A pivotal bout between middleweight contenders Derek
Brunson and Jared
Cannonier is getting a new date.
According to
ESPN, Brunson vs. Cannonier has shifted from UFC 270
on Jan. 22 to UFC 271 on Feb. 12. UFC 271
takes place at the Toyota Center in Houson and is headlined by a
middleweight championship rematch between Israel
Adesanya and Robert
Whittaker. The bout was moved because the promotion wanted to
have it on the same card as the Adesanya-Whittaker title bout, per
the report.
Brunson is currently in the midst of the second five-bout winning
streak of his UFC tenure. That stretch includes triumphs over the
likes of Darren Till,
Kevin
Holland and Edmen
Shahbazyan in headlining appearances in his last three outings.
The North Carolina native previously authored a five-bout winning
streak from August 2014 to September 2016 before losing four of his
next six inside the Octagon.
Cannonier, meanwhile, was on the verge of securing a 185-pound
title shot after successive triumphs against David
Branch, Anderson
Silva and Jack
Hermansson, but a decision loss to Whittaker at UFC 254 pushed
“The Killa Gorilla” back down the list of contenders. The
37-year-old MMA Lab representative bounced back in his last outing,
earning a three-round verdict over Kelvin
Gastelum at UFC on ESPN 29 on Aug. 21.