Robbie Lawler (28-11, 1 NC) did enough to get past Donald Cerrone (32-9, 1 NC). For the first time since July 2016, Lawler stepped inside the Octagon. His welterweight tilt with “Cowboy” served as the second bout on the UFC 214 main card. Both men were looking to rebound off losses. Lawler wasted little time […]
Robbie Lawler (28-11, 1 NC) did enough to get past Donald Cerrone (32-9, 1 NC). For the first time since July 2016, Lawler stepped inside the Octagon. His welterweight tilt with “Cowboy” served as the second bout on the UFC 214 main card. Both men were looking to rebound off losses. Lawler wasted little time […]
On paper, Robbie Lawler vs. Donald Cerrone has the makings of a “Fight of the Year” candidate. “Cowboy” agrees. Tonight (July 29), Cerrone and Lawler will mix it up inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The welterweight tilt will be featured on the main card of UFC 214. During a recent media session, Cerrone […]
On paper, Robbie Lawler vs. Donald Cerrone has the makings of a “Fight of the Year” candidate. “Cowboy” agrees. Tonight (July 29), Cerrone and Lawler will mix it up inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The welterweight tilt will be featured on the main card of UFC 214. During a recent media session, Cerrone […]
The greatest fighter in MMA history finally returns to the cage Saturday at UFC 214.
Jon Jones isn’t playing around, either. The animosity between him and current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has always seemed real, but Jones is …
The greatest fighter in MMA history finally returns to the cage Saturday at UFC 214.
Jon Jones isn’t playing around, either. The animosity between him and current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has always seemed real, but Jones is done trying to laugh it off. There’s no better way for the GOAT to return than against his bitterest rival, who happens never to have lost to anyone but Jones.
The main event is a blockbuster, but so is the rest of the main card. There are three—count ’em—three title fights on the slate Saturday in Anaheim, California. And that’s to say nothing of Donald Cerrone vs. Robbie Lawler.
So let’s now take a look at the pay-per-view portion of UFC 214 and make some picks with the Bleacher Report MMA staff predictions team: Nathan McCarter, Steven Rondina, Craig “Cookie” Amos and myself. Let’s get it on.
There is a short list of fighters that everyone wants to see compete. Former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler and Donald Cerrone are on that list. This Saturday night at UFC 214, “Ruthless” and “Cowboy” not only take to the Octagon – they do it against one another. Lawler is competing for the first time […]
There is a short list of fighters that everyone wants to see compete. Former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler and Donald Cerrone are on that list. This Saturday night at UFC 214, “Ruthless” and “Cowboy” not only take to the Octagon – they do it against one another. Lawler is competing for the first time […]
A welterweight bout between former 170-pound champion ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler and longtime veteran Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone will be taking place at UFC 214 this Saturday, July 29, 2017, from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The fight was originally scheduled for last November’s UFC 205, and was then rescheduled for UFC 213 on July 8 […]
A welterweight bout between former 170-pound champion ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler and longtime veteran Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone will be taking place at UFC 214 this Saturday, July 29, 2017, from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
The fight was originally scheduled for last November’s UFC 205, and was then rescheduled for UFC 213 on July 8 in Las Vegas, but according to UFC President Dana White, Cerrone suffered from a pulled groin and a staph infection, and was forced to pull out
To recover from the infection, ‘Cowboy’ had to be hooked up to an IV for seven days. In an Instagram post from June 28, Cerrone talked about his condition:
A post shared by Donald Cerrone (@cowboycerrone) on
Fast-forward a month later, and we have ourselves a highly anticipated fight between a brawler like Lawler,\ and a fan favorite like Cerrone. But is ‘Cowboy’ ready to take on the former welterweight champion?
Staph infections can range from simple skin boils to life-threatening, flesh-eating infections. These are common amongst fighters due to the highly infectious nature of the bacteria that causes it and the fact that it spreads through physical contact.
Most people only develop blisters, but in ‘Cowboy’s’ case, the infection spread into his bloodstream. It’s unclear how serious his condition was, but some of the symptoms of an infection of that nature could be nausea, vomiting, stomach aches, fever, joint, and muscle pain.
It can be treated within days or weeks of diagnosis, and according to Cerrone, he only needed a week of IV to treat it. But ‘Cowboy’ has been known to be careless with his own well-being in order to fight, and Lawler might make him pay for it.
The last time Cerrone rushed a fight, it cost him dearly.
He had been on a tear after making the move from lightweight to welterweight early in 2016 as he had finished all four opponents who fought him that year. With three spectacular knockouts and one brilliant submission, ‘Cowboy’ was on his way towards UFC gold, until he ran into a brick wall by the name of Jorge Masvidal.
Even though Cerrone had a war with Matt Brown in December 2016 where he was dropped multiple times, he insisted in fighting in his hometown of Denver, CO, just slightly over a month later.
‘Cowboy’ probably did not give himself enough time to recover and even less time to prepare for an opponent as dangerous as Masvidal. His desire to fight in his hometown clouded his judgment and he was absolutely destroyed by Masvidal, getting brutally knocked out in the second round after barely making it out of the first.
Following his loss, the UFC gave him a medical suspension for 45 days. Regardless, this time Cerrone gave himself over six months to recover to the point any leftover damage from his knockout had been taken care of. Now, he will just have to deal with injuries from training camp and with his staph infection.
On the other hand, Lawler has given himself an entire year since his last fight where he was obliterated by a big shot from Tyron Woodley at UFC 201 last July, losing his title in the process.
Lawler was clearly hurt by the knockout, as he declined to fight ‘Cowboy’ at the UFC 205 last November, asking for more time to recover. Hopefully ‘Ruthless’ is back to full health by now, as he has not cited any training camp injuries, so he could be walking into this fight with a health advantage.
‘Cowboy’ could be fully recovered by now, but it is not in his character to admit weakness or pull out of fights for his own sake. If he is still suffering the effects of the infection and other training camp injuries, he could be once again running headfirst into another brick wall.
On Saturday, he will share the Octagon with a healthy Lawler, a ruthless post-fight bonus machine all-too-familiar with classic bouts. We will see if Cerrone has what it takes to overcome personal health problems, defeat the ‘Ruthless’ one, and offer us the incredible fight this was destined to be.
As recently as a week ago, UFC 213 shaped up as perhaps the first great MMA pay-per-view of 2017.
Now? Well, maybe not quite so much.
Saturday’s fight card from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas still looks perfectly fine, headlined by a women’s …
As recently as a week ago, UFC 213 shaped up as perhaps the first great MMA pay-per-view of 2017.
Now? Well, maybe not quite so much.
Saturday’s fight card from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas still looks perfectly fine, headlined by a women’s bantamweight title fight in a rematch between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko as well as Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker for the interim middleweight championship.
But with just a handful of days left before we all plunk down $60 to watch on PPV, the ghost of Robbie Lawler’s welterweight slobber-knocker against Donald Cerrone still haunts our dreams.
It was six days ago that MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas broke the news that Cerrone was injured and out of the hotly anticipated 170-pound fight. Since then, the bout had been shuffled off the UFC 213 card and onto UFC 214 on July 29.
“Here’s the deal. ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone is a stud. He’s too tough for his own good. He absolutely wanted to fight. The kid’s got a pulled groin; he’s got a bruise from his knee to the inside of his groin. And his other knee is blowing up; he’s got staph infection. Could he come out and fight? Probably. Should he come out and fight Robbie Lawler with a pulled groin? No, he shouldn’t. We’re going to get him healthy and remake the fight.”
Here’s what Cerrone had to say to fans in an Instagram post shortly after his withdrawal was announced:
This is the second time Lawler vs. Cerrone has been postponed. The first time, the bout got called off just days after it was announced in November 2016, when Lawler reportedly decided he needed more time to prepare.
This time, we got so, so close.
To add to UFC 213’s troubles, Lawler vs. Cerrone wasn’t the only high-profile bout to fall by the wayside, either. UFC events typically lose a few proposed scraps between their announcement and fight night, but this time the losses hit especially hard.
Remember, T.J. Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt were originally intended to settle their feud with a fight for the men’s bantamweight championship here. Of course, that was before Garbrandt pulled out with a back injury, leaving Dillashaw to hunt around for another fight.
Still, the disappearance of Lawler vs. Cerrone is the biggest disappointment. Because make no mistake, seeing these two high-energy, no-nonsense headhunters go at it is the stuff MMA legends are made off.
At the moment, Cerrone stands at 4-1 since moving up to welterweight in February 2016. His most recent appearance was a second-round TKO loss to Jorge Masvidal in January 2017, but 17 performance-based fight-night bonuses to Cerrone’s name during his UFC/WEC career attest to the fact the Cowboy is one of White and Co.’s most popular attractions.
That popularity is as durable as Cerrone himself. Even after the Masvidal loss and now this delay, expect his momentum to merely keep on trucking.
The same can be said for Lawler, who spent a year-and-a-half as 170-pound champion from December 2014-July 2016. Lawler was also going off as the slight favorite, according to OddsShark, leading up to the moment their UFC 213 clash got scratched.
OddsShark analyst Justin Hartling summed up our expectations for this bout about as well as anybody could when the first five words of his breakdown were: “I hope you like violence.”
What MMA fans will likely get from Lawler and Cerrone—whenever they finally make it to the cage together—is nothing short of full-scale warfare.
Now, though, UFC 213 will have to soldier on without this attraction, and it remains unclear how much sights (or the event’s PPV buyrate) will be lowered because of it.
Nunes is nearly a year into her reign as 135-pound champion, but so far doesn’t seem to have been launched to superstardom by either her championship win over Miesha Tate at UFC 200 or her first-round TKO over Ronda Rousey at UFC 207.
Likewise, Shevchenko shapes up as a bit of an enigmatic challenger in Nunes’ first title defense. The fact she just lost to Nunes in the pair’s first fight at UFC 196 in March 2016 doesn’t do the marketability of this matchup a ton of favors, either.
It’s probable that matchmakers would’ve rather had either Holly Holm or Juliana Pena vying for the title in this spot, but Shevchenko beat both of them in back-to-back appearances.
Nunes vs. Shevchenko is an interesting clash between two high-level strikers and will likely be a good enough scrap to delight hardcore fans, but—in the parlance of White himself—it’s unlikely to move the needle on PPV.
The same could be true of Romero vs. Whittaker.
This interim middleweight title fight is as intriguing a pure physical matchup as we’re likely to get in the Octagon all year, but it features two men who haven’t proved themselves as significant draws.
The 26-year-old Whittaker is riding a seven-fight win streak, but is a freshly minted title contender after his second-round TKO over Jacare Souza in April 2017. Meanwhile, Romero has been circling a championship opportunity like a shark since soon after his UFC arrival in 2013.
With champion Michael Bisping either hurt or waiting for a fight against the returning Georges St-Pierre, the winner of this fight may well lay claim to being the best 185-pounder in the world.
But can the hype for this matchup carry a fight card on its own? No way.
Add a heavyweight fight between Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem and a lightweight tussle pitting Anthony Pettis against Jim Miller to its four fight card and you’ve got all the makings of a fine Saturday night.
UFC 213 is a decent PPV. It’ll be a good event—better than average, considering the way 2017 has gone so far.
But it’s no longer the blockbuster it looked like a week ago.
And we have the loss of Lawler vs. Cerrone to blame for that.
As recently as a week ago, UFC 213 shaped up as perhaps the first great