The UFC 178 has added a surprise co-headliner bout for September 27th, as veteran Donald Cerrone takes on UFC newcomer and former Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez. The match comes on the heels of Bellator’s announcement that they had unconditionally released Alvarez, who was their 2x Lightweight title holder and probably their brightest star.
The unconditional release is a bit of a surprise, as the original versions of this rumor that surfaced had the UFC buying out Alvarez’ services from Bellator. With the way it was done, Bellator basically gets nothing for letting one of their few marketable assets go to the competition. And that competition gets a terrific match to try and rescue a failing PPV here on short notice. And it was under new Bellator President Scott Coker that the Strikeforce buy out by UFC was orchestrated.
But, in the end, the MMA fans win. Alvarez, after a long time fighting the best outside the UFC is now 30 years old, and he wants the chance to prove himself in the sport’s biggest promotion.
Cerrone is far from an excellent stylistic match-up for Alvarez for his debut. Both are sluggers who are not afraid of going toe to toe, and both thrive in the chaos tat ensues when a fight goes into overdrive. Both have performances on their resumes that are standout. this means that for starters, it is an anything can happen match if both men cut loose.
But if Cerrone is smart and he is willing to gamble with the judges, he can win this fight. He is going to have height and reach advantages over Alvarez that may mean he can set the pace in a stand up fight and keep Alvarez at the end of his jab. It would be a strategy that has beaten Alvarez before. Now, Alvarez has grown as a fighter since his early career loss to Nick Thompson, and that was at 170 lbs. In the UFC, Alvarez is going to find that he is undersized again.
The line should be up at the books here in short order, and where it opens and where it goes is anybody’s guess. This match goes a long way to restoring the value of the PPV, as the Flyweight title match slated as the main event does not carry the heat this fight had. In the end it probably doesnt matter how it happened, but it happened, Eddie Alvarez is in the UFC.
