The UFC confirmed on Dec. 20 a middleweight bout between former champion Robert Whittaker (20-5-0) and No. 4 Jared Cannonier (13-4-0) at March’s UFC 248 in Las Vegas.
Whittaker, 29, lost the belt to Israel Adesanya in October at UFC 243.
My drive. People ask me what drives me and what motivates me to do what I do. This is it. I had to get individual photos cause they are little shits though haha https://t.co/YrKpRhFls8
— Robert Whittaker (@robwhittakermma) December 16, 2019
This is Whittaker’s first step towards earning another title shot. Cannonier, who is on a run of his own, has other ideas.
Since dropping down from light heavyweight, the 35-year-old Cannonier has reeled off three straight impressive middleweight wins, the latest being a TKO finish of Jack Hermansson at UFC on ESPN+ 18 in September.
UFC 248 is scheduled for Mar. 7, 2020 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Scheduled bouts include:
Zhang Weili (20-1-0) vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk (16-3-0)
Robert Whittaker (20-5-0) vs. Jared Cannonier (13-4-0)
Neil Magny (21-7-0) vs. Jinglang Li (17-5-0)
Beneil Dariush (17-4-1) vs. Drakkar Klose (11-1-1)
More bouts are expected to be announced.
