Afolabi Johnson
Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will defend his 185-pound title against hulking division power puncher Jared Cannonier in the upcoming UFC 276 pay-per-view (PPV) main event on July 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas according to report.
That’s according to the number crunchers over at Draft Kings, who pegged Cannonier as the +280 underdog. As with every pre-event betting line, you can expect those figures to fluctuate as we inch closer to fight night — in both directions.
Adesanya (22-1) is 11-0 in the middleweight division, having recently outpointed former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 in Houston. The only blemish on “The Last Stylebender’s” record is a light heavyweight decision loss to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 in early 2021.
Cannonier (15-5) is 5-1 since dropping down to middleweight and is coming off back-to-back victories over Kelvin Gastelum and Derek Brunson. More importantly, the 38 year-old “Killa Gorilla” has double-digit knockouts and could be Adesanya’s most dangerous opponent to date.
UFC 276 is expected to to be co-headlined by the third (and perhaps final) fight between featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and former titleholder Max Holloway. Elsewhere on the card, Bryan Barberena and Robbie Lawler do business at welterweight while Alex Pereira and Sean Strickland hook ‘em up at 170.
