Per Haljestam-USA TODAY Sports
It was a mixed night of results for the Nordic crowd at Saturday’s UFC Copenhagen event. Sure, Denmark’s Olympic hero Mark Madsen pulled off an impressive first round knockout in his surprise last minute UFC debut (watch it here!), and Nicolas Dalby also earned a decision win.
But Iceland’s Gunnar Nelson continues to struggle, and the Great Swede Hope Jack Hermansson lost his main event fight against Jared Cannonier, getting TKO’d with ground and pound early in the second round. Watch that highlight finish video here.
It was a disappointing result for a man who we’d just seen dominating Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza back in April. Just as disappointed? Hermansson himself, who released this video statement on Instagram following the loss.
”Hi guys, I just came back from the arena and as you know it did not go my way tonight,” Hermansson said. “And I just want to say that I’m terribly sorry that I couldn’t perform for you guys tonight. And thank you to everyone that has been supporting me, before, during, and after my fights. I really appreciate your love. And I promise you guys that I will get back into the gym, learn from this, grow, develop, and come back as a better fighter and give you guys a better performance next time.”
”Big congrats to my opponent Jared Cannonier, he did a great job tonight.”
Getting better was the key takeaway from his in-cage interview moments after the loss.
“I want to be the best in the world and Jared showed me I’m not the best at the moment,” he said. “I need to learn a lot.”
Hermansson drops to 20-5 and sees his 4 fight win streak end with the loss to Cannonier. His UFC record drops to 7-3. We imagine his middleweight ranking, currently at #5, is gonna take a hit after this loss to #9 ranked Cannonier.