has already outclassed Killa Gorilla before and the middleweight division is becoming stagnant as there seems to be no new candidates who can challenge Izzy for the belt. Besides, Robert Whittaker has also defeated Cannonier in the past so booking for the number one contender fight does not make much sense for now.
How would you solve the current middleweight division standstill situation? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
