Israel Adesanya shares shocking reaction to former foe Jared Cannonier’s UFC Vegas 75 victory
Undisputed middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya appeared wholly surprised by Jared Cannonier’s performance throughout last night’s UFC Vegas 75 headliner with Marvin Vettori – with the surging contender turning in a hugely active striking display.
Adesanya, the current undisputed middleweight champion and two-time gold holder under the promotion’s banner, ended his first reign as champion with a unanimous decision win over the aforenoted, Cannonier back in July of last year, before dropping his crown to Alex Pereira back in November of last year.
Turning in a pair of impressive wins since then, Cannonier, who entered last night’s outing as the #4 ranked contender, defeated Sean Strickland back in December in headlining clash, with last night’s striking-heavy judging win over Vettori coming as his second consecutive success.
Jared Cannonier catches Israel Adesanya’s attention again
Shutting down a fight with the undefeated welterweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev – unless a fight with the Chechen lands him a title fight, Cannonier’s outing appeared to surprise former opponent, Israel Adesanya – who simply tweeted, “bro” following the conclusion of UFC Vegas 75.
Also grabbing the attention of another former opponent, ex-middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker admitted that while he expected Cannonier to defeat Vettori – the former’s performance most definitely surprised him.
“I picked (Jared) Cannonier to win this fight, but I didn’t pick ‘this’ Cannonier,” Robert Whittaker told ESPN. “I didn’t envision seeing this pressure fighting Cannonier who just crowds and closing the gap. You sway during the fight Cannonier had Marvin’s hands a lot of the times because he was that close. I didn’t pick him coming out with this approach but it obviously worked to great effect.” (H/T MMA Mania)
En route to a title fight with the aforenoted, Israel Adesanya, Cannonier would turn in consecutive victories over both Kelvin Gastelum, as well as a brutal third round ground elbows KO win against common-foe, Derek Brunson.
