UFC Vegas 66: Jared Cannonier eager to minimize mistakes, unleash power against Sean Strickland
LAS VEGAS — Jared Cannonier has the stoic look that so many fighters do when they're doing interviews before their bouts. The vast majority of fighters would rather do anything but answer the same questions repeatedly in the days and weeks before they compete, but it's a part of the job in 2022.
But his stoicism turns into a huge grin as a question points out that while Sean Strickland, his opponent Saturday at Apex in the five-round middleweight main event of UFC Vegas 66, lands a lot of punches but also gets hit a lot, as well.
He rubs his hands together and leans forward in his seat.
"Oh, yes I am," he said, laughing, when asked if he's looking forward to fighting an opponent who doesn't have defense foremost on his mind.
The accountants at the UFC headquarters down the street from Apex should perhaps get prepared to write each of them $50,000 Fight of the Night checks because the statistics suggest this will be a high-volume affair that may not make it the full five rounds.
Strickland lands 5.54 strikes per minute, but absorbs 4.01 strikes per minute. Cannonier lands 3.73 strikes per minute and absorbs 3.50 strikes per minute.
Both are coming off losses to champions. Strickland was knocked out by Alex Pereira, who after knocking Strickland out in the first round at UFC 276 in Las Vegas on July 2 would go on to knock out champion Israel Adesanya in the fifth round of UFC 282 on Nov. 12 in New York.
Cannonier enters Saturday's bout coming off a five-round decision loss to Adesanya at UFC 276 in which he didn't let his hands go nearly as often as he probably should have done.
"I'm excited for this fight," Cannonier told Yahoo Sports. "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."
He wasn't so excited after his bout with Adesanya ended. He went in with high hopes of winning the middleweight championship, but didn't let his hands go nearly enough and Adesanya won by scores of 49-46 twice and 50-45.
Given that the fighters in the top 10 represent the best of the best in MMA, the difference in these fights often comes down to who makes fewer mistakes and remains strong mentally. He said he wasn't overwhelmed in the moment, but didn't throw nearly enough to give himself a chance.
"It's how the fight played out," Cannonier said of the bout with Adesanya. "But I've noticed that as a tendency in some of his fights, as well. I have a tendency to, I don't know, I don't want to say sit back and wait, but I guess for the lack of a better term, I sit back and wait. I've noticed that tendency and it was apparent in that fight. I didn't like it seeing that in myself.
"So that's something I have definitely been working on. It's something that I'll continue to work on as well. It's good to have had that fight and see myself in that manner so I can make the adjustments that I need to make."
Cannonier is so diligent about fixing issues because there is so little at the top level that separates the winners from the losers.
If he fights the same way against Strickland on Saturday that he did against Adesanya, it probably wouldn't turn out much differently. But he's spent the last five months not only studying Strickland, but also himself and figuring what he needs to do to improve.
"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.
"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."
