This July, Israel Adesanya returns for the second time in 2022 as he headlines his first Internation Fight Week. He takes on No. 2 ranked middleweight Jared Cannonier in the main event of UFC 276.
Not much has been said between the two other than a Cannonier interview on The MMA Hour. “The Last Stylebender” has been quiet, just working; however, he sent out a tweet saying he’s going to make it look easy on Monday.
Easy work
“#UFC276, I’m gonna make it look easy,” Adesanya wrote on Twitter.
#UFC276 , I’m gonna make it look easy. pic.twitter.com/TtldcDMv2V
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) May 24, 2022
The tweet itself is an Instagram DM message between Adesanya and his teammate Brad Riddell. The UFC middleweight champion wrote, “‘This is the best kind of pain.’ I’m going to hold onto that one.”
Riddell responded with “Pain of preparation.”
UFC 276
A potential matchup between Adesanya and Cannonier has been in the champion’s mind for a few years now. When Cannonier fought Robert Whittaker in 2020, Adesanya was hoping “The Killa Gorilla” would win to have a fresh matchup, something he likes.
Cannonier is coming off a brutal TKO win over Derek Brunson at UFC 271 in February. In the main event, Adesanya defended his belt for the fourth time when he defeated Whittaker for the second time.
UFC 276 goes down on July 2 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The rest of the card looks like this:
- Israel Adesanya vs. Jared Cannonier – for the UFC middleweight championship
- Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway – for the UFC featherweight championship
- Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira
- Lauren Murphy vs. Miesha Tate
- Sean O’Malley vs. Pedro Munhoz
- Uriah Hall vs. André Muniz
- Brad Tavares vs. Dricus du Plessis
- Jessica-Rose Clark vs. Julija Stoliarenko
- Jessica Eye vs. Maycee Barber
- Robbie Lawler vs. Bryan Barberena
- Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller
- Jalin Turner vs. Brad Riddel
