60°F
weather icon Clear

Cerrone makes quick work of fellow ‘Cowboy’

It took Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone more time than a bull ride to finish Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira when they met in the main event of UFC Fight Night 83 in Pittsburgh on Sunday night, but not much longer.

Oliveira landed a few shots early, prompting Cerrone to take the fight to the ground. Once on the mat, Cerrone worked to mount and transitioned to a triangle choke that forced a tap out at 2:33 of the opening round of the welterweight bout.

Cerrone has been known as a slow starter and was coming off a first-round knockout loss to Rafael dos Anjos in a lightweight title bout in December.

Making his debut at 170 pounds, Cerrone said he mixed up his routine to try to get comfortable early in the fight.

“We got here at 1 o’clock today and went through the walk about 10 times, that’s the best I’ve ever felt in here,” said Cerrone, who plans to fight in both weight classes going forward. “My hat is off to this dude. He took a fight on short notice against me and that’s really cool. I’m going to do 155 pounds and 170 pounds, so if you want to get hurt, I know a guy.”

It was the ninth win in 10 fights for Cerrone.

Middlweight Derek Brunson won his fourth in a row and sixth in seven tries with a similarly quick victory.

After Roan Carneiro fell in the corner, Brunson unleashed a barrage of punches. Carneiro blocked most of them, but eventually enough got through to badly hurt him and prompt the referee to step in at 2:38 of the opening round.

“I work really hard, I know I’m improving. I don’t even look for the takedowns anymore, they’re just there for me. I got him to the ground and landed a few punches and saw that he was stunned so I went for the finish,” Brunson said. “It doesn’t matter who I fight next, I’m here to fight and get better. I want to chill and enjoy my kids, enjoy my family then I’ll figure out who I want to fight next. I can guarantee it’ll be someone who will get me closer to a title shot.”

Bantamweight prospect Cody Garbrandt remained undefeated with a first-round knockout of newcomer Augusto Mendes.

Garbrandt dropped Mendes with a straight right and then paused as he thought the fight would be stopped. When the referee failed to step in, Garbrandt followed up with two undefended hammerfists on a confused Mendes to officially end the bout.

Mendes was a late-replacement for John Lineker, who had to withdraw after contracting Dengue fever in Brazil.

Garbrandt still wants to fight Lineker, who was expected to pose the biggest challenge of Garbrandt’s career.

“I want that John Lineker fight,” he said after the win. “I’m a fisherman and he’s a fish, it’s time to get on my line.”

Chris Camozzi knocked out veteran middleweight Joe Riggs with a series of right knees to the head just 26 seconds into the opening round after stunning him with a straight right hand.

“Everything led up to that hip feint, which is something we’ve been working on in practice the entire camp. I threw a rear hip feint and then landed a jab and as soon as he hunched over I locked him up in the clinch and hit him with the knees,” Camozzi said. “I want a top-10 opponent next with a full camp. Every time I get a top-10 opponent, it’s on short notice. I fought Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza twice on a combined 20 days’ notice, so I just want a full camp and a top-10 guy.”

Featherweight Dennis Bermudez and lightweight James Krause each earned unanimous decision victories on the main card.

Sean Strickland and Oluwale Bamgbose earned knockout victories on the televised portion of the prelims. Anthony Smith and Nathan Coy picked up unanimous decision wins.

On the early preliminary card, heavyweight Shamil Abdurakhimov earned a unanimous decision victory over Anthony Hamilton.

The card was rounded out by a pair of women’s bantamweight bouts.

Ashlee Evans-Smith earned a controversial decision over Marion Reneau and Lauren Murphy knocked out Kelly Faszholz with just 5 seconds remaining in the third and final round.

— Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
MORE STORIES
THE LATEST
UFC-occupied buildings in Las Vegas sell for $23.6M

The off-market sale was brokered by Colliers and features two buildings which are 70 percent occupied by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

UFC reaches $375M settlement in class-action lawsuit

The UFC reached another settlement with one of the two class-action litigants, agreeing Thursday to pay the former fighters $375 million after a previous agreement was thrown out by a Nevada district judge.