The Remix, Vol. 24: Cerrone shines, Bellator is bonkers, Invicta FC goes old school

E. Spencer Kyte

The Remix, Vol. 24: Cerrone shines, Bellator is bonkers, Invicta FC goes old school image

Every week, we’ll release a new MMA mix tape entitled “The Remix” that looks back at not only the biggest stories of the last seven days, but some of the ones that aren’t getting enough attention too, with some weekly awards and a prospect to watch going forward added in for good measure.

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone has never been better

It wasn’t that long ago that many MMA scribes had started penning their eulogies for Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and with good reason. After starting his move to welterweight with four straight finishes, the veteran gunslinger dropped three-in-a-row, culminating in a first-round stoppage loss to Darren Till in Gdansk, Poland where it really did look like all the years spent trading leather inside the cage had finally caught up to the proprietor of the BMF Ranch.

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He rebounded with a win over Yancy Medeiros, but that didn’t feel like anything too big, and when he got outclassed by Leon Edwards in Singapore later that summer, the questions about Cerrone’s future in the cage started getting asked again. People started editing those eulogy drafts, expecting his fight with Mike Perry in Denver to potentially be the moment it became clear that the ornery combatant was finally set to shuffle off into something else.

Instead, Cerrone used it as a starting point for arguably the best run of his career.

He tapped out Perry in the first round of his Colorado homecoming, celebrating in the center of the cage with his team, his wife, his grandmother and his son, Dacson Danger Cerrone, before announcing his intention to return to lightweight and make a run at the title.

 

 

Ten weeks later, he patiently found his range and picked apart aggressive youngster Alexander Hernandez in his first lightweight appearance since his failed bid to wrestle the title away from Rafael dos Anjos at the close of 2015.

Saturday night in Ottawa, the 36-year-old authored a masterpiece against Al Iaquinta, navigating an uneven start before busting up the Serra-Longo Fight Team member to push his record in Canada to 4-0 and give him three straight wins since becoming a dad. More importantly, it cemented his standing as a title contender and showed that the old dog is learning some new tricks.

Cerrone has had more impressive winning streaks, like the eight-fight tear he rattled off between tandem losses to dos Anjos or the aforementioned four-fight start at welterweight, but the entirety of his game has never been at this level before. He could always scrap, but Cerrone is now showing greater patience, greater situational awareness and a greater understanding that he has the technical abilities and multitude of tools necessary to do a lot of damage simply by sticking to what works best for him inside the Octagon.

There were points on Saturday night where Cerrone previously would have over-extended or gotten himself in further trouble by trying to get one back after Iaquinta tagged him with a good shot. Instead, he remained calm and focused at all times, resetting when he needed to and staying composed in the moment where he had the recent title challenger on the ropes.

Those adjustments are crucial because he’s about to come up against some folks who can do a lot of damage if you let yourself get a little loose inside the Octagon.

Whether he lures Conor McGregor back to the cage, gets paired with Tony Ferguson or finds his way into a title fight in the fall, Cerrone is headed back into dangerous waters, but he’s more equipped to swim with the circling sharks now than he has ever been in the past.

Craziness across the pond at Bellator Birmingham

Because it was sandwiched between last weekend’s twin title fight event in San Jose and next weekend’s “Champion vs. Champion” clash in suburban Chicago, the second event in Bellator MMA’s Bellator European series at took place at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham on Saturday didn’t garner a lot of pre-fight attention.

But once the main card started, social media couldn’t stop talking about the craziness that transpired — and I mean “craziness” in the most positive, 'You’ve got to see this' way possible.

All four fights ended in the first round and all four fights ended in impressive fashion, with two of the four immediately landing in the thick of “of the Year” consideration; more on that later.

Bellator never commands as much attention as the UFC and the promotion’s smaller events like this often slide by without much fanfare, but just as the recent stretch of UFC Fight Night events have proven that great things can happen on unassuming fight cards, Saturday’s Bellator show in Birmingham proved once again that an event doesn’t have to feature big names in order for big things to happen inside the cage. 

More importantly for the promotion, Saturday’s main card proved to be a showcase for a pair of talented prospects, as both Pedro Carvalho and Fabian Edwards picked up technical knockout wins to continue their push towards the top of their respective divisions.

 

 

The 23-year-old Carvalho picked up his fifth straight victory, stopping lightweight staple Derek Campos, while Edwards maintained his perfect record with by finishing Falco Neto with a series of punches after rocking him with two pinpoint upkicks. Both have looked good in the early stages of their Bellator MMA careers and should find themselves in the title chase soon.

Invicta FC’s Phoenix Rising event was a little bit of everything

There was a lot to unpack from Invicta FC’s event on Friday night in Kansas City, Kansas — some good, some strange, some encouraging, some just your typical stuff that comes with MMA events.

One of the things that really impressed me about the one-night tournament was that both Janaisa Morandin and Mizuki were pulled from the tournament and replaced by alternates after having issues making weight. Two of the more established names in the field — and perhaps even the two favorites going in — it was nice to see Shannon Knapp & Co. put a great deal of importance on professionalism and fighter safety by not having the duo compete.

On the strange front, you’ve got the one-round fights that made up the quarterfinals and semifinals. I understand why it had to be that way, but it also doesn’t quite feel like a completely accurate representation of what might happen between the different pairings if they were in a standard three-round bout. Plus, it feels a little odd adding a win to someone’s resume when they grind out one five-minute frame.

In terms of encouraging takeaways, the tournament proved to be a nice bounce back for Kailin Curran, who advanced to the finals with wins over Sunna Davidsdottir and Sharon Jacobson, and a breakout moment for Brianna Van Buren, who won the whole thing and we’ll talk about her in greater detail later.

 

 

And then there was the 'typical MMA' stuff that transpired, namely the first two one-round fights ending in split decisions. Seriously, it was one five-minute round and the three judges still managed to see things differently. There are definitely some instances where you could go either way and it comes down to what you value more, but this was one of those, 'Only in MMA' kind of moments that had to make you laugh.

Fight of the Weekend: Donald Cerrone vs. Al Iaquinta at UFC Ottawa

There is no other acceptable answer.

Not only was this a terrific performance from Cerrone, who showed poise and patience and a lot of his striking arsenal, but it was also a gutsy, 'didn’t lose any ground' effort from Iaquinta, who got beaten up, busted up and did not stop coming forward; not once.

The first two rounds were tight, with Cerrone getting the best of it in the opener and Iaquinta responding in kind in the second, but from there, “Cowboy” controlled things with his jab and his kicking game, which has always been potent, but he seems to have diversified a little more, including adding the front kick he dropped Iaquinta with midway through the fight.

 

 

They rightfully earned Fight of the Night honors and delivered a terrific bout to close out the night in the Canadian capital.

Submission of the Weekend: Brent Primus def. Tim Wilde at Bellator Birmingham

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the clubhouse leader in the Submission of the Year race:

 

 

Former lightweight champ Brent Primus made the most of getting taken down early in his bout with Tim Wilde to close out Saturday’s event in Birmingham, wrapping up the rarely seen gogoplata to secure the tap.

This is a lot like when “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung hit a twister on Leonard Garcia all those years ago — it’s such a rare occurrence that it automatically becomes a candidate for “Submission of the Year” and it’s going to take a lot to knock this one from the top of the charts.

Knockout of the Weekend: Raymond Daniels vs. Wilker Barros at Bellator Birmingham

I don’t care that Daniels is a kickboxing legend and Barros was making his mixed martial arts debut — when you do this, you earn Knockout of the Weekend and put yourself in the mix for the best knockout of the year thus far:

 

 

Daniels is a striking dynamo and had knocked Barros down with a spinning back kick to the bread basket right before this, calling him to his feet before measuring his distance and attacking, faking the tornado kick and clubbing him with the right hand that flipped his switch and caused him to face plant.

I don’t understand how someone can watch this balletic ending and say, 'Yeah, but who was he fighting?' as if it somehow diminishes the beauty of this knockout. While it certainly means more when you score a knockout win over someone in the mix, the aesthetic awesomeness of a finish like this has nothing to do with who the participants are.

This was incredible, period.

Prospect to Watch after this Weekend: Brianna Van Buren

Van Buren became the new Invicta FC strawweight champion on Friday night, defeating Kailin Curran in the finals of the promotion’s eight-woman, one-night tournament to claim the strap.

After earning a finish in the opening round against Manjit Kolekar, the 25-year-old chose to fight UFC veteran Juliana Lima in the semifinals and edged out the Brazilian before submitting Curran in the second round to close things out.

What really makes Van Buren someone to watch going forward — besides the fact that the majority of Invicta FC titleholders eventually graduate to the UFC — is that she did all this in the first year after taking a three-year break from fighting.

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Van Buren made her Invicta FC debut in February 2015, losing to Amy Montenegro. She then pressed pause on her career, only to return last May with a victory on the regional circuit before returning to the Invicta FC cage and besting TUF alum Jamie Moyle. Friday night, she rattled off three straight victories to earn the strap and establish herself as someone to watch going forward.

She has good strength and a solid ground game, plus there is a lot of depth in the 115-pound weight class, both at the regional level and up in the UFC. After a breakout performance this past weekend, “The Bull” has become someone to track going forward and it wouldn’t be surprising to see her in the Octagon before the year is out if she keeps this run of success going.

E. Spencer Kyte