Even at 40 years old, Jared Cannonier isn’t here to be a steppingstone in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division.
He proved that on Saturday night, when he rallied for a fourth-round technical knockout victory against Gregory Rodrigues in the UFC Vegas 102 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Rodrigues entered the bout having won five of his last six Octagon appearances, but “The Killa Gorilla” denied the Brazilian’s entry into the upper echelon of the division.
Cannonier balked at the notion that he was settling into a gatekeeper role at this point in his MMA career.