Jared Cannonier Booked to Meet Rising KO Artist in UFC Fight Night Main Event

Cannonier will look to defend his spot in the middleweight rankings on February 15.

Timothy D. Easley/Special to the Courier-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

With 2025 just around the corner, it appears the UFC is putting together a huge middleweight headliner for a UFC Fight Night card on February 15.

Jared Cannonier vs. Gregory Rodrigues Targeted For UFC Vegas 102

Only two events remain on the UFC calendar this year, with Alexandre Pantoja set to defend his flyweight belt against RIZIN star and promotional debutant Kai Asakura this weekend before Colby Covington and Joaquin Buckley square off at UFC Tampa on December 14.

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The UFC has already booked plenty of events for the first quarter of 2025 but is still adding fights to those cards, and according to the report from Alex Behunin top middleweight contenders Jared Cannonier and Gregory Rodrigues are targeted as the headliner for a UFC Fight Night on February 15 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Jared Cannonier, right, connects with Nassourdine Imavov during the third round of their middleweight main bout. / Timothy D. Easley/Special to the Courier-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Currently sitting at #8 in the UFC middleweight rankings, Cannonier challenged Israel Adesanya for the middleweight belt at UFC 276 but dropped a unanimous decision in what was Adesanya’s final title defense before losing to Alex Pereira at UFC 281.

“Killa Gorilla” rebounded with wins over future middleweight king Sean Strickland and Marvin Vettori, but the 40-year-old came up short in both his outings this year when he was stopped by Nassourdine Imavov in June before also falling to Caio Borralho in August.

Aug 19, 2023; Boston, MA, USA; Gregory Rodrigues (red gloves) reacts to defeating Denis Tiuliulin (blue gloves) during UFC 292 at TD Garden. / Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

No stranger to headlining UFC cards himself, Cannonier will be tasked with defending his spot in the middleweight rankings against Rodrigues when the Brazilian steps into the cage on February 15 for his first main event slot.

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“Robocop” initially missed out on joining the UFC off of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020 before he claimed the LFA middleweight title and earned a UFC opportunity in 2021, and Rodrigues is currently on an impressive three-fight win streak that includes a pair of finishes against Brad Tavares and Denis Tiuliulin.

With the middleweight main event reportedly in place, UFC Vegas 102 on February 15 is currently shaping up like this:

• Main Event: Jared Cannonier vs. Gregory Rodrigues

• Ismael Bonfim vs. Nazim Sadykhov

• Gabriel Bonfim vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov

• Juliana Miller vs. Carli Judice

• Julia Avila vs. Jaqueline Cavalcanti

• Jacob Malkoun vs. Rodolfo Viera

• Jose Delgado vs. Connor Matthews

• Billy Goff vs. Nikolay Veretennikov

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