Exclusive: "That's the nature of the sport" - Jared Cannonier shares take on Dana White's 'Dricus Du Plessis missed his opportunity' comments

UFC middleweight Jared Cannonier has weighed on UFC CEO Dana White's recent comments on the possibility of Dricus Du Plessis getting a title shot.

'Stillknocks' scored the biggest victory of his career at UFC 290 when he defeated Robert Whittaker via TKO in the second round. The 29-year-old was expected to make a quick turnaround to fight Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title at UFC 293. However, the South African had surgery to attend to and could not compete on the card.

This did not sit well with White, who said that fighters should not turn down an opportunity to compete for a UFC title.

In an exclusive interview with James Lynch for Sportskeeda MMA, Jared Cannonier shared his thoughts on the UFC CEO's remarks and said:

"Well, that's the nature of the sport. We've seen that play out. If you get injured, UFC isn't gonna be like, 'Okay, let's wait for him because you know, he did this in his last fight.' UFC essentially rolls on, you'll still be in better standing than you were before but you know what I'm saying, that's a commonality, right? The same thing goes with me, you know what I mean? If I miss this opportunity, who knows if it's gonna come again, right? So, I can't just be like, 'I'll fight you and then hopefully, the title will be waiting in the wings for me as soon as I'm finished.'"

Check out Jared Cannonier's comments from the interview below (19:50):

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Jared Cannonier reacts to Dana White's thoughts about Sean Strickland vs. Israel Adesanya 2

Sean Strickland pulled off a huge upset by defeating Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title at UFC 293. At the post-event press conference, Dana White stated that he was open to the idea of a rematch between the two headliners.

Watch the video below from 6:00:

In the exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Jared Cannonier stated his disagreement with Dana White's comments and said that he should be next in line for the belt:

"I would say I was in disagreement at the initial thought of the idea. I still don't feel like that performance warrants a rematch... I feel like me and Strickland will be the next fight to make because I recently have a win over him. I've definitely improved since my fight against him. So, I've been on the up, I've been on the incline." [from 5:08 onwards]