Jared Cannonier isn’t sure how close he came to getting a second title shot, but he was ready if it had happened.
At UFC 293, Cannonier served as the backup fighter for the main event title matchup between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland. Having fought both men just last year (losing a title fight to Adesanya and beating Strickland in a main event in December), he was fully prepared to step into the event if his services were needed and they very nearly were as during fight week, Strickland had an incident with a fan that nearly forced the UFC to pull him from the event. Ultimately, Strickland kept his spot in the main event and the rest of the week went off without a hitch, but as Cannonier tells it, there was a moment in time when things started to look serious.
“I woke up, it was Tuesday, we were doing check-ins, and I ran into Sean,” Cannonier told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “He was signing his posters, and he was telling us the same story that got out, that he was out on a beach somewhere greeting fans — you know how fans are, the come up to you — and one of them said some slick s*** to him, and he gave him a nice one to the body and went along his day. There was the potential of that coming out. You know how some people are, they’ll press charges and try to get some attention or even a paycheck out of it. So it was one of those situations.
“That’s what I heard. That’s the story that I got from him and then the next day I woke up I was hearing stories from other sources that this fight could potentially be in jeopardy, stay ready, stay prepared. That’s what it was. For me, I just went along with my day. I was there to make weight anyway. If I was going to fight, I was going to fight whoever. And win, of course.”
Cannonier says that things didn’t get so far that got the UFC approached him about fulfilling his role as backup fighter, but did allow that things were looking so dire that his head coach John Crouch booked a flight out to Sydney to corner him, before things ultimately cooled down.
“It got close – Crouch was about to fly out,” Cannonier said. He was supposed to fly out. He was at the airport, they were calling him for boarding and stuff. He was about to board, and then he was looking — I guess he found some video of Sean doing media day stuff as if he was still fighting, so he decided to pull the plug and not come, and it never turned into anything.
“I never talked to any UFC officials directly. I had the hearsay from one of my corners, who communicated with some other individuals, but I was just there handling business. If it happened that would have been funny as hell, and I would have been ready to swoop in and save the day. It was kind of crazy.”
And the craziness didn’t stop there as on fight night, Strickland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history, dominating Adesanya to claim the middleweight title. With his services no longer required, Cannonier watched the bout as an interested observer from cage side and says that like everyone else, he was stunned by what happened.
“I’ll never count anybody out in the sport,” Cannonier said. “Anybody who does MMA at this level has the potential to win the fight. But the chances of Sean Strickland fighting the way Sean Strickland fights and succeeding, for me, were slim. I didn’t think I was going to see what happened happen. Sean Strickland didn’t do anything outrageous, he didn’t do anything extraordinary, he didn’t do anything we had never seen Sean Strickland do. He does the same thing every time, and to great affect. So hat’s off to him. He made it happen. It was kind of crazy watching it happen.”
And though he didn’t get the opportunity to fight for the belt that he might have hoped for during fight week, in the end, Cannonier says that UFC 293 was a great weekend for him.
“All I had to do was get to the weight cut, make the weight, and then let everything else fall into place,” Cannonier said. “The fight almost fell into place, that was crazy for me. That’s the biggest thing for me, the fight almost fell into place. I made the weight, another easy weight cut, made it happen, I made a pretty penny, nice paid vacation, got to see a cool event, and see myself be put in a closer position to get a title fight...
“I walked away from that event in a state of realization. I’m in a better position to get a title fight sooner than later, and I’m better than ever. The card’s stack up in my favor. I’ve already beaten the new champ and I feel like that gives me a good backing to get the next title fight, especially since I beat him recently.”
