Rafael dos Anjos, Donald Cerrone square off for lightweight belt at UFC

The December 19 event takes place inside Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. UFC officials subsequently made a formal announcement of the fight.

Prior to his winning gold, the Brazilian walked away with a dominant unanimous decision over Nat Diaz in the co-main event of UFC on FOX 13.

Dos Anjos took on Nurmagomedov on the preliminaries, in what many thought-about Nurmagomedov’s largest check as a rising star. Cerrone went so far as to accuse dos Anjos of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Dos Anjos said he had a torn MCL in the weeks leading up to the fight against Pettis, which has kept him on the sidelines since then.

Needless to say, Cerrone has more than earned his keep among UFC lightweights and undoubtedly deserves a chance to challenge dos Anjos in December. That run consists of 4 post-fight bonuses and victories over an inventory of established fighters like Edson Barboza, Jim Miller, Eddie Alvarez, Myles Jury, and Benson Henderson. He fought seven times in 15 months from November 2013 to January 2015 – all wins – to work his way into the top spot. His last win was a second-round TKO over late replacement, John Makdessi, at UFC 187 on Memorial Day Weekend.

Cerrone (28-6) is on a division-best eight-fight win streak.