Jared Cannonier rallies, stops Gregory Rodrigues in UFC Vegas 102 main event

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, February 15, 2025, for UFC Vegas 102, going down live from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Headlining the UFC Vegas 102 event is a middleweight encounter between no. 7 ranked former title challenger Jared Cannonier (18-8) and Gregory Rodrigues (16-6).

Cannonier, following a 4-1 run from 2021 to 2023 with victories over Kelvin Gastelum (UD), Derek Brunson (KO), no. 2 ranked former champion Sean Strickland (SD), and no. 8 ranked former title challenger Marvin Vettori (UD), only losing to Israel Adesanya in a title fight in that time, had since lost two-straight coming into tonight’s main event, suffering defeats to no. 1 ranked Nassourdine Imavov (TKO) and no. 6 ranked Caio Borralho (UD) in 2024.

Rodrigues on the other hand had gone 7-2 since joining the UFC’s roster in 2021, coming into this bout on a three-fight win streak showcasing victories over the likes of Denis Tiuliulin (KO), Brad Tavares (TKO), and Christian Leroy Duncan (UD).

Continue reading to see how our UFC Vegas 102 main event of the evening went down:

Official Result: Jared Cannonier def. Gregory Rodrigues via TKO (punches) at :21 of round four

We had a pretty wild opening round between these two; Rodrigues opened up the bout with a pair of heavy round kicks to the body before soon after landing a nasty right hand. He spent the majority of the first trying to get Cannonier out of there, securing two knockdowns through the opening five minutes.

Round two was a much different story however, Rodrigues visibly slowing down as Cannonier began to vary his attack and settle into the fight.

Rodrigues started to take the fight over again in the third, landing a wealth of heavy punches that momentarily stunned the former title challenger. Cannonier however dropped Rodrigues in the final seconds of the middle stretch and reigned down some heavy ground and pound until the bell sounded.

Cannonier came out in the fourth with ill intentions, throwing heavy leather and landing much of what he threw, dropping Rodrigues about 20 seconds in where the referee was forced to step in and stop the action; he wasn’t fully recovered after that 60 second break and it showed.

Jared Cannonier rebounds from back to back defeats with a stoppage victory over a very dangerous opponent tonight in UFC Vegas 102’s main event.

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I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That’s the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you’d like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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