Gregory Rodrigues Believes Jared Cannonier is 'Paying a Price' for String of Tough Fights

Coming off three consecutive victories, Gregory Rodrigues has already arrived in Las Vegas to headline his first UFC card against Jared Cannonier at the UFC Apex.

“The camp couldn't be better,” Rodrigues told Sherdog.com. “I arrived in Las Vegas Monday night with Vicente Luque and my boxing coach, Dietter Navarro. Tonight [Gilbert Burns] is coming and tomorrow, Henri [Hooft]. Now I´m 100% focused on the weight cut and recovering even better.”

The Brazilian known as “Robocop” theorized as to why he received such a prominent name despite not being in the UFC’s middleweight rankings.

“I think the UFC likes to recognize hard workers,” he said. “After I accepted a short-notice call to face Leroy Duncan in Manchester, they offered me Ikram Aliskerov in December. I said yes, but he refused. I asked for [Paulo Costa], but he didn’t want the fight. Then they offered Roman Dolidze. I accepted; he didn’t. When the UFC came up with Cannonier, who has already been part of five main events, I couldn’t think of any better recognition for my hard work.”

Rodrigues is optimistic as he prepares to face the toughest test of his career to date.

“Cannonier deserves all respect,” Rodrigues said. “This guy already fought in three diferent divisions and faced champions like Anderson Silva, Glover Teixeira, Jan Blachowicz, Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya. But I believe he is naturally paying a price for all those wars and of course, he is 40 years old. I’m prepared for a five-round war against the best version of Cannonier, but of course my goal is to knock him out or submit before that.”

Rodrigues also talked about the importance of sparring with some of the top talents at welterweight and light heavyweight recently.

“The secret to evolution is to never stay in your comfort zone,” he said. “Last year I trained with Glover and [Alex Pereira]. It was such a great experience for me. In my own academy I have names like ‘Durinho,’ [Shavkat] Rakmonov, [Nassourdine] Imavov. When I train jiu-jitsu with my coach, Vagner Rocha, I [also] train with [Antonio Carlos Jr. and Marcus Almeida]. When you face challenges of that level every day, you have no reason to fear any opponent.”