UFC Fight Night - Cannonier vs Rodrigues

The UFC Apex in Las Vegas will welcome the latest Fight Night Card, headlined by a Middleweight bout between Jared Cannonier and Gregory Rodrigues. After challenging for the title, the Killa Gorilla went 2-2 and now finds himself on a two-fight losing streak. He will test his might against the Brazilian brawler Gregory Rodrigues, also known as Robocop, who has been on a tear recently, winning five out of six recent bouts.

Add to that 10 KO/TKO finishes and three post-fight performances, Robocop is someone who is not to be trifled with. So Cannonier needs to be extremely careful if he wants to preserve his UFC status and risk going down three.

Jared Cannonier Record (17-8)

Jared Cannonier had everything going for him after he defeated Kalvin Gastelum and Derek Brunson (Elbow KO). But he wasn’t able to go up one of the best as he failed to get the title versus Isreal Adesanya. The loss seemed to not blow the wind out of his sails as the Killa Gorilla continued where he left off.

He defeated both Sean Strickland and Marvin Vettori via decision and looked like he was right back into conteiton. However, then two back to back unexpected losses came rocking his way. First, it was Nassourdine Imavov who TKOed him to earn a massive win, and then he fell to Caio Borralho via unanimous decision.

Cannonier now finds himself, for the first tim,e in danger of losing three fights in a row. The UFC seems to think that he is still headline material, but a loss here might spell the end of his career, especially at 40 years of age.

---

Gregory Rodrigues Record (16-5)

Gregory Rodrigues is on the best run of his MMA career. He has been on a tear, winning five out of six bouts, with four of them by stoppages. The lone loss came against Brunno Fereira at UFC 283, where he suffered a knockout himself. But he quickly came back to knocking people out himself.

Robocop TKOed Denis Tiuliulin and a very high-profile name in Brad Tavares. His most recent win came at UFC 304, where he went to a decision after five fights. He defeated Christian Leroy Duncan, which set him up for a much higher-ranked opponent. 

If he manages to defeat Cannonier, currently ranked 7th, he should be getting a number to his name.

---

Cannonier vs Rodrigues Prediction

What we have here is two sluggers who like to stand and bang. However, this is a tactic that suits Rodrigues more as he likes to start going forward and continue going until he runs you over, hence the name Robocop. However, this is something that is not easy to do with a fighter like Cannonier.

Jared can also pack a punch, but I can’t really say he has it anymore. If he is to win, he has to dig deep and find it in himself to get over a much younger and equally scary opponent as he is. The two might also end up cancelling each other out and simply wrestle alongside the cage, which is something that we don’t want to see.

All in all, I would say this bout goes to Rodrigues. As for the method of victory, it is hard to say. If he gets things going as he usually does, we just might get to see Cannonier hold up for at least a round with Robcop dispatching him in the second.

---

Safer Gambling

At bettingexpert, we always take a safe approach to gambling. We’ll never bet more than we can afford or chase losses. For more advice, head to our Safer Gambling hub.