The “UFC: Cerrone vs. Miller” Aftermath

With UFC Dublin days away, Wednesday night’s event from the Revel Arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey flew seriously under the radar. The card didn’t have much at stake but was packed with fun scraps and topped by the lightweight meeting of veterans Jim Miller and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.

Strawweights Debut

The very first fight on the card, stuck on the fight pass prelims, will go down in history. Claudia Gadelha and Tina Lähdemäki threw down in the first ever strawweight fight in the UFC. Gadelha is tipped by many as a future champion and showed why as she put on a clinic of striking and wrestling to take the decision win.

Unfortunately, she will have to wait some time to get to the gold as the inaugural champion will be crowned following the season of The Ultimate Fighter current being taped. Gadelha was initially part of the house which includes stars like Felice Herrig, Rose Namajunas, Bec Rawlings, Joanne Calderwood and Ireland’s own Ais Daly. Gadelha was due to also be in the house but her chance to be the first 115 lbs champion was taken away because of concerns over her ability to make the weight regularly over the six week taping. Every cloud, though, has a silver lining. Gadelha is not only the first strawweight to get a win in the UFC, after last night’s performance, she will probably be the first to get a title shot.

Undercard Round Up

Yet again, team Serra-Longo produced one of the stars on a UFC card. This time it was bantamweight Aljamain Sterling who finished Hugo Viana via ground and pound in the dieing seconds of the fight after a dominant performance. Then, Leslie Smith produced a smashing display to knock out Jessamyn Duke before Gleison Tibau decisioned Pat Healy in a scrappy affair. The most impressive performance, also in the lightweight division, came from Edson Barboza who finished Evan Dunham with a repeated barrage of kicks to the body putting himself back into the mix. It wasn’t the last of the night’s body kicks, though.

Main Event Mayhem

There was no way the main event could disappoint. Lightweight #6 ranked Donald Cerrone against #7 ranked Jim Miller came in on red hot form. Cerrone won both of his fights this year in the first round while Miller also had first round finishes in his last two, both by submission. This one, though, went to the second round.

The fight started at a phenomenal pace with Cerrone countering the big left hand of Miller with knees to the body. The only problem was, he wasn’t avoiding the strikes and took plenty of damage early. Miller felt the effects and dove on two takedowns, from both of which Cowboy escaped. In the second Cerrone was more on point and shook Miller with a front kick to the body which crumbled him to the canvas. Luckily for Miller the referee saw it as a low blow and gave him time to recover. The damage was already done. Cerrone attacked the body again but when Miller dropped his hands to protect himself, Cerrone went high and landed a kick flush to the dome – knocking Miller out. On activity and quality of wins alone, Cerrone is back in the title picture. Next up for him looks to be Khabib Nurmagomedov in a fight which will, more than likely, determine the next 155 lbs challenger to Melendez or Pettis’ belt.

Full results:

Donald Cerrone def. Jim Miller via KO, 3:31, Round 2
Edson Barboza def. Evan Dunham via TKO, 2:06, Round 1
Rick Story def. Leonardo Mafra via Submission, 2:12, Round 2
Joe Proctor def. Justin Salas via TKO, 3:27, Round 2
John Lineker def. Alptekin Özkiliç via TKO, 4:51, Round 3
Lucas Martins def. Alex White via KO, 2:08, Round 4
Gleison Tibau def.Pat Healy via decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Leslie Smith def. Jessamyn Duke via TKO, 2:24, Round 1
Aljamain Sterling def.Hugo Viana via TKO, 3:50, Round 3
Yosdenis Cedeno def. Jerrod Sanders via TKO (Injury), 5:00, Round 1
Cláudia Gadelha def. Tina Lähdemäki via decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)