LAS VEGAS – The top four fighters competing in UFC 276 successfully weighed in at the UFC summit on Friday morning.
Israel Adesania weighed in at 183.5 pounds and Jared Cannonier weighed in at 184.5 pounds. Adesanya will defend his UFC middleweight title against Cannonier at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night.
In the UFC 276 co-main event, Alexander Volkanowski will defend his featherweight title from which he took the belt, Max Holloway. Both Volkanowski and Holloway weighed 144.5 pounds on Friday morning.
ESPN is ranked No. 3 in the world in the Pound-for-Pound MMA list. In middleweight, Adesanya is at No. 1 and Canonier is at No. 3.
Adesanya (22-1) is undefeated in the middleweight division. The New Zealand player of Nigerian descent is looking for a unanimous victory over Robert Whitaker in UFC 271 in February. Adesan, 32, has won four successful middleweight titles in 2019 after combining belts with Whitaker. In March 2021, he lost his only Pro MMA to the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 259.
Canonier (15-5) has won two straight and five of the last six games. The Arizona native is descending from a second-round knockout from Derek Branson at UFC 271. Canonier, 38, finished the fight in three different weight divisions: heavyweight, light heavyweight and middleweight.
Volkanowski and Holloway are two of the best featherweight fighters in UFC history. ESPN ranks Volkanowski 4th in the world pound-per-pound rankings and Holloway ranks 6th on that list.
Volkanovski (24-1) has won 11 straight UFC fights and 21 overall, most recently in the fourth round at UFC 273 in April, TKO defeated “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. The Australian native has won three successful titles since winning the belt from Holloway in 2019. Volkanowski, 33, has beaten Holloway twice, most recently winning a close, split decision in UFC 251 in July 2020.
Holloway (23-6) suffered two consecutive defeats to Volkanowski. Hawaii Products defeated Yair Rodriguez by a unanimous decision last November. Holloway, 30, took the UFC Featherweight title with three successful title defenses from 2016 to 2018.