Jared Cannonier batters Marvin Vettori in Fight of the Year contender – UFC Vegas 75 Highlights
In the UFC Vegas 75 main event, top five ranked middleweight contenders Jared Cannonier and Marvin Vettori met inside The APEX for a high-stakes contest with serious title implications.
Cannonier walked into the contest looking to string together a couple of wins in hopes of getting back to a UFC middleweight title rematch with reigning champion Israel Adesanya.
Thirty seconds into the contest, Marvin Vettori blasted Cannonier with a big left hand that had the ‘Killa Gorilla’ reeling. Vettori moved in to capitalize, but Cannonier was able to recover and re-center himself inside the Octagon. With his head clear, Cannonier landed a solid right hand of his own that popped Vettori’s head back.
Despite the brief scare in the opening round, Jared Cannonier pushed the pace in round two, walking down Vettori from the get-go. Vettori continued to move well, but Cannonier’s relentless pressure appeared to fatigue Vettori halfway through the second. Cannonier fired a leg kick that sent Vettori to the mat. Cannonier unleashed a flurry of strikes, but ‘The Italian Dream’ worked his way back up and managed to keep Cannonier at bay long enough to get out of the round.
The next two rounds saw Cannonier continue to march forward and deliver a record-breaking number of significant strikes for a middleweight matchup, but it wasn’t enough to finish Vettori. Looking to close things out in the fifth round, Cannonier once again poured on the pressure, but Vettori’s durability was on point, taking everything the ‘Killa Gorilla’ had and asking for more. In the end, Cannonier landed a record 249 significant strikes, the most in middleweight history, but not a single one of them could put Marvin Vettori to sleep.
Official Result: Jared Cannonier def. Marvin Vettori via unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 48-46)
