According to the UFC, top lightweights Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Al Iaquinta will headline UFC on ESPN+ 8. The card will take place on May 4, 2019, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone
Cerrone, a former UFC lightweight title challenger, has spent the majority of the last few years competing at welterweight.
Following a one-sided loss to then 155-pound champion Rafael dos Anjos in 2015, “Cowboy” decided to make the jump up in weight. During that stretch, he went 6-4 with all six of those victories coming via stoppage.
Following a submission victory over Mike Perry last November, however, Cerrone announced that he would be returning to lightweight. Most recently, he scored a TKO victory over Alex Hernandez in January in the UFC’s debut on ESPN+.
Over the past few months, the 35-year-old has campaigned for a fight with Conor McGregor, though the bout hasn’t materialized.
Al Iaquinta
Iaquinta, meanwhile, is coming off of a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over Kevin Lee in their rematch this past December.
Prior to that, the Long Island native had come up short against reigning Khabib Nurmagomedov last April. He accepted the bout on just one day’s notice and lost via unanimous decision. The bout gave a home to the vacated lightweight title.
Speaking on the fight against “Cowboy”, Iaquinta had the following to say.
“I just think it’s a great fight,” Iaquinta told ESPN. “I’ve been watching Cowboy since his WEC days. I like these fights, fighting guys I came up watching and always wondering how I would do against them, thinking I could beat them. I have a lot of respect for Cowboy.
There are a lot of big fights coming up in this division. Anybody could get a big win and see their stock skyrocket.”
The Card
As far as the rest of the card goes, it has not yet been finalized. However, a middleweight bout between Derek Brunson and Elias Theodorou and a heavyweight bout between Arjan Bhullar and Juan Adams have been announced.
