UFC 182 features one of the biggest grudge fights in recent memory.
You know the one. Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, light heavyweights of extraordinary prowess, eliminated any doubts we had about wanting to see the fight when they engaged in fisticuffs, shoe-throwing and Sholler-tossing in the lobby of the MGM Grand.
All of that hoopla virtually guarantees that UFC 182 will have a massive audience. By the time the actual fight rolls around, footage of the brawl will be replayed roughly 125,432 times, this despite the UFC’s insistence that the brawl was somehow bad for the sport.
Bad for the sport? Perhaps. Bad for ticket and pay-per-view sales? Hardly.
The largest side benefit to that giant audience—outside of seeing Jones and Cormier put on what promises to be an evenly matched fight between two of the best fighters in the world—is the chance to see the co-main event between Donald Cerrone and Myles Jury.
Cerrone is one of the sport’s most popular and active fighters. The bout against Jury will be his sixth fight in just over a year, and he’s riding a five-fight winning streak. Historically, Cerrone has fallen off the horse just when he’s nearing the top of the ridge and peering down at a title shot.
But this time feels different.
He’s beaten three top-tier fighters during that streak: Edson Barboza, Jim Miller and Eddie Alvarez. Two of those wins were finishes. He’s fought frequently, and he appears to be improving as a fighter, which seems improbable given how long he has been around the sport. But it is true; it feels as though Cerrone is reaching the apex of his skills, and a win over Jury should earn him a title shot.
The lightweight division is filled with, as Joe Rogan so fondly growls, a bunch of killers. Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez will (knock on wood) fight in less than a month. You have Khabib Nurmagomedov and Rafael dos Anjos peering in from the outside. And then there is Cerrone, currently ranked No. 4 in the division. He’s only there because he lost to Dos Anjos, but that was well over a year ago.
That’s ancient history when you consider Cerrone‘s wins since then compared to Dos Anjos‘s record. Cerrone, as mentioned, has Alvarez and Miller and Barboza. Dos Anjos? He has a loss to Nurmagomedov and wins over Jason High and Benson Henderson. There’s just no comparison. Cerrone has the better record, hands down.
For that matter, so does Jury. The undefeated Jury has handled his career with care, scaling the skill level of his opponents up gradually. He’s 15-0 and has wins over Michael Johnson, Ramsey Nijem, Diego Sanchez and Takanori Gomi. And while that record isn’t nearly as impressive as Cerrone‘s recent ledger, it’s the zero in the loss column that means the most. Jury isn’t running up his undefeated record by facing no-name, hapless opponents the way Fedor Emelianenko did; he’s gradually moving up the ladder and facing tougher dudes each time he steps in the Octagon.
For his part, Jury feels like a title shot should be coming his way if he beats Cerrone.
“I feel like a win over Cerrone definitely puts me next in line for the title shot. And that’s what I want. A lot of people that beat Cerrone, going back to the WEC, they get title shots. Benson Henderson beats Cerrone, he gets a title shot. Jamie Varner beats Cerrone, gets a title shot,” Jury told Bleacher Report during a Thursday evening interview at the UFC offices in Las Vegas. “I feel like a win over Cerrone puts me in line for a title shot.
“And when I beat him, you better bet I’m going to be asking for that title shot. That’s where I want to go. The cat’s out of the bag now. That’s what I want. I’m willing to work for it and get it.”
Jury wants it, and he is vocal about his desire. Cerrone? He just wants to fight regularly, and he seems to care more about a constant stream of income than he does a championship opportunity. But a win over Jury, no matter how it comes, takes Cerrone‘s name out of “the mix,” as Dana White likes to say, and it puts him directly in line to face the winner of Pettis vs. Melendez.
It should, anyway. This is not a perfect world, and the UFC’s system for matching up fights is not perfect. But Cerrone‘s popularity combined with his recent record makes him a no-brainer. If he gets past Jury—and that’s no easy task—Cerrone should be the next man in line for the lightweight title.
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