Rivalries: Jared Cannonier

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Time appears to be of the essence for Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight contender Jared Cannonier, who turns 38 in a matter of weeks.

“The Killa Gorilla” will take aim at Derek Brunson in a featured UFC 271 attraction on Saturday at the Toyota Center in Houston. Cannonier has posted four wins across his past five outings and remains in the discussion as a potential title challenger at 185 pounds. He last competed at UFC on ESPN 29, where he laid claim to a five-round unanimous decision over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum in their Aug. 21 main event.

As Cannonier makes final preparations for his pivotal battle with Brunson, a look at some of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Ion Cutelaba

Cannonier made a successful transition from heavyweight to 205 pounds at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, where he pocketed a unanimous decision over “The Hulk” in a three-round light heavyweight showcase at “The Ultimate Fighter 24” Finale on Dec. 3, 2016. All three cageside judges struck 29-28 scorecards. Cutelaba uncorked body-head combinations and secured two takedowns inside the first five minutes but pushed a pace he could not keep. Cannonier turned the corner in Round 2, where he put together basic but effective two- and three-punch combinations before scrambling into top position and cutting loose with some ground-and-pound. By the time the third round arrived, Cutelaba was a spent force and resorted to winging wild punches in desperation. Cannonier blasted him with probing right hands from distance and crushing uppercuts at close range, as he pulled away down the stretch.

Dominick Reyes

“The Devastator” kept his perfect professional record intact and did so in spectacular fashion when he put away Cannonier with punches in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 129 light heavyweight feature on May 19, 2018 at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile. Referee Marc Goddard waved it off 2:55 into Round 1. Reyes was patient and purposeful, chipping away with inside leg kicks and occasional jabs. During one of their standup exchanges, he clipped Cannonier with a sweeping left uppercut that set the former Alaska Fighting Championship titleholder on rubbery legs. Reyes followed with a pair of partially blocked head kicks and pressed the issue before dropping his opponent to all fours with another left uppercut. With that, Cannonier’s fate was sealed.

Jack Hermansson

Cannonier announced his arrival as a serious player in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division when he sliced through “The Joker” with punches in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 160 headliner on Sept. 28, 2019 at Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. Cannonier drew the curtain 27 seconds into Round 2, as he continued to shine in his move to 185 pounds. In the weeks preceding the event, Hermansson was the talk of the division. The former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder had pieced together a four-fight winning streak against increasingly stiff opposition: Thales Leites, Gerald Meerschaert, David Branch and Ronaldo Souza. None of it mattered to Cannonier. The surging MMA Lab product denied a takedown from Hermansson at the start of the second round, clipped him with an uppercut and overwhelmed him with follow-up punches to force the stoppage.

Robert Whittaker

The onetime middleweight champion cemented himself as the No. 1 contender at 185 pounds, as he laid claim to a unanimous decision over Cannonier in their UFC 254 co-main event on Oct. 24, 2020 at the Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. All three cageside judges arrived at the same verdict: 29-28 for Whittaker. Cannonier focused his efforts on “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes” winner’s legs, delivering a series of damaging kicks behind the knee. It was not nearly enough to keep Whittaker at bay. “The Reaper” buried one jab after another into Cannonier’s face, his repeated punches resulting in visible swelling and ultimately a crescent-shaped cut beneath the MMA Lab export’s right eye. Whittaker nearly finished it in the third round, where he uncorked a devastating jab-cross-head kick combination that had his counterpart stumbling across the cage. Cannonier somehow survived and even wobbled the former titleholder with a sneaky straight right hand in the waning moments of the fight. However, Whittaker quickly gathered himself, drew the Dallas native into the clinch and let the remaining seconds tick off the clock.