Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
Fight of the Decade contender on deck right here!
There are always a ton of exciting match ups for both Donald Cerrone and Justin Gaethje, though you’d be hard-pressed to find one better than pairing up two of the most glorious, action-first fighters any weight class has ever seen.
Fortunately, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has done just that for its upcoming UFC Fight Night 158 card (a.k.a. UFC on ESPN+ 16) inside Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Sept., 14, 2019.
First reported by Kevin Iole, this is one of the dream match ups that fans have salivated for since “The Highlight” came over from World Series of Fighting (now Professional Fighter’s League) back in 2017. The announcement drops mere hours after Cerrone, 36, dangled that a fight was in the works with an “old buddy.”
While speculation ran rampant online, this particular fight came mostly out of left field, and quickly tossed water on rumors of “Cowboy” (36-12, 1 NC) fighting Diego Sanchez, Frankie Edgar, Mike Perry or even Max Holloway. Of note, this isn’t exactly a short-notice bout, given that we’ve got to wait until Sept. 14 for this to go down, which is probably a good thing, given the fractured orbital he suffered at the fists of Tony Ferguson.
Cerrone’s loss to “El Cucuy” snapped a three-fight win streak.
As for Gaethje, 30, he’s riding high after scoring back-to-back knockout wins over James Vick and Edson Barboza, pushing his record to 20-2 with 18 finishes.
Here are some fun stats regarding the two combatants:
While Cerrone holds the counting numbers — most knockdowns in UFC history (20); second most significant strikes in UFC history by an active fighter (1518, behind Max Holloway), Gaethje tops the charts by a wide margin in the “Strikes landed per minute” category, an eye-popping 8.5, which is a full 20 percent higher than second-place Shane Burgos.
Expect more UFC: “Vancouver” fight card announcements in the coming weeks.