Jared Cannonier has made his feelings extremely clear following his controversial loss to Nassourdine Imavov.
Cannonier met Imavov in the main event of Saturday's (June 8), with the bout ending in somewhat of a controversial fashion when referee, Jason Herzog, to step in and call and end to proceedings whilst both men were exchanging heavy strikes in the fourth round, as they had throughout their Middleweight contest.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on Tuesday's (June 10) The MMA Hour, Cannionier revealed just how devastated he was at the result. He said:
"Well, you know, when it happened it was gut wrenching, to say the least. It definitely took some time to collect myself, had to go back and rewatch the fight and really relive the whole thing all over again and it was really gut wrenching. Feels like the opportunity to do great things was pretty much stolen from me, stolen from me in that moment.
"It's just something that as fighters, we win and we lose and then we have to live with it, and it's definitely not fun. (It) Doesn't get any easier every time, but it doesn't feel like I lost the fight, it just felt like it was taken from me, you know what I mean? The opportunity to persevere, which is one thing I've done in a lot of my fights, and continue on and try to make good on the fight.
"You know what I mean? So gut wrenching is an understatement."
The 'Killa Goriliia' admitted that he has watched the contest back several times in a bid to try and understand how and why the stoppage came about. Although confirming that he was stunned by one of Imavov's big shots, he felt as though he was still in the fight and doing enough to intelligently defend himself:
"When I watched that final sequence, when he hit me with the shot, it was a good shot and definitely took my equilibrium away but I was definitely in recovery mode. I had my wits about me, I was able to create some distance and then turn to face my opponent and he of course, he did everything he was supposed to do. He kept the pressure on and tried to mount a good offense to try to finish the fight but I was still there, my hands were up, I was covering up most of those shots, especially in the final sequence.
"I even threw a counterstrike, a nice clean counterstrike that I think landed and then I put my hands right back up to defend for whatever was coming next and that's when the ref stepped in. Definitely the absolute worst time for him to step in right after I throw a shot, you know, I'm competently defending myself, you know what I mean? I'm my eyes are clear, I'm looking at my opponent, I’m creating space.
"So it is frustrating as hell to go back and watch it every time. You know, I watched it like seven or eight times and it's frustrating as hell every time, you know. I feel like I was definitely winning that fight up until that point and also was definitely getting some momentum in that fight in those late in the later moments of the fight."
Not only is Cannonier disappointed with the result because of how it came about, but always the way in which he feels it could affect his momentum moving forward and that his opportunity to win was taken away.
"It just sucks for everybody that we have to go through this, especially when it was the main event, it was a ranked middleweight fight. Again, I was the one who was put more at risk by taking this fight. You know what I mean? So all that just came right to the forefront of it, you know?
"You know, at that moment, all of that was just taken away. Everything that I have, all the momentum that I had built up to this point, trying to get to the title fight coming off of that win against Vettori last year, trying to keep that momentum going .Again, I was winning this fight up until that point. On the scorecards, I was winning.
"Then just everything I put in, everything that I went through throughout this camp, this wasn't an easy camp for me. You know? Yeah. So it just really sucks to go through this right now."
Watch the full interview with Helwani below:
