Preview: UFC Vegas 102 ‘Cannonier vs. Rodrigues’

After a few weeks on the road, the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday will return to the familiar haunts of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas with UFC Fight Night 251. The top two bouts feature competitors at a crossroads, led by former middleweight title challenger Jared Cannonier in a main event opposite Gregory Rodrigues. Meanwhile, the co-headliner sees Youssef Zalal look to continue his stunning rise at featherweight against Calvin Kattar. Beyond that, Edmen Shahbazyan and Rodolfo Vieira are back in action, and exciting featherweight prospect Jose Delgado makes his promotional debut. However, the highlight might come in the form of a well-matched scrap between Ismael Bonfim and Nazim Sadykhov at 155 pounds.

Now to the UFC Vegas 102 “Cannonier vs. Rodrigues” preview:

Middleweights

Jared Cannonier (17-8, 10-8 UFC) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (16-5, 7-2 UFC)

ODDS: Rodrigues (-218), Cannonier (+180)

Cannonier slid out of middleweight title contention in 2024. Now, it’s time to see if the division has truly caught up to “The Killa Gorilla.” An unremarkable heavyweight and solid light heavyweight, Cannonier is just about the best advertisement there is for dropping weight classes. He looked like an absolutely new human after cutting to 185 pounds and had the success to match, trucking fringe contenders like David Branch and Jack Hermansson without much issue. Technically, Cannonier has been consistent if unexciting, using a pared-down kickboxing game to chop down or knock out his opponents—something that only came back to bite him at an elite level. Only Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya had the combination of speed, patience and ability to avoid Cannonier’s best weapons and stay out of trouble for either three or five rounds. After losing his title shot against Adesanya in 2022, Cannonier looked like he would be able to keep winning and wait for the title picture to once again break his way, as he plugged along for two more clear decision wins against Sean Strickland and Marvin Vettori. However, just as Strickland’s eventual title win opened things up for Cannonier, he suddenly found himself unable to get the victory needed to put him back in the championship picture. Cannonier’s first fight of 2024, a main event against Nassourdine Imavov, went well enough for the first few rounds. Neither man picked up the pace much and Cannonier seemed to be landing the slightly more effective offense. Then Imavov landed a hard shot that seemed to stun Cannonier, sending things sideways enough for the referee to call for what looked like an early stoppage. That loss alone would have been forgivable, thanks to both that early stoppage and Imavov’s subsequent success, but another main event defeat to Caio Borralho seemed to have closed Cannonier’s championship window. It was a five-round war but another instance of a fight where Cannonier might no longer be the harder shot-for-shot hitter over the course of 25 minutes. It’s time for Cannonier to get a test to see if he’s still a credible main-event fighter, and the good news is that Rodrigues is cresting at just the right time to get a big test of his own.

Rodrigues’ first fight on a major stage was a 2020 bout on Dana White’s Contender Series against Jordan Williams. While Williams didn’t go on to do much inside the UFC, he was able to quickly knock the Brazilian out in what remains a massive upset. It also set the tone for how “RoboCop” has historically been exciting to a fault. Rodrigues is a decorated grappler by trade but would much rather march forward and hunt for the knockout, all with little enough defense that he’s often at risk of getting knocked out himself. Still, Rodrigues managed to keep racking up wins—including when he at disgusting amounts of damage against Jun Yong Park and Chidi Njokuani—up until he suffered another flash knockout against Brunno Ferreira, which finally seems to have been the impetus for him to make some adjustments. He’s still an extremely violent fighter who is capable of walking into a knockout, but Rodrigues has finally remembered that he has some skills on the mat. Along with just a tad more patience on the feet, the Brazilian is now relentless rather than reckless—a thought backed up by dominant wins over Brad Tavares and Christian Leroy Duncan over the course of 2024. Things seem to be lining up for Rodrigues to make the jump into prominence here, even if this is clearly a risky fight. Rodrigues still isn’t thoughtful defensively and his counterpart is still able to hit opponents hard at a decent clip, so it’s easy to see the Brazilian winning this up until the point that Cannonier suddenly knocks him unconscious. Yet the read is that between Rodrigues’ recent adjustments and the fact that he has, despite some knockouts, been able to stage a comeback more often than not, he should be able to win this war of attrition. The pick is Rodrigues via fourth-round stoppage.

Jump To »
Cannonier vs. Rodrigues
Zalal vs. Kattar
Shahbazyan vs. Budka
Bonfim vs. Sadykhov
Vieira vs. Petroski
Delgado vs. Matthews
The Prelims