Editor’s note: This story was originally published in Sept. 2019. Cannonier fights Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC Fight Night on August 21, 2021.
Jared Cannonier was living in Anchorage, Alaska, and doing maintenance on air traffic control equipment for the Federal Aviation Administration. It was 2009, he was almost a year removed from serving in the U.S. Army and his wife, Cat, was pregnant with their first child.
Cannonier weighed more than 300 pounds.
“When we were in Alaska, we were cold and kind of eating for comfort,” Cat recalled, “so that’s when we really got heavy.”
Fast-forward 10 years, and Cannonier is celebrating his second-round TKO of Jack Hermansson, who was ESPN’s No. 6-ranked middleweight. A win should elevate Cannonier into the top tier of the division — and this opportunity to headline a UFC card is the culmination of years of hard work and transforming his body.
Few could have guessed a 300-pound air traffic control mechanic would one day have a chance to prove himself as one of the best 185-pound MMA fighters on the planet.
“When me and Jared first got together, he wasn’t really that big,” said Cat, who has been married to Cannonier for 12 years. “We were young, didn’t have kids, he was swole — in shape. He was around 225 pounds and had these massive, in-shape arms.”
Cannonier’s first foray into the world of mixed martial arts was through the Army’s combatives training course. He was discharged from the Army three years into his service due to a positive drug test for marijuana.
Even as he searched for his next step and began working for the FAA to support his family, Cannonier knew he wanted to break into the world of MMA. He found a Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym in Anchorage and took his first professional fight in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2011.
Cannonier’s career started with six stoppages, including five first-round finishes with regional promotions in Alaska.
Then the UFC came calling.
Cannonier made his UFC debut as a heavyweight in 2015. His fighting weight peaked at 241 pounds at UFC Fight Night in Croatia in 2016, and despite earning a knockout and his first win in the UFC, Cannonier knew that his long-term prospects would be much better at a lower weight.
“I already knew when I was at heavyweight that I wasn’t a natural heavyweight compared to the other guys I’d be competing against,” Cannonier said. “I’m a realist. I’m not living in a fantasy. I know what’s what. It was only a matter of time. I knew I had to make that happen.”
“That” was a bigger commitment to training and a strict diet. In 2016, Cannonier was still living in Anchorage and working 10-hour days with the FAA when he made the decision to move down from heavyweight to light heavyweight. In order to reach his goal, Cannonier would get up at 3:30 a.m. and run or go to the gym and ride an AirDyne bike for an hour. Then he’d go to work before finishing the night by heading to his Gracie Barra gym to train in MMA.
After a year of that grind, Jared and Cat had saved enough money to move the family to Arizona. Cannonier started doing parts of his training at The MMA Lab in Phoenix, and he knew that’s where he needed to be full time in order to take that next step as a fighter.
He moved down to light heavyweight (205 pounds) by the end of that year, but Cannonier’s performances in that division were mixed as he went 2-3. As he concentrated on training full time, Cannonier continued to shed pounds.
At 5-foot-11, Cannonier no longer has to worry about a significant reach disadvantage against bigger heavyweights and light heavyweights.
While the volume of training was doing wonders for Cannonier’s weight, he was also showing serious willpower in the kitchen. Cannonier doesn’t have a nutritionist, and so Cat played a key role as his chef.
“A lot of these fighters, they have so many people working for them,” Cat said. “We didn’t get to have that luxury. We had kids by the time Jared started in on the MMA journey. … Lucky for us, the adjustment came as an entire family. We were all kind of into it.”
While fighting at heavyweight, Cannonier said he ate a lot of steak, potatoes, rice, chicken wings and Mexican food. During his training camps for middleweight, Cannonier eats some combination of fruit, avocado and oatmeal for breakfast; soups, salads, pasta or a light sandwich for lunch; and salmon or tuna fillets with broccoli, squash or spinach for dinner.
“I want to be completely vegan one day, but I’ve just gotta break the habits,” Cannonier said.
When Cannonier’s not in fight camp, Cat will still fry up some chicken for the family, but the more time Cannonier spends eating clean, the more he notices how much his diet impacts his performance in the gym
“Especially if I eat dairy, I feel more congested,” Cannonier said. “I feel more fatigued after I’ve eaten steak. I feel heavy, a little bit more sluggish. … After eating something for so long, your body becomes used to the side effects of them, and you really don’t notice them.”
Cat, who trains in MMA as well, said she actually enjoys when her husband is in training camp, because that means the entire family — they now have three kids — eats better. Before Cannonier’s weight-division change, they ordered takeout more often.
Cannonier (12-4) said he weighs between 210 and 215 pounds during training camp and could get up to 230 outside of it. When he gets to the Tuesday before a Saturday bout, Cannonier said he weighs in the low 200s or high 190s, and the rest comes off via a typical water cut.
Despite how heavy he used to be, Cannonier still can’t be considered a big middleweight. For instance, top middleweight Paulo Costa weighed 213.8 pounds on fight day at UFC 241 last month.
Still, any size difference pales in comparison to what Cannonier used to face — and he seems to have found a home at middleweight. Saturday’s fight against Hermansson proved how Cannonier stacks up against top-tier competition, and after the long road he traveled to get to this point, Cannonier is confident that he has the skill and power to move forward.
“They’re definitely not as big, they’re definitely not as tall,” Cannonier said of middleweights. “It’s a more level playing ground for me now. I still have the same power I had at heavyweight. People want to call it heavyweight power — naw, that’s Cannonier power.”
In his first start since agreeing to a $170 million, six-year contract, the left-hander pitched a career-best eight innings as the Red Sox shut out the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 on Wednesday night. Crochet also threw 102 pitches, one shy of his career high.
“My first start in college I went eight, and I haven’t sniffed it since,” Crochet said.
Crochet (1-0) gave up four hits and a walk while striking out eight in his first victory since the offseason trade that sent him from the Chicago White Sox to Boston.
“That’s the reason he’s here,” manager Alex Cora said after the game. “That’s the reason we committed to him.”
Crochet went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA last season, a bright spot on a Chicago team that lost 121 games. He threw 146 innings, which was double his previous career total since his debut in 2020.
Then Crochet was dealt to the Red Sox, and they made their long-term commitment to the 25-year-old earlier this week.
“Going back to when the trade went through, we knew Boston was a place where we would love to be long term,” Crochet said. “Credit to the front office for staying diligent, and my agency as well.”
Now the question is less about where he’ll pitch and more about how well. He’s off to a nice start in that regard.
“I can’t think of the last time I played baseball for pride. In college, you’re playing to get drafted, and once you’re in the big leagues, you’re playing to stay in the big leagues,” Crochet said. “So to have this security and feel like I’m playing to truly just win ballgames, it takes a lot of the riff-raff out of it.”
The news all around was good for Boston on Wednesday.
It reached a $60 million, eight-year deal with young infielder Kristian Campbell, and he went out and doubled twice against the Orioles.
And Rafael Devers ended a 21-at-bat hitless streak to start the season with an RBI double in the fifth inning. He finished with two hits and no strikeouts.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
LOS ANGELES — Aside from his ability to pitch and hit and stretch the boundaries of imagination, Shohei Ohtani has displayed another singular trait in his time in the major leagues: an ability to meet the moment. Or, perhaps, for the moment to meet him.
And so on Wednesday night, with his Los Angeles Dodgers looking to stay unbeaten, the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, and more than 50,000 fans standing and clenching the Ohtani bobbleheads they lined up hours in advance for, Ohtani approached the batter’s box — and his teammates expected greatness.
“He’s going to end this right here,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said he thought to himself.
“We knew,” starting pitcher Blake Snell said. “It’s just what he does.”
Validation came instantly. Ohtani stayed back on a first-pitch changeup from Raisel Iglesias near the outside corner and shot it toward straightaway center field, 399 feet away, for a walk-off home run, sending the Dodgers to a 6-5, come-from-behind victory over the reeling Atlanta Braves.
“I don’t think anybody didn’t expect him to hit a walk-off home run there,” Dodgers utility man Tommy Edman said. “It’s just a question of where he’d hit it.”
The Dodgers are now 8-0, topping the 1933 New York Yankees of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth for the longest winning streak to begin a season for a reigning champion. The Braves, meanwhile, are 0-7, the type of record no team has ever recovered from to make the playoffs. And Ohtani, with three home runs and a 1.126 OPS this season, just keeps meeting moments.
“He’s pretty good, huh?” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. “It’s Shohei. He’s going to do that. He’s going to do things better than that.”
On Aug. 23 last year, Ohtani reached the 40/40 club with a walk-off grand slam. Five days later, the Dodgers staged a second giveaway of his bobblehead — one that saw his now-famous dog, Decoy, handle the ceremonial first pitch — and Ohtani led off with a home run. On Sept. 19, Ohtani clinched his first postseason berth and ascended into the unprecedented 50/50 club with one of the greatest single-game performances in baseball history — six hits, three homers, two steals and 10 RBIs. Barely two weeks later, he homered in his first playoff game.
When Ohtani came up on Wednesday, he had what he described as a simple approach.
“I was looking for a really good pitch to hit,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “If I didn’t get a good pitch to hit, I was willing to walk.”
Of course, though, he got a good pitch.
And, of course, he sent it out.
“You just feel that he’s going to do something special,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And I just like the way he’s not pressing. He’s in the strike zone, and when he does that, there’s just no one better.”
The Dodgers began their much-anticipated season with a couple of breezy wins over the Chicago Cubs from Japan, even though Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman did not play in them. They returned home, brought iconic rapper Ice Cube out to present the World Series trophy on one afternoon, received their rings on another and swept a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. Then came the Braves, and the Dodgers swept them, too — even though Freeman, nursing an ankle injury caused from slipping in the shower, didn’t participate.
The Dodgers already have two walk-offs and six comeback wins this season.
Wednesday’s effort left Roberts “a little dumbfounded.”
A nightmarish start defensively, highlighted by two errant throws from Muncy, spoiled Snell’s start and put them behind 5-0 after the first inning and a half. But the Dodgers kept inching closer. They trailed by just two in the eighth and put runners on second and third with two out. Muncy came to bat with his batting average at just .083. He had used the ballyhooed “Torpedo” bat for his first three plate appearances, didn’t like how it altered his swing plane, grabbed his usual bat for a showdown against Iglesias and laced a game-tying double into the right-center-field gap.
An inning later, Ohtani ended it.
“Overall, not just tonight, there is a really good vibe within the team,” Ohtani said after recording his fourth career walk-off hit. “I just think that’s allowing us to come back in these games to win.”
The Dodgers’ 8-0 start has allowed them to stay just ahead of the 7-0 San Diego Padres and the 5-1 San Francisco Giants in the National League West. Tack on the Arizona Diamondbacks (4-2) and the Colorado Rockies (1-4), and this marks the first time in the divisional era that an entire division has combined for at least 25 wins and no more than seven losses, according to ESPN Research. The Dodgers’ and Padres’ starts mark just the fifth season in major league history with multiple teams starting 7-0 or better, and the first time since 2003.
The Dodgers famously overcame a 2-1 series deficit to vanquish the Padres in the NL Division Series last year, then rode that fight to their first full-season championship since 1988.
That fight hasn’t let up.
“It feels like this clubhouse is carrying a little bit of the attitude we had last year that we’re never out of a game and we’re resilient, and we’ve been carrying it into this season,” Muncy said. “It’s been fun to watch. The guys don’t give up. Bad things have happened, and no one’s really been down or out on themselves. Everyone’s just, ‘All right, here we go, next inning, let’s get after it.’ The whole team, top to bottom, has been doing that. It’s been making it really, really fun to play.”
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death of the teenage son of former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, authorities in Costa Rica said Wednesday night.
Randall Zúñiga, director of the Judicial Investigation Agency, said 14-year-old Miller Gardner was tested for carboxyhemoglobin, a compound generated when carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in the blood.
When carboxyhemoglobin saturation exceeds 50%, it is considered lethal. In Gardner’s case, the test showed a saturation of 64%.
“It’s important to note that adjacent to this room is a dedicated machine room, where it’s believed there may be some type of contamination toward these rooms,” Zúñiga said.
The head of the Costa Rican judicial police added that, during the autopsy, a “layer” was detected on the boy’s organs, which forms when there is a high presence of the poisonous gas.
Gardner died March 21 while staying with his family at a hotel on the Manuel Antonio beach in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific.
Asphyxiation was initially thought to have caused his death. After an autopsy was performed by the Forensic Pathology Section, that theory was ruled out.
Another line of investigation centered around whether the family had suffered food poisoning. Family members had reported feeling ill after dining at a nearby restaurant on the night of March 20 and received treatment from the hotel doctor.
Brett Gardner, 41, was drafted by the Yankees in 2005 and spent his entire major league career with the organization. The speedy outfielder batted .256 with 139 homers, 578 RBIs, 274 steals and 73 triples in 14 seasons from 2008 to 2021.