LAS VEGAS — The top four fighters competing at UFC 276 all made weight successfully Friday morning here at the UFC Apex.
Israel Adesanya weighed in at 183.5 pounds and Jared Cannonier was 184.5 pounds for their main event fight. Adesanya will defend his UFC middleweight title against Cannonier on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
In the UFC 276 co-main event, Alexander Volkanovski will defend his featherweight title against the man he took the belt from, Max Holloway. Volkanovski and Holloway both weighed in Friday morning at 144.5 pounds.
ESPN has Adesanya ranked No. 3 in the world on its pound-for-pound MMA list. At middleweight, Adesanya is ranked No. 1 and Cannonier is No. 3.
Adesanya (22-1) is undefeated in the middleweight division. The Nigerian-born New Zealand resident is coming off a unanimous decision win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 in February. Adesanya, 32, has four successful middleweight title defenses after unifying the belt with Whittaker in 2019. His lone pro MMA loss was up in weight, for the UFC light heavyweight title against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 in March 2021.
Cannonier (15-5) has won two straight and five of his past six fights. The Arizona resident is coming off a second-round knockout of Derek Brunson at UFC 271. Cannonier, 38, has finished fights in three different weight divisions: heavyweight, light heavyweight and middleweight.
Volkanovski and Holloway are two of the best featherweight fighters in UFC history. ESPN has Volkanovski ranked tied for No. 4 in the world pound-for-pound rankings, and Holloway is No. 6 on that list.
Volkanovski (24-1) has won 11 straight UFC fights and 21 in a row overall, most recently a fourth-round TKO win over “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273 in April. The Australia native has three successful title defenses after winning the belt from Holloway in 2019. Volkanovski, 33, has beaten Holloway twice, the most recent a close, split decision victory at UFC 251 in July 2020.
Holloway (23-6) has won two straight following back-to-back losses to Volkanovski. The Hawaii product beat Yair Rodriguez via unanimous decision last November. Holloway, 30, held a version of the UFC featherweight title from 2016 to 2018 with three successful title defenses.