UFC 205 In Focus: Donald Cerrone's Toughest Welterweight Task

As Donald Cerrone hopes to extend his impressive winning streak in the UFC’s welterweight division, Kelvin Gastelum looks to barrel through another elite contender at 170-pounds.

Since his move up to welterweight at the beginning of this year, Donald Cerrone has racked up three wins under his belt. Cerrone earned “Performance of the Night” bonuses in each, with his most recent finish over Rick Story at UFC 202 was perhaps the finest of them all. A beautifully crisp four-strike combination, ending with a picture perfect head kick to seal the deal.

After cruising to a unanimous decision victory over Johny Hendricks at UFC 200. Kelvin Gastelum wanted a fight with either Robbie Lawler or Donald Cerrone next. Unfortunately for him, it was Cerrone and Lawler who were scheduled to meet at UFC 205 in New York, and Gastelum would instead fight Jorge Masvidal in Mexico City.

In an unusual turn of events, Lawler withdrew from the fight shortly after signing in order to recover from brutal wars leaving Cerrone with no opponent at the UFC’s first ever show in New York City. Determined to find “Cowboy” a match-up, Gastelum was removed from his scheduled fight, and given what he wanted in the first place, Donald Cerrone.

Gastelum’s Girth

A wrestler at heart, Gastelum’s striking has improved leap and bounds since winning The Ultimate Fighter 17.

One big point to note from the game of Kelvin Gastelum is his stance. Southpaw. Now although it may seem like an obvious point to pick out, looking back at Cerrone’s opponents, we can see he has had trouble with several southpaws in the past.

In Gastelum’s fight against Hendricks at UFC 200, he utilised several strikes that payed heavy dividends against the orthodox Hendricks, due to Gastelum’s southpaw stance. The right jab-left straight came off many times as a sharp one-two, killing off any momentum Hendricks was gaining. However, the most important strike is the left kick to the liver.

Cerrone’s fight against Anthony Pettis, and his re-match against Rafael dos Anjos both show his weakness to the left liver kick. If Gastelum can land this strike clean to “Cowboy’s” liver at will, it could very well lead to a successful night for Gastelum.

Although shorter than Cerrone, Gastelum’s broad physique means he will be the bigger man in this match-up. So if Gastelum can tie ‘Cowboy’ up in the clinch, or get on top of him, Cerrone will expend plenty of energy to break free.

Want your voice heard? Join the Cage Pages team!

Cowboy’s Crafty Ground Game

Mostly known for his razor-sharp muay thai, many people forget about the grappling of Donald Cerrone. Truly a jack of all trades inside the octagon, Cowboy has an extremely under-rated ground game. With 26-percent of his wins via triangle choke, even if Gastelum does manage to get Cerrone down, he is still as dangerous as he is on the feet when on the ground.

Often criticised as a slow starter at lightweight, Cowboy has picked up the pace much earlier on in the fight since his move to 170-pounds. He handed both Rick Story and Patrick Cote their first ever knockout losses in spectacular fashion. The sheer volume and power of Cowboy’s punches and kicks are ever so scary then they were at lightweight.

If Cerrone wants to continue his impressive streak at welterweight, he has to not let Kelvin Gastelum dictate the pace of this fight. Gastelum loves to pressure moving forward, staying light on his feet, using lots of feints to keep his opponent guessing and to disrupt their momentum.

Cowboy has to ensure he starts much the same as his previous fights, a fast pace to show off his array of striking techniques as well as the threat of the takedown. Making Gastelum aware of these early will keep him guessing, and potentially break up any forward pressure from Gastelum.

In order to progress one step further to a title shot, Gastelum and Cerrone both need a convincing win in this fight. Sitting side by side in the welterweight rankings, Gastelum at #6 and Cerrone at #5, it is certainly a tight match-up statistically, and technically at 170 pounds which makes for an intriguing battle.