UFC on FOX 17 Preview: Dos Anjos vs. Cerrone 2

It was the night of August the 28th, 2013 when Rafael Dos Anjos cruised to a unanimous decision victory of Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone. The two will meet again tomorrow night but this time, the lightweight belt will be on the line as Cerrone seeks revenge whilst Dos Anjos looks to defend his belt for this time.

Dos Anjos embracing his title win at UFC 185.

Cerrone, has already fought three times this year, two of those being in the space of fifteen days all the way back in January. Successful in all three, Cerrone looks to make that four as he enters his first UFC title fight ever. For Dos Anjos, only once has he stepped inside the octagon this year, nine months ago back in March when he dominated the former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis for five rounds to secure UFC gold. Often overshadowed by the Jon Jones incident which occurred a few weeks later, many people have forgotten about Dos Anjos' flawless performance that night against a man who had previously only lost once in the UFC before. It has been a great year for Dos Anjos's training camp, Kings MMA, who not only have a new champion in Rafael, but also a new champion in heavyweight Fabricio Werdum, who defeated Cain Velasquez at UFC 188 in Mexico City to secure the second lot of UFC gold for Kings. 

It's not been a bad year for Cerrone's camp either. Training at Jacksonwink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, they have had great success through recently new UFC women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm, who took gold back to Albuquerque last month when she put an end to Ronda Rousey's reign in magnificent fashion. Cerrone will be looking to top off an excellent year for Jacksonwink, and take home his first ever piece of MMA gold in the process.

Finally, JDS and Overeem will fight on Saturday.

Another man who will be looking to put the icing on the cake for Jacksonwink is experienced kickboxer Alistair Overeem, who finally faces Junior Dos Santos in the co-main event of the evening on Saturday. The two heavyweights where originally planned to fight three and a half years ago, at UFC 146 for the heavyweight belt.  However, Overeem failed his pre-fight drug test due to his testosterone levels proving to be too high. Frank Mir who stepped in to replace Overeem in the main event, and it was Dos Santos who would go on to win by knockout in the second round and defend his belt in the process. The two were then planned to meet at UFC 160, in a heavyweight bout which determine the #1 contender as Dos Santos had by then lost his belt to Cain Velasquez back at UFC 155. Once again the fight did not take place, but luckily for Overeem, the reason was different this time. A leg injury meant that he had to pull out, so Mark Hunt filled in for him. The same outcome as UFC 146, Overeem's replacement was knocked out by Dos Santos, however it was a picture perfect spinning hook kick which sealed this time. And now, we are here. Finally, this highly anticipated match-up which was supposed to occur years ago, will take place tomorrow to most likely determine who will be next in line for a heavyweight title shot.