UFC Vegas 96 Preview
The UFC is heading back to the Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, August 24th for UFC Vegas 96. The main event will be in the middleweight division between former title challenger #5 Jared Cannonier vs. rising contender #12 Caio Borralho.
Cannonier is trying to rebound from a fourth round TKO loss to Nassourdine Imavov in June in what was a great back and forth fight. Cannonier is 7-3 in his last 10 fights and has proven he is a tough matchup for anyone in the middleweight division.
The 40-year-old talked about his last loss and what at the time to him felt like an early stoppage. “No, it doesn’t hurt anymore; the pain has subsided,” Cannonier said. “Time heals all wounds, as they say, and, on top of that, I guess I got a bit of closure when they rescheduled Imavov to fight Brendan Allen.”
He continued, “These things happen and we move on,” said Cannonier. “I just moved on. I’m not gonna sit on that and feel bad for — you said 11 weeks? Imagine carrying that weight around!”
While pundits believe this was too quick of a turnaround for Cannonier, he commented. “I definitely wanted a quick turnaround; I didn’t want to sit and wait too long,” said Cannonier. “Another six months would have been fine, but I did not want to do that.
“This is the quickest turnaround I’ve ever had. It’s a relatively short notice fight for me. It’s my inaugural short notice, against a hungry, young, up-and-coming guy who wants it bad and who has called me out on a few occasions in the past, and I’m more than happy to meet him in the cage and give him a proper greeting.”
Cannonier talked about his opponent on Saturday. “I do take it as a compliment — him wanting to test himself, one warrior to another,” Cannonier said. “I can definitely tip my hat to that; it’s very admirable and I’m all for it.”
“He called me out and we get to go in there and fight now,” continued Cannonier. “I don’t mean it like, ‘He called me out, so now we’re gonna fight!’ That’s high school s***, bro! We’re too many levels above that.”
“This is a job and, as a man, I can appreciate the way he approached it.”
Cannonier is looking forward to a great fight. “It’s gonna feel so good to have gone through this last year, go through this whole thing,” acknowledged Cannonier. “It’s gonna be real good to go out there and compete, to perform, to engage in some fisticuffs; do some martial arts at a very high level and ultimately get my hand raised.
“It’s gonna feel real good.”
Sitting at #5 in the rankings puts Cannonier in great position to stay in the title conversation with a win on Saturday. He has key victories in his career over David Branch, Anderson Silva, Jack Hermansson, Kelvin Gastelum, Derek Brunson, Sean Strickland and Marvin Vettori. This will be his second straight fight where he is facing a fighter below him in the rankings, but he can prove his critics wrong and show that he is not a steppingstone.
Borralho’s only loss was back in 2015 and he is coming off a KO victory over Paul Craig at UFC 301 in May. The Brazilian is 6-0 in the UFC and is looking for the biggest win of his career on Saturday.
The 31-year-old is confident no matter what version of Cannonier shows up to the fight. “I think it can go either way (decision or finish),” Borralho said. “It just depends on how prepared he is and how much he wants it. At 40 years old, let’s see how much he wants to stay in the position that he is and to go again for the belt and something like that.
“I’m prepared. I worked my ass off for this fight, and I think I deserve this victory. Let’s just see how prepared he’s going to come, and see how prepared he comes for me. I’m going to push the pace, I’m going to make the rhythm high at all times and let’s see how he behaves in the fight. It all depends on him and if he came very well-prepared. … I’m prepared to knock him out or finish him because I have the ground game, and he doesn’t have that much, so let’s see how Jared comes.”
Despite his confidence, Borralho knows a win over Cannonier will not come easily. “I think he’s a very experienced guy, very explosive and has power in his hands,” Borralho said. “He knows how to take the fight where he wants it to go. Definitely an experienced guy. He’s faced a lot of tough opponents. All respect to Jared, but it’s my time now.”
The rest of the main card:
Women's Strawweight- #9 Angela Hill vs. #11Tabatha Ricci
Middleweight Ryan Loder vs. Robert Valentin Frey
Featherweight Kaan Ofli vs. Mairon Santos
Welterweight - #12 Neil Magny vs. Michael Morales
Middleweight Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Gerald Meerschaert
ESPN+ Prelims:
Lightweight Dennis Buzukja vs. Francis Marshall
Middleweight Zachary Reese vs. José Daniel Medina
Lightweight Viacheslav Borshchev vs. James Llontop
Women's Bantamweight Jacqueline Cavalcanti vs. Josiane Nunes
Featherweight Zygimantas Ramaska vs. Nathan Fletcher
Women's Flyweight Wang Cong vs. Victoria Leonardo
