Training out of Albuquerque, New Mexico with Jackson's Submission Academy, Donald Cerrone is an up and coming lightweight fighter currently competing in the WEC. Cerrone possesses a true fighting spirit, a tremendous heart and is willing to battle wherever the fight may go (ground or standing). He is an aggressive fighter who's always pressing and looking to finish but also displays tremendous composure and has shown many times in the past that he's next to impossible to finish - even when he's been hurt.

A former professional muay thai fighter, Cerrone brings forth an excellent repertoire of skills on his feet. Although he hasn't displayed one punch knockout power, Cerrone possesses a quick and accurate, high level technical striking game that has crossed over very well to mixed martial arts. Cerrone's standup game features powerful, snapping leg kicks, sharp knees, an excellent jab, and he's also an effective counter striker who possesses a solid right cross. Cerrone has a tremendous chin and has shown he is more than capable of taking a punch, and mixes up his striking well - stringing together quick and precise combinations. Extremely aggressive, Cerrone will stalk his opponents around the cage with an unrelenting, tenacious brand of standup (his fight with Rob McCullough being a perfect example). Cerrone is an extremely confident fighter and at times seems almost too relaxed during his fights. He often keep his hands low, comes in with little to no head movement and is slightly flat on his feet - resembling more of a traditional muay thai stance (which shouldn't be too surprising given his background), a tendency that has made him susceptible to the straight right counter in the past. Cerrone is not invincible on his feet, but his attitude, experience and technical skills are excellent and there's no doubt he does possess a very respectable striking game for the sport.

Cerrone shows excellent fight awareness in all areas, and is quickly able to transition from striking to submission attempts. Constantly working and actively searching for submissions, Cerrone has proven very effective fighting off his back where his flexibility and long legs have made him particularly dangerous with triangle chokes and armbar attempts. In fact, despite his muay thai base the majority of his wins (nine of ten) have actually come by submission - with eight of those submission victories coming via triangle choke or armbar. Cerrone has also displayed decent takedowns and solid ground and pound, but his overall wrestling skills (including his ground control), and especially his takedown defense will need considerable work (he's actually been quoted in the past as saying his takedown defense "sucks"). Not being able to stop the takedown played massive roles in the only two losses of his career - against Jamie Varner and Ben Henderson in fights where he was continuously taken down by the stronger wrestlers. Cerrone's submission skills and technical jiu jitsu abilities have developed very nicely throughout his career and have proven to be effective. The big hole in his grappling game appears to be his wrestling, and his overall ground potential will largely be determined by how effectively he can plug it.