Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland will end up fighting this year after all.
Cannonier and Strickland were set to headline a Fight Night card on October 15 in a crucial fight for the middleweight division. However, Strickland had a nasty infection on his finger after a cut, and the fight was postponed. Now, he revealed to Helen Yee that the two have been booked to headline the December 17 Fight Night card which serves as the final event of 2022. The event will also go down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jared Cannonier vs Sean Strickland on Fight Night is Back On
Cannonier (15-6) is coming off a decision loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 276 for the middleweight title in a rather lackluster fight. To earn the title shot against Adesanya, he scored a KO win over Derek Brunson and a decision win over Kelvin Gastelum to return to the win column after losing to Robert Whittaker.
Cannonier is currently ranked second at middleweight. Since dropping down to 185lbs, he is 5-2 with his other loss coming to Whittaker. He started out his 185lbs run with a TKO win over David Branch, a TKO win over Anderson Silva and a TKO win over Jack Hermansson in his first UFC main event. The 38-year-old has also competed at heavyweight and light heavyweight in the UFC, fighting the likes of Glover Teixeira, Dominick Reyes, Jan Blachowicz, and Ion Cutelaba.
Strickland (25-4) suffered a first-round KO loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 276 in a title eliminator bout, which happened on the same card as Adesanya-Cannonier. Before the setback, he was on a six-fight win streak with wins over Hermansson, Uriah Hall, Krzysztof Jotko, Brendan Allen, Jack Marshman, and Nordine Taleb.
Strickland is ranked seventh at middleweight. Before returning against Marshman, he was in a motorcycle accident that nearly ended his career.
With the addition of Cannonier vs. Strickland, the Dec. 17 Fight Night card is as follows:
- Jared Cannonier vs. Sean Strickland
- Alex Perez vs. Amir Albazi
- Julian Marquez vs. Deron Winn
- Tafon Nchukwi vs. Jamal Pogues
- Sergey Morozov vs. Journey Newson
