LAS VEGAS – Jared Cannonier doesn’t understand the criticism towards the UFC 312 main event.
Middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) retained his middleweight title by defeating Sean Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) a second time this past Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
Strickland received plenty of criticism for not delivering on his pre-fight prediction of competing “To the death.” Cannonier, who holds a close decision win over Strickland in December 2022, thinks the criticism is unwarranted.
“Congratulations to both competitors for making it out not as concussed as everybody hoped they would,” Cannonier told reporters at Wednesday’s media day. “‘To the death.’ Everyone keeps repeating it and throwing it in Sean’s face. It was a scrap as expected. DDP fought as expected, Sean Strickland fought as expected, and we’ve got ourselves another championship fight in the books.”
Strickland lost a dominant unanimous decision to Du Plessis, and had to battle through a broken nose in Round 4.
“I thought he went in there and competed for five rounds in a world-title match, and came up on the short end of the stick with a broken nose,” Cannonier said of Strickland. “People wanted him to sustain more damage than that. We live in a sadistic world where people want to see other people go through some sort of pain and take pleasure out of that.”
Former title challenger Cannonier (17-8 MMA, 10-8 UFC) will look to snap a two-fight losing skid when he takes on Gregory Rodrigues (16-5 MMA, 7-2 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 251 (ESPN+) main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 251.
