The unexpected reboot of Donald Cerrone’s singular career continues Saturday at UFC on Fox 23.
If Cerrone can defeat Jorge Masvidal in this weekend’s co-main event, he’ll rather suddenly find himself 5-0 in the UFC welterweight division and—just maybe—knocking on the door of a title shot in a weight class where his involvement still feels like a bit of a lark.
Until the end of 2015, Cerrone had spent his entire six-year UFC run fighting at lightweight, though his unexpected move to 170 pounds was certainly not out of character for him.
This is a guy whose whole life reads like a long-form attempt to jump the Snake River on a rocket, after all.
Cerrone has been MMA’s favorite adrenaline junky for years, embodying a "laugh now, cry later" philosophy that appeals to a large cross-section of the renegade sport’s audience. Big-picture results have been mixed, but he’s currently flying as high as he ever has.
While at times his career has felt unfocused, there seems to be a tad more urgency in the 33-year-old Colorado native these days and—dare we say it—a bit more direction.
"I’m going to go whip Masvidal’s ass, call out one of these top contenders or call out [champion Tyron] Woodley and say, 'Let’s dance, baby,'" Cerrone told the camera crew during the UFC’s Road to the Octagon special prior to this event. "I’m going to go get this belt in 2017. I’m coming. It’s mine. We’re just getting warmed up."
Since decamping from lightweight, he’s fashioned himself into the 170-pound division’s most surprising championship contender. Cerrone has been astonishingly good in his new division, amassing four consecutive stoppages and winning the UFC’s performance-based fight-night bonuses three times.
He’s already No. 5 on the UFC’s official welterweight rankings. An impressive win over Masvidal Saturday could make the race to be Woodley’s next title challenger a three-horse sprint between Cerrone, Robbie Lawler (No. 2) and Demian Maia (No. 3).
Lawler hasn’t fought since losing the belt to Woodley via first-round KO at UFC 201 in July 2016, and while Maia has run off six wins in a row—including defeating fourth-ranked Carlos Condit last August—his ground-based fighting style hasn't yet earned him a championship-level push.
All that could leave the flashy and popular Cerrone free to seize No. 1 contender status if he lives up to his billing as the Masvidal fight’s slight favorite, according to OddShark.
One thing we know for sure, though: Masvidal won’t go down quietly.
The 32-year-old Floridian has had an up-and-down ride in the UFC since coming over from Strikeforce in 2013, going 8-4. But he’s earned a reputation as a hardnosed slugger, comes into this fight riding his own two-fight win streak and has made it clear he’s got a bone to pick with Cerrone.
Not only could he steal much of the Cowboy’s momentum if he can with this fight, but Masvidal told Fox Sports 1’s UFC Tonight this week he’s tired of playing second fiddle to Cerrone altogether.
"Cowboy took food from my plate twice," Masvidal said. "Twice, I had two bout agreements against top-ranked opponents. For some reason, they didn’t materialize, and they ended up giving it to Cowboy. Imagine you’re going to fight a top-ranked opponent and he gets swiped from you and given to somebody else."
While that seems like strange ground for a feud between professional fighters, a loss here could still be detrimental to Cerrone’s impromptu move to welterweight.
At first, his journey up to 170 pounds seemed like just another impulsive decision, designed to maintain his breakneck fighting schedule and keep enough money coming in to finance his daredevil lifestyle.
Sure, he’d just lost a title fight to then-lightweight champ Rafael Dos Anjos in December 2015, but Cerrone’s 155-pound fortunes were far from bleak. All told, he’d gone 8-1 in that division dating back to November 2013. He could’ve continued to be one of lightweight’s top players as long as he wanted to do it.
Jumping up a class to accept a welterweight fight against Alex Oliveira in February 2016 seemed like just a stopgap—the chance for Cerrone to make a quick buck while washing the taste of the Dos Anjos loss out of his mouth.
Turned out, though, he was really good in the new division.
Maybe even better than he ever was at lightweight.
Fast-forward four fights and it’s starting to look like Cerrone might well become a full-time resident of the welterweight class. Free from the weight cut it took for him to make the 155-pound limit, he’s looked sharp and so far has been able to hang with the competition in the larger division.
At times during his lightweight career, he was criticized for being a slow starter and was often his own worst critic after turning in the occasional clunker performance.
So far at welterweight, those flaws haven’t reared their heads, though admittedly he hasn’t yet come up against any truly elite fighters there.
Even while looking better than ever in the cage, however, Cerrone has also made some seemingly out-of-character moves outside of it.
Once the definition of a company man, he’s recently been more outspoken about how the UFC treats its fighters. In November 2016, he was part of a conference call announcing the formation of the new Mixed Martial Arts Athlete Association.
Immediately following the announcement, however, Cerrone appeared to back away from his involvement with the group.
He said he felt blindsided by some of the MMAAA’s messaging and after meeting with UFC President Dana White has been mum about what, if anything, his future involvement will be.
Around the same time, he nearly lost an eye during a hunting accident and teased the MMA world with a gruesome video of the injury—but no explanation until days later—on his official Instagram account.
Now, though, he gets the chance to put much of that uncertainty behind him.
A win over Masvidal puts Cerrone in the driver’s seat, with the potential to launch his unexpected career at welterweight higher than any Evel Knievel stunt.
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