In the paper a new fuzzy adaptive cancellation control scheme is presented and compared with the model-reference adaptive control. The basic part of the fuzzy adaptive cancellation controller is the inverse fuzzy model which is given in the form of the fuzzy relational matrix. The comparison has been evaluated by the implementation on the real temperature pilot plant, which exhibits a nonlinear and time-varying character. It is shown that in the case of mutable processes the adaptive fuzzy cancellation controller is superior to the classical model-reference adaptive control.