UFC Fight Night 216 Preview (Cannonier vs. Strickland)
The UFC is heading back to the Apex in Las Vegas for UFC Fight Night 216 and the last event of 2022. The main event will be in the middleweight division between former title challenger #3 Jared Cannonier and #7 Sean Strickland.
Cannonier is trying to rebound from a loss in his last fight where he challenged Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title. He has won five of his last seven fights with key wins over Derek Brunson, Kelvin Gastelum, Jack Hermansson and Anderson Silva.
The 38-year-old is looking forward to getting back in the win column in a big way. "I'm excited for this fight," Cannonier said. "I'm always excited to fight, but there's a different sort of excitement around this fight. I'm going against a guy who is going to be willing to get into a fight. He's not a guy who's going to try to be more evasive. That's exciting for me. That's super exciting and I'm very excited to have Sean as an opponent.
"That's not to discount his abilities. He's definitely a good fighter. He's top 10 for a good reason. He's a dog in there. He goes forward. He puts his fist in your face. And he's not too scared to get one put in his. So, excited."
Cannonier believes he has corrected the mistakes he made against Adesanya. "At the highest level, it's the ones who make the fewest mistakes [who win]," he said. "One of the things I have tried to ingrain in myself since the beginning, I don't want to make any mistakes in there. So it's always been [my goal] to make as few mistakes as possible. I'm not perfect, as we all know, but these fights help me to see those imperfections.”
He went on to say, "That fight with Adesanya made that imperfection in myself very apparent. ... One of the reasons I sometimes sit back and wait is because I'm trying not to make mistakes. A lot of times when you go first, that's when mistakes can happen. Those are the things I've been working on: How do I go first? What do I do to go first? Do I jump right in and start going, or do I throw the lure in and see if there's anything biting? Do I put some different bait on? We've got a whole tackle box full of techniques to use. It doesn't have to be the go button every time."
Strickland is coming off a first round KO loss to current middleweight champion Alex Pereira at UFC 276 in July. The loss put an end to a six fight winning streak but a win would have put him next in line to challenge for the title. If he can rebound with a win on Saturday it will put the 31-year-old back in the title conversation.
Cannonier will not be an easy fight and Strickland is aware of what he is up against on Saturday. “‘The Killa Gorilla,’ let’s f*cking go – sounds like a scary motherf*cker,” said Strickland. “Sounds like I don’t want to share a f*cking cell with that guy.”
Strickland plans on having a well-rounded approach against Cannonier, but claims to not have put much thought into it yet. “Maybe I’ll take him down. Maybe I’ll kickbox. Maybe I’ll box. I don’t even f*cking know these things,” Strickland said. “You’re asking questions I haven’t even thought about yet.”
Strickland has key victories over Jack Hermansson and Uriah Hall but a win over Cannonier would be the biggest of his career. A victory on Saturday would also solidify his legitamcy as a contender for the middleweight title.
The rest of the main card:
Lightweight - #9 Arman Tsarukyan vs. #12 Damir Ismagulov
Flyweight - #8 Amir Albazi vs. Alessandro Costa
FeatherweightA - #15 Alex Caceres vs. Julian Erosa
Lightweight - Drew Dober vs. Bobby Green
Middleweight - Michał Oleksiejczuk vs. Cody Brundage
ESPN+ Prelims:
Women's Strawweight - Cheyanne Vlismas vs. Cory McKenna
Welterweight - Jake Matthews vs. Matthew Semelsberger
Bantamweight- #15 Said Nurmagomedov vs. Saidyokub Kakhramonov
Lightweight - Rafa García vs. Hayisaer Maheshate
Welterweight - Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Bryan Battle
Flyweight - #12 Manel Kape vs. #9 David Dvořák
Bantamweight - Sergey Morozov vs. Journey Newson
