Whittaker vs. Cannonier Preview
The former middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, is on his way to regaining the middleweight title. But, he has a nasty opponent at the UFC 254. Jared Cannonier is motivated more than ever to show that he has what it takes to become the new ruler of this division. Cannonier searched for his place in the UFC for a long time, and it seems that he finally found himself in the middleweight category.
Whittaker -105
The former champ had his last fight against Darren Till, and to tell you right away, even though he won that one, we are more than positive that the outcome wouldn’t be the same if his rival didn’t have a knee injury during the bout.
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Robert Whittaker on Jared Cannonier: “I’m gonna go out there and try to rip his face off. That’s it”https://t.co/DXhodEXueP pic.twitter.com/szqzJkJT60
— The Mac Life (@TheMacLife) October 20, 2020
Till had a couple of surges, and he even knocked down the rival, before his injury. Now, Whittaker routinely closed this match, but you have to count Till’s blow into the equation.
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The Aussie is looking solid, but his shape is not that good as in previous years. He seems a bit slower, and less mobile than before. However, he had a lot of time to improve while preparing for this event.
Cannonier -115
We saw a pretty successful transformation of this guy over the last few years. At first, he was a heavyweight, then a light heavyweight, until recently coming down to the middleweight division.
Co-main event is a good one.
Robert Whittaker (@robwhittakermma) vs. Jared Cannonier (@killagorillamma) #UFC254 pic.twitter.com/sOhTtglwwh
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) October 23, 2020
The Killa Gorilla was superb since that happened, posting three wins, against David Branch, Anderson Silva, and Jack Hermansson, all of them via knockout. Branch was the one who resisted the most, but without surviving the first minute of the second round.
He is an extremely strong guy, who has experience with much bigger and heavier guys than Whittaker. Also, Cannonier has a one-punch knockout ability.
Prediction
After seeing Whittaker against Adesanya, and Till, we don’t have too much trust in him. He doesn’t’ look like a guy who went to war against Yoel Romero, in back-to-back fights.
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There is no sharpness as before, no energy. On the other hand, there is a super-tough guy whose strikes are unreal for this division. Maybe even harder than Paulo Costa‘s.
Due to that, the logical solution is to back up Cannonier’s victory. The American is looking excellent in this division, and it would take a massive surprise to see him lose Saturday’s event.
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