MMA Legacy 8.31.09: Donald Cerrone
Posted by Bill Wannop on 08.31.2009
With the postponement of WEC 43, MMA Legacy will still examine an emerging young star in the WEC, Donald Cerrone. From his war with Rob McCullough to his battle with Jamie Varner, Legacy relives the growing career of The Cowboy! Plus UFC 102 thoughts!
Each and every week MMA Legacy shines the spotlight on a MMA legend. The legends may be retired or may be still actively competing. The column will begin with a bio on the selected legend following his career throughout its highs and lows. This week I wanted to shine the spotlight on a WEC fighter with WEC 43 occurring on September 2. However the event has now been postponed to October 10. I decided to still do a column on a WEC fighter to help give the organization some exposure. I have only recently had the opportunity to see the past 2 events (living in Canada, and not having easy access to the channel that airs the events), and they have been quite amazing. So this week we will focus on "The Cowboy" Donald Cerrone!
Early Life
Donald Cerrone was born on March 29, 1983 (making him 26 years old today) in Colorado Springs. When he was younger he started training and competing in Muay Thai kickboxing, in Commerence City, Colorado at the Freedom Fighters Gym. He was quite successful as a kickboxer and actually won all of his first 25 Muay Thai bouts. When he discovered that there may be a career in MMA he moved to Greg Jackson's Gym where he trained with Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt, Keith Jardine, GSP and Leonard Garcia Jackson's Submission Fighting Gaidojutsu school in Albuquerque New Mexico. He gained notable popularity on the reailty series TapOut.
MMA
His first MMA fight was on February 11, 2006 at ROF 21 Full Blast against Nate Mohr. Donald was able to win the fight rather easily with a triangle choke in 1:42 of the first round. He then would fight Cruz Chacon at ACF: genesis two weeks later. Cerrone would again utilize the triangle choke and score a submission victory at 2:25 of the second round.
third fight in his career came on June 17, 2006 when Cerrone took on Craig Tennant at ROF 24: Integrity. Cerrone would use the skills he had learned training with Greg Jackson and finished the fight quickly again in the first round by submission this time by arm bar, to put his MMA record at a perfect 3-0.
In Cerrone's next 4 fights, he would continue to dominate and plow through his opponents. First, he faced Jesse Brock at ROF 26: Relentless and again utilized the triangle choke for the first round submission victory. He would then finish off Ryan Roberts by an armbar submission in the first round at ROF 28: evolution and force Anthony Njokuani to tap at ROF 29: ftershock with a triangle choke in the first round, as well as Youunori Kanehara also with a triangle choke at GCM: Cage Force 3 to bring his MMA record to 7-0.
WEC Following all these impressive victories Donald caught the eye of the WEC, where he would be given the opportunity to show how good he really was by taking a step up in competition. His first fight would be at WEC 30 against Kenneth Alexander on September 5, 2007. The fight was a preliminary fight and was not aired on the broadcast but Cerrone continued his dominance by submitting Alexander with a triangle neck crank in less than 1 minute. After the fight however, the NSAC overturned the decision due to Cerrone testing positive for a banned substance in hydrobhlorothiazide, which is a diuretic commonly used to cut weight. The fight was ruled a no contest, and Cerrone was suspended for 8 months.
It would be 9 months before Cerrone had his next contest inside of the cage due to the suspension he received from taking the banned substance. He returned against Danny Castillo at WEC 3. In the fight Cerrone would come out aggressive which would allow Castillo to take the fight to the ground. On the ground Cerrone would move to rubber guard and attempt an arm bar which Castillo initially avoided. However Castillo would make a mistake by posturing up and attempting to land some punches on Cerrone, who would catch the arm and catch an arm bar causing Castillo to quickly submit, giving Cerrone another victory and moving him to 8-0 with 1 no contest.
Cerrone would finally get his first real challenge when he faced off against Rob McCullough at WEC 36. In what many fans have called the most slept on fight in WEC history, Donald Cerrone was taken to the limit by McCullough and won a unanimous decision victory. Although Cerrone was dropped by McCullough in the fight, he was still able to out point McCullough to remain undefeated. To the anger of fans, the fight was not aired on the television portion of the broadcast.
After the victory over McCullough, Cerrone was given a lightweight title shot at champion Jamie Varner at WEC 38. This was the toughest challenge to date for Cerrone and in the opening rounds he was getting punished by Varner. At the end of the second round as Varner went for a takedown, he found himself caught in a tight triangle. Time expires in the round however possibly saving the title. In the third round, Varner did more damage to the messed up face of Cerrone. Both men showed mutual respect throughout the fight, hugging at the start of the championship rounds. In the fifth round that respect would change however, as Cerrone would get a takedown and look to do some damage to Varner. Varner attempted to scramble to his feet and in the midst of the scramble gets caught with an illegal knee. The knee does not seem to hit that cleanly but Varner appears to not be in a good place and tells the officials that he is seeing double. Since the knee to a grounded opponent was not an intentional foul but it stopped the fight, the rule states that the officials shall go to the score cards for the decision. Varner would end up getting the split decision victory. It was alter revealed that in the fight Varner had sustained a broken hand as well as a broken foot, and many fight fans thought that Varner was simply looking for a way out of the fight.
Following the fight Cerrone bounced back with a victory over James Krause at WEC 41 by way of rear naked choke submission in the last minute of the first round. This would earn him a rematch with Varner for the lightweight title to be held at a future date. However right before Varner was to return to training, the doctors told him that his fractured hand was not healing properly. They also stated that the injuries from the fight with Cerrone could possibly end Varner's career.
Due to the uncertainty with the status of Jamie Varner the WEC scheduled a interim lightweight title fight to be held at WEC 43 on September 2 against Ben Henderson. However the event has since be postponed due to an injury to Henderson and is now scheduled to take place on October 10, 2009.
Future Outlook
Donald Cerrone has simply dominated in every single fight with the exception of the fight with Varner. He has ended 8 of his 12 fights in the first round, with 9 of those wins coming by way of submission. He has the look and the attitude to be a major star in an organization, and when the fight with Henderson takes place, I look for him to defeat him just as easily as most of his other opponents. This should set up the huge rematch between Varner and Cerrone (if Varner is able to return to fighting) which I feel Cerrone will learn from his previous performance and come out victorious.
UFC 102 Thoughts Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brandon Vera
This was a decent fight with Krzysztof being aggressive right off the bat and paying for it with a huge body kick from Vera. From there Krzysztof was less aggressive and Vera just picked him apart with the striking and Krzysztof really had no answer. This fight showed that Krzysztof has a long way still to go as he truly looked outclassed here. Vera earned the unanimous decision victory, but in the upper echelon of the light heavyweight division I don't see him winning.
Enjoyment Rating **
Chris Leben vs. Josh Rosholt Round one was a close round, and not too exciting as both men were hesitant to engage due to the others skill set. Rosholt didn't want to get caught by a big shot from Leben and Leben didn't want to get taken down by Roseholt. Same story in the second round, although Leben was able to land some shots and Rosholt a takedown. In the third Rosholt immediately gets a takedown, and transitions beautifully to an arm triangle putting Leben to sleep for the victory. Roseholt looked impressive in the victory as he held his own in the striking and finished the fight with a nice transition on the ground. Leben is still very one dimensional constantly looking for that knockout shot, and I see him being stuck in thegatekeeper role for awhile.
Enjoyment Rating **1/2
Nate Marquardt vs. Demian Maia
Maia came out with an impressive attempt at a head kick, trying to show everyone that he had been working on his striking. As soon as Joe Rogan commented on that he goes for a knee or another head kick and is knocked out in midair by Nate. Maia then crashes to the mat smashing his face on the ground, further knocking him silly. Maia showed that he truly is one dimensional and as long as the fight is standing is in danger, while Nate showed his power. I do think that they should have a matchup between Nate and Henderson to see who is the number one contender (which would allow Silva to have another fight at light heavyweight!).
Enjoyment Rating ***
Tim Hague vs. Todd Duffee
Another fight were you can see the whole thing in that one GIF. No touch of gloves to start and Todd Duffee just destroys Tim Hague, first knocking him down with a jab and pounding him out. He gets a new UFC record with a 7 second knockout, and looked like a beast. Looking forward to his next fight!
Enjoyment Rating ***
Thiago Silva vs. Keith Jardine
To me this fight answered no questions that we didn't already know about both fighters. Thiago Silva is aggressive and hits hard, and Keith Jardine has a suspect chin and he wilts against truly aggressive fighters. Although Thiago Silva's only loss is against Lyoto Machida, he has not fought anyone impressive, and I hope he gets a top fighter for his next opponent, possibly Forrest Griffin, or Lil Nog.
Enjoyment Rating ***
Ed Herman vs. Aaron Simpson
This was a fast paced great fight in the first round with Aaron Simpson looking like a monster mixing up the standup and wrestling. He still showed his extreme inexperience on the ground, putting himself in danger of armbar and triangles every time he got on top. Herman injured his knee during one of Simpson's takedowns, but I don't think the outcome of the fight would have changed. Simpson needs to work on his top game before he faces a really good BJJ fighter.
Enjoyment Rating ***
Randy Couture vs. Minotauro Nogueira This was a good back and forth fight with Nogueira really looking impressive here. It was pretty even in the first round with Nogueira taking some shots, until he connected, dropping Randy and almost submitting him with a choke. The second round Couture took the fight to the ground, where I thought he would simply smother Nogueira, however Nogueira executed an awesome sweep, going from being in full guard to being in mount and raining down punishment. In the third Nogueira just poured it on, again connecting with a punch that buckled Couture, and controlling on the ground. simply amazing fight from Nogueira who completely dominated Couture. I think the size disadvantage at heavyweight is rearing its ugly head again for Couture. He simply was too small for Nogueira especially on the ground where Nogueira seemed to toss Couture around while sweeping him. While Couture finished the fight, I hope he drops back down to Light Heavyweight so he is not so disadvantaged against the much bigger heavyweights.
Enjoyment Rating ****
All in all it was a good event with lost of clean decisive finishes, and a war of a main event. As noted in the title of the column, it was a bad night to be a fighter from Portland as all hometown fighters lost (Ed Herman, Chris Leben, Randy Couture)
Various News
UFC in Vancouver in 2010
This makes me happy being Canadian and living on the Western part of Canada. MMA is hugely popular in Canada and they will no doubt sell out any arena in Vancouver. Plus Canadian fans in my opinion are very vocal and understand and appreciate all aspects of the MMA game (takedowns, ground game), which mainly comes from the popularity of wrestling and the WWE. It is a smart business move and the crowd in Vancouver should be red hot. This will hopefully lead to more events happening in the future!
Brett Rogers vs. Fedor(presented by M1) To Headline the Next Strikeforce Event Possibly In November
Wow, this fight should be short and sweet! After the UFC-Fedor (presented by M1) fiasco I am sure a lot of people want to see Rogers knock Fedor's head off. I think of all possible opponents that this is the most dangerous fight for Fedor(presented by M1). You have a large, powerful striker who has only been out of the first round 2 times in 10 fights. Nobody has a clue about his ground game and as long as he is not training his ground game with Houston Alexander he should at least have some skills. I will give credit to Strikeforce by not going the Kimbo route and putting Fedor(presented by M1) in there with nobodies to ‘build him up' as you never know what is going to happen in the cage. If Fedor(presented by M1) beats Rogers then Strikeforce wins as Fedor (presented by M1) would have beaten a hard hitting monster, but also if Rogers beats Fedor(presented by M1) then Strikeforce also wins as they now have marketable new name fighter who has beaten Arlovski and Fedor(presented by M1) back to back. Personally I am picking Rogers in this fight for the upset to become the new god of MMA.
Well that does it for another week. Next week we will examine the legacy of a fighter who may be on his way out of the UFC and has a huge test at UFC Fight Night in Roger Huerta.
Each and every week MMA Legacy shines the spotlight on a MMA legend. The legends may be retired or may be still actively competing. The column will begin with a bio on the selected legend following his career throughout its highs and lows. This week I wanted to shine the spotlight on a WEC fighter with WEC 43 occurring on September 2. However the event has now been postponed to October 10. I decided to still do a column on a WEC fighter to help give the organization some exposure. I have only recently had the opportunity to see the past 2 events (living in Canada, and not having easy access to the channel that airs the events), and they have been quite amazing. So this week we will focus on "The Cowboy" Donald Cerrone!
third fight in his career came on June 17, 2006 when Cerrone took on Craig Tennant at ROF 24: Integrity. Cerrone would use the skills he had learned training with Greg Jackson and finished the fight quickly again in the first round by submission this time by arm bar, to put his MMA record at a perfect 3-0.
Following all these impressive victories Donald caught the eye of the WEC, where he would be given the opportunity to show how good he really was by taking a step up in competition. His first fight would be at WEC 30 against Kenneth Alexander on September 5, 2007. The fight was a preliminary fight and was not aired on the broadcast but Cerrone continued his dominance by submitting Alexander with a triangle neck crank in less than 1 minute. After the fight however, the NSAC overturned the decision due to Cerrone testing positive for a banned substance in hydrobhlorothiazide, which is a diuretic commonly used to cut weight. The fight was ruled a no contest, and Cerrone was suspended for 8 months.
Cerrone would finally get his first real challenge when he faced off against Rob McCullough at WEC 36. In what many fans have called the most slept on fight in WEC history, Donald Cerrone was taken to the limit by McCullough and won a unanimous decision victory. Although Cerrone was dropped by McCullough in the fight, he was still able to out point McCullough to remain undefeated. To the anger of fans, the fight was not aired on the television portion of the broadcast.
After the victory over McCullough, Cerrone was given a lightweight title shot at champion Jamie Varner at WEC 38. This was the toughest challenge to date for Cerrone and in the opening rounds he was getting punished by Varner. At the end of the second round as Varner went for a takedown, he found himself caught in a tight triangle. Time expires in the round however possibly saving the title. In the third round, Varner did more damage to the messed up face of Cerrone. Both men showed mutual respect throughout the fight, hugging at the start of the championship rounds. In the fifth round that respect would change however, as Cerrone would get a takedown and look to do some damage to Varner. Varner attempted to scramble to his feet and in the midst of the scramble gets caught with an illegal knee. The knee does not seem to hit that cleanly but Varner appears to not be in a good place and tells the officials that he is seeing double. Since the knee to a grounded opponent was not an intentional foul but it stopped the fight, the rule states that the officials shall go to the score cards for the decision. Varner would end up getting the split decision victory. It was alter revealed that in the fight Varner had sustained a broken hand as well as a broken foot, and many fight fans thought that Varner was simply looking for a way out of the fight.
Round one was a close round, and not too exciting as both men were hesitant to engage due to the others skill set. Rosholt didn't want to get caught by a big shot from Leben and Leben didn't want to get taken down by Roseholt. Same story in the second round, although Leben was able to land some shots and Rosholt a takedown. In the third Rosholt immediately gets a takedown, and transitions beautifully to an arm triangle putting Leben to sleep for the victory. Roseholt looked impressive in the victory as he held his own in the striking and finished the fight with a nice transition on the ground. Leben is still very one dimensional constantly looking for that knockout shot, and I see him being stuck in thegatekeeper role for awhile.
This was a good back and forth fight with Nogueira really looking impressive here. It was pretty even in the first round with Nogueira taking some shots, until he connected, dropping Randy and almost submitting him with a choke. The second round Couture took the fight to the ground, where I thought he would simply smother Nogueira, however Nogueira executed an awesome sweep, going from being in full guard to being in mount and raining down punishment. In the third Nogueira just poured it on, again connecting with a punch that buckled Couture, and controlling on the ground. 
simply amazing fight from Nogueira who completely dominated Couture. I think the size disadvantage at heavyweight is rearing its ugly head again for Couture. He simply was too small for Nogueira especially on the ground where Nogueira seemed to toss Couture around while sweeping him. While Couture finished the fight, I hope he drops back down to Light Heavyweight so he is not so disadvantaged against the much bigger heavyweights. 
