Donald Cerrone vs. Melvin Guillard Full Fight Breakdown

In a fight that looked to have all the makings of a Fight of the Year nominee, Donald Cerrone cemented his status as a thrilling fighter by battling out of a hole to knock out the heavy-handed Melvin Guillard in an exciting battle that lasted only 76 seconds.

Some fights just seem to lend themselves to high action and high stakes, and anytime Melvin Guillard’s name is attached, you know there is a very good chance that someone is going home early.

Seconds into his fight with Guillard, Cerrone looked like he was on his way to church as a witness to that fact.

As they mixed it up early on the feet, Cerrone missed with a high kick attempt and Guillard caught Cerrone with a hard left-hand counter that dropped him.

Cerrone began to rise and Guillard stormed forward in an attempt to close the show, missing with a hard knee but landing some of his following punches.  Cerrone began to circle away, trying to clear the cobwebs from his head while Guillard continued to follow, waiting for a clear chance to unleash another flurry that would end the night.

As exciting as Guillard is, he has shown a tendency of becoming complacent at all the wrong times—be it in training or in the cage—and that usually leads to one dropping their guard.

That lack of constant vigilance has seen Guillard fall in first round stoppages to Jim Miller, Joe Lauzon, Rich Clementi, Joe Stevenson, Josh Neer and others.

As he stalked the wounded Cerrone around the cage, he would fall into bad habits once again and pay the usual toll.

Cerrone launched and landed a beautiful left-leg kick to Guillard’s head, which in turn led him to walking into post holes, and Cerrone finished the night with a straight right that saw Guillard sprawled face first on the canvas, out cold.

Guillard is back to the drawing board, which is a shame, really. He has all the natural, God-given gifts to be the best lightweight champion the division has ever seen, but he and his camp can’t seem to pull it all together into a tight, cohesive whole that he can drive straight toward the title.

As for Cerrone, he's won eight of his last nine bouts and is without a doubt a main-card fighter from here on.