Robert Whittaker’s first fight since losing his middleweight title will come against Jared Cannonier at UFC 248 on March 7th in Las Vegas.
Whittaker had been on a nine-fight winning streak prior to coming up against interim champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 243 in October, having defeated the likes of Yoel Romero (twice), Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, Derek Brunson and Uriah Hall.
However, the 29-year-old, who had been out of action for over a year due to injuries, would go on to suffer a second round knockout loss against Adesanya and is now looking to battle his way back to the belt.
Meanwhile Cannonier has found his groove at middleweight after starting out as a heavyweight and then dropping down to light-heavyweight.
185lbs appears to be the right fit though as since the switch he’s won three fights in a row, all by way of TKO against David Branch, Anderson Silva and most recently Jack Hermansson.
As such, Cannonier has swiftly risen up to No.4 in the middleweight rankings and could now be on the verge of title contention if he can get past ‘The Reaper.’
Whittaker vs. Cannonier will join a UFC 248 event that currently has a women’s strawweight title fight locked in between Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, while it will also feature a welterweight bout between Neil Magny and Li Jingliang.
