Jared Cannonier served as the backup fighter for the main event title matchup between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland at UFC 293. Cannonier had fought both men just last year, losing a title fight to Adesanya and beating Strickland in a main event in December. He was fully prepared to step into the event if needed, and during fight week, there was a moment when things started to look serious.
Strickland had an incident with a fan that almost forced the UFC to pull him from the event. Cannonier heard about this and was on standby. There were rumors that the fight could be in jeopardy, and his head coach John Crouch even booked a flight to Sydney to corner him in case he had to fight. However, things ultimately cooled down, and the fight didn’t fall through.
Cannonier never directly talked to any UFC officials about stepping in, but he was ready if needed. He said, “I was there handling business. If it happened, that would have been funny as hell, and I would have been ready to swoop in and save the day. It was kind of crazy.”
On fight night, Strickland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history by dominating Adesanya to claim the middleweight title. Cannonier watched the bout as an interested observer from cage side and, like everyone else, was stunned by what happened.
He sees this event as a positive turn in his career, realizing he’s in a better position to get a title fight sooner rather than later. Cannonier believes that having beaten the new champ, he has a strong case for a title shot, especially since he defeated him recently.