PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania – Donald the Cowboy Cerrone made a successful Welterweight debut Sunday night by submitting his opponent Alex Oliveira two minutes and thirty three seconds into the first round at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Donald Cerrone had been red hot winning eight straight at Lightweight before losing a title match to Rafeal dos Anjos in late 2015. Cerrone was dominant from start to finish and controlled all the action on the ground and standing before taking Oliveira down for the submission.
The Cowboy enters the welterweight division at the perfect time as it is wide open. Johny Hendricks is coming off of a painful loss to Josh Thompson. Matt Brown has been hurt since his hand surgery in November and Rory McDonald is also coming off of a loss against current champion Robbie Lawler. Carlos Condit is coming off of a loss against current champion Robbie Lawler as well.
The time is right for Cerrone to go on a winning streak at 170 and after the quick win, it shouldn’t be too much longer until we see him back in the Octogan again.
The undercard was not without drama as John Lineker was expected to face Cody Garbrandt at the event. However Lineker pulled out of the fight due to dengue fever. He was replaced by promotional newcomer Augusto Mendes.
Mendes missed weight on his first attempt at the weigh ins, coming in at 142 lbs. He was given additional time to make the weight limit for the weight class, but made no attempts to cut further. Instead, he was fined 20 percent of his fight purse, which went to Garbrandt and the commission. Garbrandt added to insult to injury as he defeated Mendes by TKO at the 4 minute and 18 second mark of the first round.
Also on the card, Dennis Bermudez cemented his top 5 position in the Featherweight division with a convincing unanimous decision win over Tatsuya Kawajiri.
The UFC will holds its next card this weekend on February 27, 2016 at the The O2 Arena in London, England with a main event of Michael Bisping vs the returning Anderson Silva.