DONALD CERRONE VS. AL IAQUINTA HEADLINES UFC OTTAWA

The UFC’s most recent trip to The Great White North finally has its own main event. UFC Fight Night 150 takes place Saturday, May 4 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and my first reactions to the headliner are under.
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 the contracts are just waiting to be signed.
We’ve been waiting for a few months now to find out what the main event of UFC Ottawa would be. In the beginning, it was rumored to be a middleweight bout between Elias Theodorou and Derek Brunson which was widely panned by both fans and press as a mediocre main event. On the contrary, it appears that bout are the co-main occasion, for this fan-friendly fight 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 still not ready to go back to the Octagon, the UFC decided to proceed and book Cerrone and Iaquinta against one another instead. It’s a great fight on newspaper between two of the top lightweights in the world, along with the fans in Ottawa have to be very happy at this time about this being the main event of their Fight Night card.
Cerrone (35-11, 1 NC) is 22-8 overall from the UFC with experience combating both lightweight and welterweight. He’s currently riding a two-fight win streak which includes back-to-back endings over Mike Perry in 170lbs and Alexander Hernandez in 155lbs in his past 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 ever since that time. He’s among the most complete fighters in the UFC lightweight division and despite being 35-years-old seems like he’s maybe the best version of himself he has ever been.
Iaquinta (14-4-1) is 9-3-1 from the UFC and is coming from a huge upset decision win over Kevin Lee in his final fight. He has really won six of his last seven fights overall with his lone loss during that stretch coming into UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. That win series also includes a choice win over Jorge Masvidal that appears even better now that Masvidal only knocked out Darren Until at UFC London. At age 31, Iaquinta is at the prime of his career right now.
It’ll be interesting to see what the opening line is for this bout, but when I had to guess I would say Iaquinta would be slightly favored. Cerrone, despite having an wonderful record inside the UFC, was the underdog from Perry and Hernandez and typically doesn’t get as much respect because he deserves. Iaquinta was the puppy against Lee as well, but generally is the preferred in his fights. So I would guess it’s going to be a close opening line using a little lean to the younger Iaquinta. Either way, this is going to be a tremendous bout and kudos to the UFC for getting it reserved.
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