Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, arguably one of the most polarizing lightweights in the sport right now, makes his return to the Octagon after a second-round victory by rear-naked choke at UFC 126 over Paul Kelly to contend with masterful jiu-jitsu ace and Pablo Popovitch-prospect Vagner Rocha.
Now fans of the Mixed Martial Arts brand of combat sports know that you don’t have a true Donald Cerrone fight unless Donald Cerrone is talking a little bit of smack, and even though he called out Cole Miller, then exchanged benevolent malevolence with Mac Danzig and has to now contend with Rocha, Cerrone has made us a proud sports community by not keeping his big mouth shut about Rocha.
If there’s one other thing we all know about Cerrone, it’s that he can back it up inside the cage.
So with that said, is there any way for Cerrone to take home another win without the judges robbing Rocha?
It’s Mixed Martial Arts—of course there is, but Cerrone’s not getting the win by smiling and showing up to the arena.
He’s said before that this isn’t a championship jiu-jitsu competition—this is a sanctioned three-round bout consisting of three five-minute rounds, but we don’t know enough about Rocha to know that he’s only capable of that one aspect of the fight.
If he is, but all fights stay standing, then Cerrone needs to use his mastery of the horizontal scrap to expose the alleged lack of striking or the existent-yet-inferior striking of Rocha.
Once he has Rocha in a bad spot, then he can try to beat Rocha at his own game and take the fight to the ground, but we still don’t know enough about Rocha to know if he has a good takedown defense level or if he knows any ability in the wrestling field.
Provided he does have good enough takedown defense, Cerrone should prepare to hit Rocha with everything including the kitchen sink and the dishwasher just to get a win.
I’ve always said that anytime one signs a fight, that involves walking from a backstage area to a cage or ring and walking up steps to get inside the cage or the ring, just so they can try and beat up someone that legally has 15 minutes to punch a hole in their face, the fight is probably going to be a difficult fight.
Cerrone is a warrior for sure, but he should expect Rocha to be as difficult as Jamie Varner or Ed Ratcliff were for him when Cerrone faces Rocha this Saturday night in Vancouver.
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