There has been chatter that the UFC plans to sign Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez to fight fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 178. Unlike most newcomers to the UFC, Alvarez would enter the octagon as a veteran. Alvarez recorded his first professional MMA victory when he was nineteen-years-old — eleven years ago. The Blackzilian has been with Bellator since its conception back in 2009 registering an impressive 10-1 record with the promotion, but has not fought since November of last year when he captured the Bellator Lightweight Championship. Having been sidelined due to a concussion he sustained during training leading up to a rubber match against his rival Michael Chandler. During that time Cerrone has raked in four stoppage victories and as many post fight bonuses.

Alvarez (25-3) is currently riding a three-fight winning streak, however as previously mentioned has been out of action since November 2013. Prior to that bout, it was over a one-year hiatus due to legal issues with Bellator.

Cerrone (24–6, 1NC) has won bonuses in his last four outings, most recently a head-kick knockout against Jim Miller in July. “Cowboy” is riding a four-fight winning streak with other key victories against Evan Dunham, Adriano Martins and Edson Barboza.

Stylistically it would be an intriguing matchup.

Alvarez utilizes a mixture of boxing and wrestling in his approach, throwing very few kicks, and has constant lateral movement. While Cerrone’s style is kickboxing oriented — he throws abundant kicks, and moves forward with an erect stance.

The majority of Alvarez’s Bellator victories came by way of submission, which echoes the majority of Cerrone’s professional MMA victories. The “Cowboy” creates his submission opportunities with standing strikes, once his opponent is rocked he jumps on them looking for a submission rather than ground and pound. Whereas Alvarez creates his submission opportunities completely opposite, looking for a takedown to afford him ground and pound opportunities and from there tries for submissions.

Without having a shared opponent or competed for the same promotion, it’s hard to gauge how the two will look standing across from each other in the Octagon, but Cerrone would be the taller fighter at 6’1” against Alvarez’ 5’10” and also holds a four inch reach advantage. With that in mind it would be likely Cerrone would attempt to keep the fight standing in order to capitalize on the length discrepancy, while Alvarez should look to close the distance and shoot for takedowns. Not quite the classic striker versus grappler though, because Alvarez has posted fourteen career wins by KO/TKO.

A victory over top 5 ranked UFC lightweight Cerrone could quickly place Alvarez into title contention for another top tier MMA promotion.

By Brian Jeffries