Here’s what you may have missed!
Gregory Rodrigues dwarfed Jared Cannonier at UFC Vegas 102 last night (Sat., Feb. 15, 2025) inside the promotion’s newly-renovated APEX venue in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Take a moment to appreciate the absurd size difference. Cannonier made his UFC debut as a Heavyweight and was talented enough to compete for Middleweight gold; nevertheless, “Robo Cop” was clearly the larger man in terms of height and musculature. Those advantages in size and strength were apparent in the opening five minutes, as Rodrigues was able to bully his veteran opponent around the cage and knock him down multiple times.
Watch complete “Cannonier vs. Robo Cop” highlights here.
Being massive for any division is an advantage, but there are drawbacks that usually become apparent over time. In Rodrigues’ case, he entered the second without much left in the gas tank. Obviously, the man is in absolute tremendous physical shape, but it’s equally clear that he cuts an ungodly amount of weight.
Cutting that much weight is a huge drain on a fighter’s conditioning. It slows their punches more quickly and digs into their ability to recover. Case in point, Rodrigues took the whole second round off and still wasn’t able to throw hard enough in round three to hurt Cannonier.
The snap was gone.
Often, cutting vast amounts of weight works until it doesn’t. Fighters feel unstoppable until suddenly they suffer a bad loss. It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and time again, and hopefully, Rodrigues accepts the consequences of this defeat, because there’s a fairly obvious solution: it’s time to jump to Light Heavyweight.
First and foremost, Rodrigues is obviously strong and powerful enough to compete at 205 pounds. He’s 6’3” with bulging muscles, a noted sparring partner of Alex Pereira! He may not have a physical edge over everyone he meets anymore, but he also won’t look weak either.
Better yet, Light Heavyweight is a weaker division than Middleweight. Rodrigues’ ground skills will be even more valuable against the many 205-pounders who have no idea how to wrestle. It’s generally a thinner division too, meaning a path to the title can usually be managed with fewer consecutive wins (see “Poatan,” Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos).
Ultimately, a move to Light Heavyweight would see Rodrigues trade his usual strength advantage for an edge in quickness, a better gas tank, and more effective ground attack. There’s no guarantee he’ll be able to break into the title mix in that class, but his efforts were just thoroughly shut down at Middleweight.
A jump in class gives him a fresh start to build momentum, and he won’t have to kill himself just for the opportunity to get into bloody wars.
For complete UFC Vegas 102 results and play-by-play, click here.