Jared Cannonier believes he will "contribute more energy to the pool of greatness" at The MMA Lab if he comes champion
Jared Cannonier is hoping to take the UFC middleweight title away from Israel Adesanya at UFC 276, not just for himself but for his gym, The MMA Lab.
The Arizona gym is home to many UFC fighters past and present, but hasn't managed to capture a UFC title since Benson Henderson won the lightweight championship in 2012. Sportskeeda MMA's James Lynch was on site at the UFC 276 media day press conference and asked Jared Cannonier what representing The MMA Lab as champion would mean. He replied:
"For me it means more energy to the pool of greatness that we're all contributing to. We're all drawing from, contributing to it, and finding our own greatness in and outside of it. So it's going to bring a whole lotta energy back to that pool."
UFC 276 also features Sean O'Malley and Bryan Barberena, two other fighters who used to train at The MMA Gym. Asked by Lynch what he thought of fighting on the card alongside them, Cannonier said:
"There's nothing better than going to war with your brothers, right? This is an individual sport so I can't say it adds a sense of security and stuff but ... it's pretty superficial at this point because I don't train with 'Sug' and Brian left shortly after I moved here. We did do some rounds, Bryan was a few of my heavyweight rounds when I got to the Lab. But nonetheless, these are still my brothers."
"But again, my focus is me, fighting. They can't get in there and help me fight. They're not fighting like me or fighting somebody like my opponent so I can't really pull anything from em. Only thing I can really pull from it is the martial artist aspect and the entertainment aspect."
Watch Jared Cannonier's full UFC 276 media day interview below, or watch all the media day interviews at Sportskeeda's YouTube page.
Jared Cannonier compares energy battle with Israel Adesanya to Dragon Ball Z
Normally it's Israel Adesanya making anime references on fight week, but during a new interview with Daniel Cormier it was Jared Cannonier that dropped some otaku knowledge. The powerful middleweight compared his fight with 'The Last Stylebender' to a battle from Dragon Ball Z. He said:
“Best way I can, I can use an anime reference. I know you’re not an anime guy. But the Dragon Ball Z reference where they’re both shooting power beams at each other. But it’s like, those energies are combating, and I wanna go in that octagon with big energy.”
Satisfying energy blast💥 Satisfying energy blast💥
Dragon Ball Z EP 253 https://t.co/g7JysFOyam
Watch Cannonier talk about his UFC 276 fight with Israel Adesanya below: