Fighter on Fighter: Breaking down UFC Fight Night 118’s Donald Cerrone

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title challenger, Donald Cerrone, will duel with up-and-comer, Darren Till, this Saturday (Oct. 21, 2017) at UFC Fight Night 118 inside Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland.

Cerrone lit up the Welterweight division upon arrival, scoring four straight finishes against increasingly tough opponents. Jorge Masvidal ended his streak with a brutal knockout win, but Cerrone proved he still belongs at the top with his recent back-and-forth brawl opposite former kingpin Robbie Lawler.

Despite his status as a top 10 fighter, Cerrone is on a two-fight losing streak. This is a chance for him to bounce back and return to the title mix, although he’ll have to turn away a top prospect to do so.

Let’s take a closer look at his skill set:

Striking

Cerrone is among the must pure Muay Thai-style kickboxers in the organization. His kicks are brutally effective, and his hands have come a long way in the last couple years as well.

For Cerrone's style of striking to work, he needs distance. Cerrone does not work well when his opponent is in boxing range and he's force to exchange punches, as his combinations simply are not that tight and he's generally rather hittable at this distance anyway.

The boxing range may never be Cerrone’s best friend — see his most recent pair of losses — but he has made progress at 170 lbs. This was most noticeable in his victory over Patrick Cote. In that bout, Cerrone kept his composure when pressured, and the result was a few violent left hooks that eventually ended the bout (GIF).

That said, kickboxing from range is still Cerrone’s ideal strategy. He’s added weapons to his game in order to maintain that distance, as well as improved his footwork, which are the subjects of “Cowboy’s” technique analysis.

Once "Cowboy" establishes his range and successfully enforces it, he's one of the nastiest strikers in the sport. His emphasis is obviously on kicking, but Cerrone is an effective puncher at distance as well (GIF). He commonly uses long, straight punches to push his opponent backwards, leaving them open for his devastating low kick. In addition, he mixes shots to the body often, usually with the goal of lower his opponent's hands for an eventual high kick (GIF).

Cerrone can kick with power at any height, but his low kick is something special (GIF). He keeps his leg very loose as he throws the strike, quickly slamming the snapping kick into his opponent's thigh like a whip. It's quick, damaging and quite difficult to catch.

Before long, even standing up can become very challenging for his opponent (GIF).

Another staple of Cerrone's kickboxing is the switch kick. He disguises the quick step well, usually hiding it behind a punch or, more often, a feint. Early on, Cerrone will use the switch kick to dig into the inside of his opponent's lead leg, which quickens the destruction of that leg significantly. Then, Cerrone will change it up and go high with his switch kick, which has caught many of his past opponents (GIF).

At Welterweight, Cerrone’s pace has been a major weapon. “Cowboy” has always maintained an excellent output, but at 170 lbs. foes have a more difficult time keeping up with him. That’s produced some excellent finishes later into the fight, such as his brilliant high-low-high combination that set up a head kick finish over Rick Story (GIF).

Wrestling

Cerrone has always been a solid wrestler, but it's another area in which he's shown a lot of improvement. In the last couple years, Cerrone has been more willing to mix in a takedown or two, which is a smart change. His kickboxing may be great, but so is his grappling, so working his top game can’t hurt him in the least.

Cerrone, like many tall strikers with strong distance control, likes to utilize the high double leg. When Cerrone takes the shot, he drives through his opponent in a combination of a double leg takedown and body lock. It may look a bit awkward, but it's actually pretty effective. It's imperative that this type of shot be timed properly, as it will otherwise leave him in poor position.

Additionally, Cerrone is skilled in the clinch with a variety of takedowns. He commonly looks for Muay Thai style dumps from the double-collar tie and will occasionally look to land trips as well.

Cerrone's takedown defense has improved significantly as well. Outside of his loss to dos Anjos back in 2013, he's had little trouble staying on his feet in the cage regardless of division. His distance control is obviously a major part of this, as getting close to him is difficult. Plus, the step knee is a great deterrent as well, as a poorly set up shot could have his opponent run face-first into the knee.

Aside from all that, Cerrone is simply good at defending the shot. He keeps a wide base, balances well, and fights for underhooks only until he can rip off elbows or knees of his own.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

With an impressive 16 victories via submission, Cerrone has proven both his killer instinct and technical ability. After stunning an opponent, Cerrone immediately looks to jump on him with a submission.

Usually, Cerrone immediately looks to hop onto his opponent's back and sneak his forearm around the neck for a rear-naked choke. The benefit of looking for the choke to finish is simply: If the rocked fighter leaves a single opening in his frazzled mental state for Cerrone's arm to slip through, the fight is over. His mental toughness and durability no longer matter, as it's simply impossible to "tough out" a sunk in rear-naked choke (GIF).

From his back, Cerrone is very good at fully utilizing his length. While pushing at his opponent's hips, Cerrone is constantly looking to push an arm through for a triangle, swivel his hips for an armbar, or overhook one of his opponent's arms to attack with the omoplata. Once he attacks with one of these submissions, Cerrone is excellent at transitioning between them.

Cerrone's fight with Evan Dunham was an extremely impressive display of his grappling, largely because Dunham has excellent jiu-jitsu and is rarely out-grappled. After being swept by Dunham's deep half, Cerrone flowed with the transition, trapping Dunham's arm in an omoplata. Instead of settling and accepting his position on the bottom, Cerrone quickly came back with his own offense. Dunham only held top position for a couple seconds, as he was quickly rolled by the shoulder lock.

In similar fashion, Cerrone reversed Myles Jury immediately after being taken down.

In the second round, a similar exchange occurred. Once again, Dunham hit a beautiful deep half guard sweep. As he looked to come up into guard, Cerrone attacked with a triangle, which Dunham shook off. However, when he pulled out of the submission, he created a lot of space. Not wanting Cerrone to return to his feet and continue beating him up, Dunham recklessly pushed into Cerrone's guard.

As Dunham moved in, Cerrone caught one of his arms and pushed it through his legs. Having trapped him in a triangle, Cerrone smoothly grabbed one of Dunham's legs, adjusted his angle, and rolled him over. From that position, Dunham could not move and had all of "Cowboy's" weight on him, leaving him with the final option of submitting (GIF).

More recently, Cerrone reacted to the wildness and strength of Alex Oliveira with a takedown. From his back, Oliveira didn’t defend himself all that well, allowing Cerrone to move into mount quickly. Once there, Oliveira swam under one of Cerrone’s legs in an attempt to escape, but he did it slowly and without a sense of urgency. From there, it was easy for Cerrone to pull his opponent’s head off the mat and lock in a triangle, which he finished from his back (GIF).

Conclusion

This is the first time in Cerrone’s 11 year, 42-fight career that he’s lost consecutive bouts. It’s hard to say Cerrone’s falling off based on two losses to excellent fighters — one of them being quite competitive — but that’s how slides tend to start. First, it’s close losses, then things spiral worse. Darren Till is a tough fighter, but he’s one Cerrone should defeat, and that win will push away any talks of a skid or falling out of his prime.

*****

Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt, is an amateur champion who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport's most elite fighters.