UFC 276: Previewing Israel Adesanya vs. Jared Cannonier and the Rest of the Card
It's a holiday weekend. So why not see some fireworks?
OK, Independence Day cliches aside, it's not hard to imagine UFC 276 providing a series of competitive explosions to get fans started on their Fourth of July revelry.
A 13-bout card is set for July 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will feature a pair of championship matches up top—one involving a titleholder who's taken apart a weight class through his first five defenses, while the other provides a rare glimpse at an MMA trilogy.
Israel Adesanya risks his middleweight belt against second-ranked contender Jared Cannonier in the main event. The champion has never lost a fight at 185 pounds, and the challenger is nearly as hot, having won five of six since a two-bout skid between 2017 and '18.
The co-main event features the third go-round between featherweight rivals Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway. Now a No. 1 challenger, Holloway was the king of the 145-pounders for three years before dropping the belt by decision to Volkanovski in 2019.
They met again seven months later, and the Aussie with Greek roots retained the title, this time by an even closer split decision that more than a few folks thought Holloway deserved.
It's the 15th trilogy in UFC history.
Meanwhile, the show's other 11 bouts include up-and-comers, familiar veterans and others hoping to boost their profile for the next time around. The B/R combat sports team perused the overall menu and identified a few of the tastier highlights.
UFC 276 Main Card (ESPN+. 10 p.m. ET)
Israel Adesanya vs. Jared Cannonier
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway
Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira
Lauren Murphy vs. Miesha Tate
Pedro Munhoz vs. Sean O'Malley
UFC 276 Preliminary Card (ESPN2/ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
Brad Riddell vs. Jalin Turner
Robbie Lawler vs. Bryan Barberena
Ian Garry vs. Gabriel Green
Jessica Eye vs. Maycee Barber
UFC 276 Early Prelims (UFC Fight Pass, 6 p.m. ET)
Uriah Hall vs. Andre Muniz
Jim Miller vs. Bobby Green
Brad Tavares vs. Dricus Du Plessis
Jessica-Rose Clark vs. Julija Stoliarenko
Israel Adesanya (22-1) vs. Jared Cannonier (15-5)
Aside from Kamaru Usman at welterweight, Adesanya is as dominant a champ as there is.
He's peerless in his weight class, has defended five times without a serious challenge and sustained the lone loss of a 10-year career while chasing a title at light heavyweight.
So while it's easy to look at Cannonier and be taken by his physicality, it's a bit more of a reach to suggest the 5'11" powerhouse will push a guy who's not pushed often.
The Texas-born contender does arrive amid a good run, having beaten former title challenger Kelvin Gastelum and current No. 5 contender Derek Brunson in his last two fights.
Still, while he's only lost once since mid-2018, it's worth noting that the loss came by unanimous decision to Robert Whittaker, the ex-champ whom Adesanya has beaten twice.
And Whittaker thinks Cannonier has his hands full with the Nigerian's skill.
"Cannonier can do it," he told The Mac Life. "But I think Israel's gonna put him through his paces. He's great at controlling the distance and the space and using his reach to his best advantage. So, Cannonier can definitely do it. But, he may have to come in differently than he has been in the last couple of fights."
Alexander Volkanovski (24-1) vs. Max Holloway (23-6)
There's a burgeoning crop of contenders at 145 pounds.
But first, there's unfinished business between the rivals ranked second and sixth on the UFC's in-house pound-for-pound list.
That means another go-round for Volkanovski and Holloway, who've battled through 10 compelling, entertaining and reed-thin rounds across two meetings. In fact, five of the six official scorecards in those two fights have wound up with 48-47 tallies.
Two of three went in the champion's favor in the most recent meeting at UFC 251 two years ago, and Volkanovski has spent the intervening 24 months racking up two more defenses of his belt. He defeated Brian Ortega by decision atop UFC 266 last September and stopped "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung in four rounds at UFC 273 in April.
Holloway has been just as successful on the next tier, shutting out current fifth-ranked contender Calvin Kattar over five rounds in January 2021 and returning 10 months later for another unanimous decision over third-ranked featherweight Yair Rodriguez.
He's not lost a non-title bout since a three-rounder against Conor McGregor in 2013 and sees no reason these days to continue his career against anything other than elites.
"It's about being active and fighting the best the UFC can bring me," he told ESPN. "If that's Alex again, then it's Alex. Why would I want to fight somebody less talented? How you guys gonna get up in the morning and ask for less of yourself with a coffee and some fruits?"
Sean Strickland (25-3) vs. Alex Pereira (5-1)
He's not a UFC champion and never has been.
But Sean Strickland has certainly been fighting like one lately.
The rugged middleweight has crept up the rankings and onto Adesanya's radar with a six-fight win streak stretching back more than four years. He's handled the seventh- and ninth-ranked 185-pounders in the last two of those victories and faces an interesting challenge in the form of Alex Pereira, who's won five of six as a pro and two straight in the UFC.
The 34-year-old Brazilian debuted in the promotion with a flying-knee KO of Andreas Michailidis last November and added a decision over Bruno Silva in March. He stands a towering 6'4" and has legitimate boxing and kickboxing street cred, having competed professionally in both while running up a combined 34-7 record with 22 KOs.
Among the kickboxing wins, incidentally, was a KO of Adesanya, which would back the narrative that the winner of this fight jumps ahead of the title-shot line.
"With Alex, it’s kind of like this scary thing," Strickland told Helen Yee. "It kind of gets me excited. You see him, you’re like, ‘Oh man, you’re a big, scary-looking kickboxer, I want to fight you.’ So I do like the fact that he does have that unknown factor—new blood.”
Other Attractions: Return of The 'Suga' Show
Go ahead. We dare you not to watch.
Whether you think he's a champion in the making or simply the product of prudent matchmaking and marketing, it's hard to keep your eyes off Sean O'Malley.
The lanky bantamweight has been a must-see commodity since his days on Dana White's Contender Series back in 2017, and he's recently taken a step toward full-fledged respectability with an entrance in the UFC rankings at No. 13.
He'll aim for single digits after Saturday night, presuming things go as planned in the main card opener against 10th-ranked 135-pounder Pedro Munhoz.
O'Malley is 7-1 in the UFC and scored three straight KOs in 2021 after suffering his lone career loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252 in August 2020. Not surprisingly, Vera is on a laundry list of prospective opponents given his standing as the division's fifth-ranked contender.
But the 27-year-old O'Malley has even bigger prizes in mind.
"(No. 1 contender) Petr Yan's not booked yet, that could be a potential fight," he said on the TimboSugarShow. "(No. 7) Rob Font's up there, I know he's probably wanting to get something booked soon. I hate talking about it because I got to go out there and deal with Pedro, but there's some sweet options for sure."
Munhoz, 35, arrives having lost four of five, including consecutive decisions to ex-champs Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz in 2021. His last win came in February 2021 against Jimmie Rivera, and he hadn't won since a KO of Cody Garbrandt in September 2019 before that.
Best of the Rest
Jessica Eye (15-10) vs. Maycee Barber (10-2)
As preliminary card openers go, this one's pretty good.
The 35-year-old Eye is an ex-title challenger who's fallen on hard times with three losses in four fights since the failed grab at Valentina Shevchenko's flyweight belt in 2019.
Still, she's ranked 12th in the weight class and could provide a test to the 14th-ranked Barber, who's righted the ship with two straight wins after a two-fight skid between 2020 and '21.
Barber is taking the fight in place of Casey O'Neill, who suffered a knee injury.
"Jessica Eye, to me, is one of those veterans of the sport who has been around for so long and has really helped to be a part of what MMA is for women," Barber told Just Scrap Radio. "To go out there and put on a performance and fight her, I’m super excited and it will propel my career a lot farther. This is my time to shine and I’m excited to go out there and dominate."
Jim Miller (34-16) vs. Bobby Green (29-13-1)
Speaking of pretty good fights, there's one on the early prelim show, too.
Still relevant at age 38, Miller has continued adding to a resume full of UFC records, including most overall fights (39), most overall wins (23) and most wins as a lightweight (21).
He'll try to boost the win totals when he meets fellow vet Bobby Green, who won two straight before walking into 155-pound buzzsaw Islam Makhachev on short notice in February.
Miller and Green have been penciled in twice, in 2014 and 2021, before cancelations.
It's also the last fight on Miller's UFC contract, which has not yet been extended.
"Coming off two knockouts and apparently, I’m fighting out my contract," he told BJPenn.com. "It is where we are, it doesn’t affect anything, it doesn’t change anything. I still have a job to do July 2 and I’m planning on doing it to the best of my ability. We will see what happens and go from there."