The middleweight division featured the epic match between Jared Cannonier and Nassourdine Imavov, which was a fight to remember. The fighter held out for four rounds, with Cannonier having the upper hand, but his momentum came to an end when Imavov landed a huge right hand that rocked him. Cannonier managed to stay on his feet, but he was visibly hurt. Seeing this, referee Jason Herzog called a stop to the fight, but ‘The Killa Gorilla’ was displeased with this decision.
In an interview with The MMA Hour, the fighter revealed how he felt about the stoppage.
“When it happened, it was gut-wrenching, to say the least.” He said to Ariel Helwani. “It definitely took some time to collect myself and watch the fight and really re-live the whole thing again. It was really gut-wrenching. It feels like the opportunity to do great things was pretty much stolen from me at that moment. It’s just something that, as fighters, we win or we lose, and then we have to live with it, and it’s definitely not fun. It doesn’t get any easier every time.
“It doesn’t feel like I lost the fight. I lost the fight. I just felt like it was taken from me, the opportunity to persevere, which is one thing I’ve done in a lot of my fights, and continue on and try to make good on the fight. Gut-wrenching is an understatement.”
The loss came as a big letdown to the fighter who had been on a two-fight winning streak. A victory over Imavov would have put him in the limelight for a world title. The match was the athlete’s first in a year since his knee injury. Cannonier hopes to get a rematch in his home country as UFC returns to France.
“I want to petition for a rematch. The UFC is going to Paris in September, and I would love to go to Nassourdine’s backyard and make that right. He’ll have that home field advantage.There won’t be people chanting, ‘U.S.A., U.S.A’… That’s what I would like to make that right. That’s something that I want-a rematch in Paris. He came over here, so I’d be happy to go over there.”
