A lightweight slugfest is the latest fight to be added to the UFC's Memorial Day weekend card.
Donald Cerrone (19-5 MMA, 6-2 UFC) will meet K.J. Noons (11-6 MMA, 0-0 SF) at UFC 160 in May. FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight" brought word of the fight booking on Tuesday night.
UFC 160 takes place May 25 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas with a main card on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook. Earlier this month, the UFC announced a main event heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva for the card, as well as a heavyweight bout between former champ Junior dos Santos and former top contender and former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem.
Cerrone is coming off a loss this past month to former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis at UFC on FOX 6 in Chicago. Pettis landed a body kick in the first round and followed it up with a couple of punches on the ground to get the stoppage. It was just Cerrone's second loss in his past 10 fights and the first time he had been stopped by knockout or TKO.
Cerrone, who twice fought for the WEC title, won his first four UFC fights in 2011 before a unanimous decision loss to Nate Diaz at UFC 141 snapped a six-fight streak. Then he picked up wins over Jeremy Stephens and a knockout of Melvin Guillard in 2012 before the loss to Pettis. In his eight UFC fights, "Cowboy," a Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA student, has six fight-night bonus awards.
Noons will make his UFC debut after a seven-fight run in Strikeforce that saw him go 3-4. The former EliteXC lightweight champ fought Nick Diaz for the welterweight title in a rematch from their EliteXC days in his third fight for Strikeforce, but lost a unanimous decision as Diaz avenged the loss from nearly three years earlier.
That setback was the first of four losses in five fights for the Hawaiian, all by decision. Sandwiched in between two-fight skids was a unanimous decision win over Billy Evangelista in December 2011.
At Strikeforce's finale in January, Noons dropped a split decision to Ryan Couture. It was a controversial loss that UFC President Dana White said he scored in Noons' favor, and many MMA media outlets scored the fight for him, as well. Regardless, he'll be looking to get back in the win column for the first time in what will be about a year and a half.
