Jared Cannonier is revealing the injury that forced him out of fights with Khamzat Chimaev and Roman Dolidze.

‘Submission Radio’ took to ‘X‘ with the news:

“Breaking News: Jared Cannonier reveals he was supposed to fight Khamzat at #UFC294, confirms he tore his MCL right after getting the call and is out of December fight with Roman Dolidze! Wishing Jared a successful surgery and speedy recovery!”

Included in the post was an interview with Jared Cannonier in which he stated:

Breaking News: Jared Cannonier reveals he was supposed to fight Khamzat at #UFC294, confirms he tore his MCL right after getting the call and is out of December fight with Roman Dolidze!

Wishing Jared a successful surgery and speedy recovery! 🙏

Interview
🎥:… pic.twitter.com/keaFLXol51

— Submission Radio (@SubmissionRadio) October 23, 2023

“I got the call to step in to fight Chimaev. Unfortunately, before I could tell my manager to tell the UFC ‘Yes,’ I had injured myself. So I wasn’t able to take that fight on 10 days. They called me on the 10th. They called me, offered me that fight before they offered it to Usman, they offered it to me. So it would have been me. It could have easily been me.”

Continuing ‘The Killa Gorilla’ spoke about the fight between Chimaev (13-0 MMA) and Usman (20-4 MMA):

“I cringed a little bit watching that fight.”

Jared Cannonier elaborated on the offer to fight Khamzat Chimaev:

“It was Oct. 10, I’m on my way to practice. I pull up to the MMA Lab, get ready to do some grappling practice Tuesday. And as I’m pulling in to get ready to get out, I get a call from my manager that’s saying, ‘Hey, Costa’s out. They’re offering you the opportunity to come in, and you win, you get the title fight,’ which has been my stance from the start. When they asked me after I broke that record in June, will you fight Khamzat to welcome him to the division? I’m like, ‘No, not to welcome him to the division. I’ll fight him for my title shot.’ He’s not a middleweight. He’s not a ranked middleweight. He doesn’t get me to the title shot. That’s why I just got through fighting the No. 3 middleweight in Marvin Vettori. Now if you ask me, ‘Would you fight him for a title shot?’ Hell yeah, I’ll fight him for a title shot. And that’s what I said in that interview.”

Speaking of the injury that caused him to decline the fight with Chimaev, the 39-year-old said:

“So finally, 10 days before the fight, they give me the call—11 days before the fight they give me the call and say, ‘OK, we’ll give you a title shot. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. But let me go ahead and discuss this with my coaches like we always do and I’ll call you back with an emphatical yes.’ But not 40 minutes into practice, we’re working, I get hit with a mat return. I’m getting up, we’re working get-ups and stuff—Of course we’re working get-ups, right? Because I’m not expecting to not get taken down by Khamzat. I’m expecting that this guy’s going to be able to take me down, but he’s not going to be able to keep me down. And the answer in my mind is always no, they’re never able to keep me down, and he ain’t no different. So that’s why I was working get-ups—And I got up, I got hit with a mat return. And when I hit the mat, I hit the mat in the way to where my left hip and my right foot hit the mat at the same time and just the downward force of me hitting the ground in that manner went right to my MCL, tore the MCL. I got the MRI, verified it. So this opportunity had slipped me by. Not only an hour after receiving the opportunity, does it slip through my hands in that manner. Did the MRI, I’m scheduled to have surgery on it this Thursday actually. So the fight in December is not going to happen.”

The fight Jared Cannonier is alluding to was to take place on Saturday, December 2nd at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas where he would meet Roman Dolidze (12-2 MMA) in a middleweight bout.

Once back in action again, who would you like to see Jared Cannonier fight?

Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!