Donald Cerrone’s next fight will be against Adriano Martins at ‘UFC On FOX 10’ in January.
Cerrone’s form has been a little patchy recently with two wins and two losses in 2013, but he did look re-energized in his most recent victory over Evan Dunham at UFC 167 just a week ago.
Martins has much less Octagon experience than ‘Cowboy’, having just one win to his name so far in his debut against Daron Cruickshank earlier this month.
Nevertheless, Martins has been in the fight game a long time, competing primarily in his native Brazil where he held the Jungle Fight lightweight title, which accounts for his overall 25-6 record.
Martins looks like being a good addition to the UFC’s lightweight ranks, but it’s still somewhat surprising to see him paired up with a well established competitor like Cerrone quite so soon.
It’s a risk-reward situation for Martins – Cerrone’s going to be a considerable step up in competition for him, but if he emerges victorious then he’s instantly going to put himself on the map.
On the other side of the equation, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a lose-lose scenario for Cerrone. Martins is talented enough that he can’t afford to overlook him, yet even if he wins it won’t do anything for him in terms of moving up the lightweight rankings.
Cerrone doesn’t seem to be concerned though. When asked for his thoughts on the match-up by a fan on Twitter he replied, “I just like to fight! Opponent makes no diff.”
He had at one stage talked about potentially moving down to featherweight for his next bout, but it appears he’s had a change of heart, perhaps due to Dana White who made it clear that he was not in favor of the move due to the fact that even cutting down to 155lbs is sometimes difficult for Cowboy’.
UFC On FOX 10 takes place on January 25th In Chicago and will be headlined by a lightweight fight between Ben Henderson and Josh Thomson.
