Preview: UFC 276 ‘Adesanya vs. Cannonier’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship put together another stacked show for International Fight Week with UFC 276 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Middleweights take center stage, as Israel Adesanya defends his undisputed title against Jared Cannonier in the headliner. However, the real gem of the main card—no disrespect to Adesanya and Cannonier—comes in the co-feature, where featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and former titleholder Max Holloway meet for a third time in what might wind up as the best trilogy in the history of the sport. Meanwhile, stakes are high in a middleweight showcase between Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira, as the winner may surface as the next No. 1 contender at 185 pounds. The rest of the card rounds out nicely: Robbie Lawler looks to add to his resume as an all-time great purveyor of violence against Bryan Barberena, and Sean O’Malley gets his toughest test yet against Pedro Munhoz.

Now to the UFC 276 “Adesanya vs. Cannonier” preview:

UFC Middleweight Championship

C | Israel Adesanya (22-1, 11-1 UFC) vs. #2 MW | Jared Cannonier (15-5, 8-5 UFC)

ODDS: Adesanya (-435), Cannonier (+350)

Adesanya faces his latest challenge in what has felt like a dominant reign as middleweight champion thus far, though it is worth revisiting exactly how sudden his rise to the title was. Adesanya had been on the prospect radar for a good while as he primarily spent his time as a kickboxer while dabbling in mixed martial arts, but it was not until 2017 that he pivoted to MMA full-time, with the UFC calling shortly thereafter. Adesanya’s UFC debut, a February 2018 win over Rob Wilkinson, suggested he may take a while to round into a complete contender. Wilkinson was able to control him for a good portion of the fight, until Adesanya stormed back for a knockout finish. However, when Adesanya faced Marvin Vettori just two months later, he already showed some improved takedown defense, and by the end of the year, “The Last Stylebender” had also racked up wins over Brad Tavares and Derek Brunson, showing a well-rounded game and affirming himself as one of the middleweight division’s top talents. By October 2019, Adesanya mostly ran through Robert Whittaker to claim the middleweight title and seemed set up to reign over the division for years to come. He has done so, though it has been a strange ride at times, beginning with Adesanya’s first title defense against Yoel Romero. Adesanya specifically called for what he thought was the toughest matchup in the division but did not seem to actually have a plan to beat Romero when the fight actually happened. Adesanya just seemed cowed by the threat of his challenger’s offense and was frankly lucky to come out with the victory in an interminable fight. Adesanya then seemed to mentally break Paulo Costa in the psychosexual build to their title fight—an easy victory which surprisingly set the stage for the adopted Kiwi to move up to light heavyweight against then-champion Jan Blachowicz. It was another slow-paced fight that saw Adesanya struggle against a physically imposing opponent, with Blachowicz earning the clear decision win. Adesanya has rebounded with two successful title defenses since, though it is hard to tell exactly where he is at. He had little issue picking apart pressure from Vettori in a rematch but was back to being cautious in a chess match of a fight against Whittaker in February—enough so that he nearly lost the belt by favoring control over volume. That all sets up to make things interesting against Cannonier, who is another imposing threat for the champion.

Cannonier’s UFC debut went completely under the radar and rightfully so. “The Killa Gorilla” came to the promotion as an undersized heavyweight with an unremarkable record, mostly thanks to coming off the regional scene in Alaska. However, Cannonier hung around, eventually dropping down to 205 pounds for a decent run at light heavyweight before moving down again to middleweight for a 2018 bout against David Branch. At that point, it became apparent Cannonier was going to be a problem. Cannonier looked physically impressive in his new weight class and backed that up by shutting down Branch’s wrestling and eventually nuking him for a second-round knockout, proving that fighting at 185 pounds unlocked all of his potential as a destructive force. After injuring Anderson Silva with leg kicks and running over Jack Hermansson, Cannonier seemed poised for a shot at Adesanya with one more win, only for Whittaker to show that the American still had some work to do, outmaneuvering him in a relatively complete three-round performance. Thankfully for Cannonier, he has regained his hype in the year-plus since. A win over Kelvin Gastelum was five rounds of solid work in a main event spot, and then he punched his ticket to a title shot in brutal fashion, outlasting Derek Brunson and absolutely destroying him with some brutal ground-and-pound. Still, despite that danger, this seems like Adesanya’s fight to lose—though there is some worry he might actually lose it. With Adesanya increasingly content to stay at range and win a slow-paced striking match, Cannonier figures to be the one to take the lead, likely with some leg kicks, and not with enough pressure to leave himself truly open for an Adesanya rout. Wrestling is a non-factor here, so with neither man looking to close distance, this figures to just be 25 minutes of pecking at each other in a tense affair. With Adesanya’s clear advantage in craft and defense, the champion has to be the favorite, but the worry is that if nothing much happens, the scorecards may favor Cannonier as the harder shot-for-shot hitter if “The Last Stylebender” does not press his advantages. The pick is Adesanya via decision.

Jump To »
Adesanya vs. Cannonier
Volkanovski vs. Holloway
Strickland vs. Pereira
Lawler vs. Barberena
O’Malley vs. Munhoz
The Prelims