The UFC’s most recent trip to The Great White North eventually has its own primary event. UFC Fight Night 150 takes place Saturday, May 4 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and my initial reactions to the headliner are below.
Donald Cerrone vs. Al Iaquinta, UFC Fight Night 150
Lightweight contenders Donald Cerrone and Al Iaquinta will meet from the five-round main event of UFC Fight Night 150, according to a report from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. The UFC has not made this fight official yet, but Helwani reports that verbal agreements have been in place an the contracts are only waiting to be signed.
We’ve been waiting for a couple months now to see what the main event of UFC Ottawa is. At first, it was rumored to be a middleweight bout between Elias Theodorou and Derek Brunson that was widely panned by both fans and press as a fair main event. Instead, it seems that bout will be the co-main event, for this fan-friendly struggle between Cerrone and Iaquinta headlining instead.
The two Cerrone and Iaquinta had been calling for a superfight against Conor McGregor, but with McGregor recently running into some legal troubles and not prepared to return to the Octagon, the UFC decided to move on and book Cerrone and Iaquinta against one another rather than It’s a wonderful fight on paper involving two of the top lightweights in the world, and the fans in Ottawa need to be very happy right now about this being the principal event of the Fight Night .
Cerrone (35-11, 1 NC) is 22-8 complete from the UFC with expertise combating both lightweight and welterweight. He’s now riding a two-fight win series that includes back-to-back endings over Mike Perry at 170lbs and Alexander Hernandez in 155lbs in his last two outings. After going on a three-fight losing skid in 2017, Cerrone has rebounded strong in 2018 and 2019 with a 3-1 record since that time. He’s among the most complete fighters in the UFC lightweight division and despite being 35-years-old seems like he is maybe the best model of himself he’s ever been.
Iaquinta (14-4-1) is 9-3-1 from the UFC and is coming from a huge mad choice win over Kevin Lee in his last fight. He has really won six of the last seven fights overall with his lone loss during that stretch coming into UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. That win streak also contains a choice win over Jorge Masvidal that looks even better now that Masvidal only knocked out Darren Till at UFC London. At age 31, Iaquinta is in the prime of his career at this time.
It will be interesting to find out what the opening line is for this bout, but when I had to guess I’d say Iaquinta could be marginally preferred. Cerrone, despite having an amazing record within the UFC, was the underdog against Perry and Hernandez and generally doesn’t get as much respect as he deserves. Iaquinta was the dog against Lee too, but usually is your favorite in his fights. So I would guess it’s going to be a close starting line with a slight lean to the younger Iaquinta. In any event, this will be a tremendous bout and kudos to the UFC for receiving it reserved.
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