UFC 178 takes place tomorrow night, and one of the many high-profile bouts for the event takes place in the co-main event between Donald Cerrone and Eddie Alvarez.
MMAJunkie caught up with some of the stars of the event to give their picks for who takes the fight.
Dominick Cruz: We like Alvarez because he can mix in the wrestling, and that is something Cerrone has shown a weakness to in the past, but now its not really a weakness, and even if you do take him down he’s evolved his JiuJitsu to where he’s not just going for a submission to finish you, because he’ll go for a submission to finish you, and if he doesn’t get it he knows when to bail and to use that submission attempt to get back to his feet. Thats a huge thing in this game to be able to know when to bail, and when to go for the finish and Cerrone’s fine tuned his game and he knows what he’s doing.
Kevin Lee: I don’t know, I’ve been a Cowboy fan for a long time, since he beat Jamie Varner in the WEC, I’ve been a huge fan of him. So I kind of got to stick with Cowboy, I’m a fan of his so I think he’ll be able to get it, on the feet at least.
Demetrious Johnson: Don Cerrone, he typically doesn’t get dropped or rocked a lot, he’ll get dropped, and get back up and work his range, and I think Donald Cerrone is starting to come into his own, he’s fighting more often. I think he’s a fighter that gets better when he fights more often, so I’m going to have to go with Donald Cerrone in this one.
Cody Gibson: I got Cerrone man, I like Alvarez too. I think it’s going to be a crazy fight. I just think that Alvarez leaves too many openings in his game, he’s willing to take punishment in order to dish it out and as we’ve seen in the past 4 performances from Cowboy you cant take punishment from that guy, one liver kick or one shin to the face and its over. So Alvarez might surprise me, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was wrong, but if I had to put money on it I’d put money on Cerrone.
Tim Kennedy: You know you can’t describe whatever ‘it’ is, but Cowboy has it, he has it…he is the showtime main event, highlight reel finisher, he does it in the cage, in the octagon, and he does it in the gym, he’s just built that way. It’s a pleasure to be a teammate of his, and it’s fun to watch, so as a fan and a teammate of his, I’m going to be choosing Cerrone.