What’s next for Jared Cannonier after his controversial loss at UFC Louisville?

Last weekend at the UFC Louisville main event, we witnessed a huge middleweight fight. The top contenders battled each other as Nassourdine Imavov (14-4) faced former title challenger “The Killa Gorilla” Jared Cannonier (17-7). On paper, this fight looked very even, and on Saturday evening we had a very fierce fight.

Before the fight, I really liked Cannonier in this matchup, especially considering his performance against Marvin Vettori last year. Imavov is amazing from distance, but I love Cannonier’s strength and ability to get inside in this matchup. That’s what happened in the first round, with Cannonier winning the first round on all three scorecards.

However, in the second round, Imavov was able to keep the distance and get his time. He shot better and advanced to the second round on all three scorecards. In the third round, both men were successful. However, the highlights seemed to belong to Cannonier and I, along with two of the three judges, gave him the third round.

If it had only been a three-round fight, Cannonier would have won by split decision at UFC Louisville. However, since it was the main event, we had two more rounds. Imavov hit Cannonier with a huge right that rocked him in the fourth period. Cannonier was never knocked down, but he was clearly injured. He was running back to the cage, trying to get some separation and regain his strength.

However, during one of the exchanges, Jason Herzog decided that Cannonier was not defending himself and stopped the fight. Cannonier immediately protested because he didn’t even hit the ground, and the crowd erupted in boos. A bad break led to Cannonier’s TKO loss at UFC Louisville.

What’s next after UFC Louisville?

40-year-old Jared Cannonier is trying once again to fight for the middleweight title. Had the fight continued and he won, he would have had a three-fight win streak that also included victories over former title challenger Marvin Vettori and former champion Sean Strickland.

Now he has to make up for the loss after the TKO defeat. Cannonier appeared on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour yesterday and continued to express the frustration that many in the MMA community are also expressing with the fights being stopped. Cannonier said he felt he didn’t lose, but rather had the fight taken away from him. I tend to agree with this assessment.