Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
I was wondering where Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone went. It seemed like he just did not show up in his past fight against Rafael dos Anjos. Cerrone looked sluggish, hesitant, and beat-down. It was a bizarre performance for him. After that loss, Cerrone stated that win or lose against his next opponent; he was dropping down to the Featherweight division. The fans ate it up; he was a force at Lightweight, and could really do some interesting things in the Featherweight division. I just assumed that this last fight in the Lightweight division was one last goodbye, maybe even his swan song. What a goodbye it was.
Cerrone looked absolutely fantastic against the ever-tough Evan Dunham. It was evident before the fight even started that Cerrone was on point. Cerrone was pacing back-and-forth across the octagon like an angry punk singer. It was awesome. The second the round started, Cerrone was marching Dunham down and dropped him in the first minute to almost finish the fight. Dunham was able to survive the round, but made a huge mistake in the second round and Cerrone was able to lock in a triangle choke to force Dunham to tap.
The biggest improvement in this fight was Cerrone’s striking. Not only was his timing on point, but he was mixing everything up beautifully. It was like he was conducting his body in a different way; instead of throwing jabs straight down the middle, he would wait for Dunham to get close and shoot a knee into his body, instead of throwing hooks to the head, he was faking leg kicks and coming in with over-the-top elbows. Cerrone was angry and polished. It was clearly an indication that Cerrone was back, and ready to mix things up in the Featherweight division.
