If 170-pound “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone wins his mixed martial arts (MMA) fight on Saturday morning (June 23, 2018) in Singapore, he’ll be the winningest fighter in the history of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
That would require the “pissed off” Jackson-Wink staple to overcome the welterweight fists of streaking British contender Leon Edwards, who looks to keep Cerrone at win No. 20, where he remains tied with former middleweight champions Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva.
Pretty good company as far as I’m concerned.
Of those 20 wins, 14 have come by way of knockout or submission (like this one), which leaves him tied with Silva and former two-division champion Vitor Belfort. With that in mind, finishing “Rocky” this weekend will put Cerrone in a class by himself.
That probably won’t come as a surprise when you consider that Edwards will be his 28th opponent since crossing over from World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) in early 2011 and Cerrone (33-10, 1 NC) went on to average four fights per year from 2013-16.
He pulled off five fights in 2011 for a record of 4-1.
Most of his wins came in the lightweight division and it looked as if “Cowboy” was going to replicate that success when he eventually jumped up to the 170-pound weight class, thanks to four straight victories with four violent finishes. But then came a crushing loss to Jorge Masvidal at UFC on FOX 23, part of a dreadful three-fight losing streak.
The good news for Cerrone is that he was able to get back into the win column last February by turning away welterweight fan favorite Yancy Medeiros at UFC Fight Night 126, the fifth time he’s headlined a UFC fight card.
It’s unlikely we’ll ever see Cerrone, 35, hold a division title. As dynamic as he is inside the Octagon, his commitment to combat sports has never really been his No. 1 priority, courtesy of an extreme lifestyle that has the self-described adrenaline junkie cheating death at every turn (and cheating on his diet).
But at least he was always good for a quote.
“If I was to fight Conor McGregor and he gets on public TV and talks shit, that wouldn’t fly with me,” Cerrone told Chael Sonnen. “Hopefully he talks shit and I slap the shit out of him, pump the pay-per-views up and I make four million dollars.”
Remember when four million dollars sounded like a big deal? A lot has changed between then and now, but one thing that remains the same is the fan-friendly fighting style of “Cowboy” Cerrone, and I think I speak for a lot of fans when I say “thank god.”
To see who else is fighting at UFC Singapore click here.