The UFC’s most recent trip to The Great White North eventually has its own main event. UFC Fight Night 150 takes place Saturday, May 4 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and my initial reactions to the headliner are below.
Donald Cerrone vs. Al Iaquinta, UFC Fight Night 150
Lightweight contenders Donald Cerrone and Al Iaquinta will meet from the five-round Major event of UFC Fight Night 150, according to a report from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. The UFC hasn’t made this fight official yet, but Helwani reports that verbal agreements are in place the contracts are only waiting to be signed.
We have been waiting for a couple months now to find out what the main event of UFC Ottawa is. In the beginning, it was rumored to be a middleweight bout between Elias Theodorou and Derek Brunson which was widely panned by both fans and media as a mediocre principal event. Instead, it seems that bout are the co-main event, with this fan-friendly fight between Cerrone and Iaquinta headlining instead.
The two Cerrone and Iaquinta had been calling for a superfight against Conor McGregor, but with McGregor recently running into a legal troubles and still not ready to go back to the Octagon, the UFC decided to proceed and book Cerrone and Iaquinta against one another rather than It is a wonderful fight on newspaper between two of the top lightweights in the world, along with the fans in Ottawa need to be quite happy right now about this being the main event of their Fight Night card.
Cerrone (35-11, 1 NC) is 22-8 overall in the UFC with expertise fighting at both lightweight and welterweight. He’s now riding a two-fight win streak which includes back-to-back finishes over Mike Perry at 170lbs and Alexander Hernandez in 155lbs in his past two outings. After going on a three-fight losing skid in 2017, Cerrone has rebounded strong in 2018 and 2019 with a 3-1 record since that time. He is among the most complete fighters in the UFC lightweight division and despite being 35-years-old seems like he is maybe the best model of himself he has ever been.
Iaquinta (14-4-1) is 9-3-1 from the UFC and is coming from a huge upset choice win over Kevin Lee in his final fight. He’s actually won six of his last seven fights overall with his lone loss during that stretch coming into UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. That win series also contains a choice win over Jorge Masvidal which looks even better today that Masvidal just knocked out Darren Until at UFC London. At age 31, Iaquinta is at the prime of his career right now.
It will be interesting to find out exactly what the opening line is for this bout, but if I had to guess I’d say Iaquinta would be slightly preferred. Cerrone, despite having an amazing record within the UFC, was the underdog against Perry and Hernandez and generally does not get as much respect as he deserves. Iaquinta was the dog against Lee too, but generally is your favorite in his struggles. So I would guess it will be a close starting line using a slight lean to the younger Iaquinta. In any event, this is going to be a tremendous bout and kudos to the UFC for getting it reserved.
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