Donald Cerrone and Matt Brown slugged it out just as we hoped they would tonight at UFC 206, and after a terrificly entertaining couple of back-and-forth rounds ‘Cowboy’ finally slayed ‘The Immortal’ with a perfectly placed head kick for the highlight reel finish.
Round One:
Leg kick for Cerrone. Overhand right for Brown grazes his opponent. Another kick for Cerrone. Brown with a punch, but Cerrone ducks under and tries for a takedown that doesn’t work out.
Both men exchanging in close. Cerrone with a big body kick. More offense from Cerrone. Brown bites down on his mouthpiece and comes back swinging, but misses.
Leg kick for Cerrone. He snaps out the jab. Left hand gets through. Brown with a punch. Right gets through for Brown and Cerrone lands a left hook.
Snapping jab again for Cerrone snaps Brown’s head back. Brown reaching in with a punch. He lands a body kick. Jabs by Cerrone and a body punch in return.
Leg kick for Cerrone that’s checked. Head kick for Cerrone gets through, but Brown seems ok. Cerrone presses forward and misses a couple of strikes, but does land a punch to the body.
Two jabs in a row from ‘Cowboy’. Hard leg kick. Left hand and a big right hook for Brown. He lands a punch to the body.
Brown with a head kick attempt and slips, so Cerrone just follows him down to the mat. Brown throws up a triangle choke attempt. It looks tight, but Cerrone stays patient and eventually manages to get free.
Jab for Cerrone and a right hand for Brown in return. Brown has big swelling under his right eye. Push kick for Brown. Short right hand for Cerrone, uppercut for Brown.
Cerrone just misses with a head kick. He tries again and it’s blocked. Body shots for Brown. He lands a final punch as the round ends and Cerrone rolls to his back, but seems fine.
Round Two:
Push kick for Brown. Cerrone tries to clinch, then gives up on it. left hand for Cerrone. Push kick for Brown. Cerrone fails on a takedown attempt.
leg kick for Cerrone, but it was checked. Head kick upstairs hits the hands. Knee to the body from Brown. Teep kick from Cerrone is caught by Brown and lands a punch.
Left hook for Brown. Kick for Cerrone. Nice jab snaps Cerrone’s head back. Head kick attempt from Cerrone. Body punch from Brown. He tags Cerrone with a big right hook and Cerrone is rocked and buckles his legs out from under him momentarily.
Cerrone stands and Brown tries to flurry on him. Cerrone stays in the fight though. Soon after he lands a nice punch and then a kick upstairs and Brown tumbles backwards onto the mat.
He gets back up. We’re watching another all-out war here! Cerrone charges forward and tags Brown with a series of punches.
Body punches and then upstairs from Cerrone. Brown smeared in blood at this stage in the fight, but still as tough as ever.
Another big head kick from Cerrone at least partially connects. Both men trade in close. Hard jab from Cerrone. Another jab and more punches behind it.
Right hand over the top from Brown. Punches and a head kick that doesn’t have much power behind it. Hard punch lands for Brown.
Brown steps into a solid elbow strike. Right hand in response from Cerrone. Push kick for Brown. Left hand gets through in a flurry from Cerrone.
Jab for Cerrone and then avoids counters from Brown. Brown tries a spinning kick to end the round, but it doesn’t connect.
Round Three:
These two are former training partners and Brown had been vocal regarding his dislike for his opponent in the build-up to the fight, but Cerrone asks if he wants to touche gloves to start the third round, and instead they end up in a brief hug before getting down to business.
A really nice moment there to settle their differences, but there’s still a fight to be won and they get back to it.
Big takedown from Brown to start the round, but Cerrone is quickly back up. Cerrone lands with a left hand. Leg kick. Brown with a hook and a big counter strike in return that seems to hurt him.
Brown head is ducked down after a punch and Cerrone greets him with a huge kick upstairs that knocks ‘The Immortal’ out cold. Cerrone stops and doesn’t even attempt to follow up with strikes – it’s all over in definitive fashion by KO at 34 seconds of the third round.
If it hadn’t been for the Swanson Vs Choi fight we’d just witnessed this would undoubtedly be the ‘Fight Of The Night. Great stuff and that sets up Cerrone as a serious contender for title contention at 170lbs.
