Under helgen som gick ägde en titelmatch i mellanvikt rum mellan mästaren Israel Adesanya och utmanaren Yoel Romero rum på UFC 248. Nu berättar mellanviktaren Jared Cannonier att han ser sig som en bättre fighter än både Adesanya och Romero efter helgens möte.
Den bättre fightern
Ursprungligen var tanken att Cannonier skulle ställas mot den forne mästaren Robert Whittaker på galan men efter att Whittaker dragit sig ur på grund av personliga skäl blev inte matchen av. Istället fick Cannonier ta del av galan som åskådare och för Submission Radio berättar nu Cannonier att han tycker sig vara en bättre fighter än Adesanya och Romero efter att ha sett matchen.
It wasn’t pleasing to the casual fan, pleasingly aesthetic to what these guys want to see. I wasn’t sitting there booing; I was sitting there intrigued. Of course, I’m potentially one of the guys’ opponents, so I’m watching with more of a keen eye. I was just downloading every bit right there, and I feel like I’m a better fighter after watching those two fight. You can say they respected each other too much or they employed a little too much caution – to the fans’ detriment, but not to mine.
Inte förvånad
Cannonier berättar även att han inte är förvånad över hur matchen gick på grund av hur framförallt Romero agerat i tidigare matcher.
I thought it was going to be a little bit more exciting, but what we saw happen what happened, was what I thought was going to happen. I said that if we see Romero do what Romero has done in his last couple of fights, which is back away, wait around and stand in front of his opponent and try to explode at the perfect moment, then ‘Izzy’ is going to be able to snipe him from afar, pick him apart and run his game. ‘Izzy’ was successful in retaining his title, and Yoel didn’t do much of anything to take the title, to win the title. So, if you ask me who won the fight, that would be my reply. ‘Izzy’ did enough to retain the title. I’m not going to say he won that fight, even though technically he won that fight, but I would say he did enough to retain the title. And that’s kind of like what he was saying at the end. He was saying ‘I’m going to do what I’ve got to do.’
En match som leder till titelmatch
Härnäst vill Cannonier ha en match som ger honom en titelmatch, vem det är bryr han sig inte om.
I’ll fight any of them that will get me a title shot. It doesn’t matter who it is. Everybody’s saying nobody’s calling out Yoel. I say, I’ll fight anybody ahead of me who gives me a title shot – anybody. It includes Yoel, it includes anybody ahead of me that gets me a title shot, or anybody behind me that gets me a title shot. One fight, then a title shot, because I’m beating anybody you put in front of me.
Adesanya mot Romero stod som huvudmatch på UFC 248 som ägde rum den 8:e mars i Las Vegas, USA.
