Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Anthony Pettis are running it back a third time, and nobody is throwing a punch. RAF announced Wednesday that the two former UFC fighters will wrestle each other at RAF 15 on November 28 at NOW Arena in Chicago, MMA Fighting reported.
It’s the RAF debut for both men. MMA Fighting pushed the news out on X with a simple line about the pair meeting on the wrestling mats, and an r/MMA thread on the signing went up within minutes. Two guys who spent years trading strikes in the octagon are now going to spend a night trying to put each other on their backs.
Pettis owns the series so far
This rivalry has been one-sided on paper. Their first fight came in 2013, and Pettis needed only a Round 1 knockout to get rid of Cerrone during the run that ended with Pettis holding the UFC lightweight title.
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The rematch took seven years. They finally met again at UFC 249 in 2020, and Pettis got his hand raised a second time, though the decision was hotly disputed and Cerrone’s side of the argument never fully went away. So it’s 2-0 Pettis, with one of those wins carrying an asterisk depending on who you ask.
Where they’ve been since
Cerrone’s last competitive appearance was in the UFC in 2022, and the ending wasn’t kind. He closed out his long run with the promotion on a seven-fight winless streak, then stepped away. November 28 will be his first time competing in roughly four years.
Pettis has kept a much busier schedule. His most recent MMA bout came under the PFL banner in 2022, and he’s bounced between boxing and Karate Combat since then. His last outing was in 2024, when he beat Chris Avila by unanimous decision on the undercard of the Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal boxing card.
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That gap in activity is the most obvious storyline heading into Chicago. One guy has been in front of crowds and judges recently. The other hasn’t competed at all since his UFC exit.
Quick take
I’m into this, and it’s mostly because of the format. The thing that ended their first meeting, a Round 1 knockout, simply doesn’t exist on a wrestling mat, and the second fight was close enough that people still argue about the scorecards. Strip the strikes out and you get a version of this matchup neither man has a real edge in from history, which is the most interesting thing you could do with a trilogy where one side already went 2-0. Cerrone has spent a lot of time on the wrong end of results lately, and a clean night on the mats against the guy who beat him twice would be a far better memory to walk away with than that winless UFC finish. Pettis has the recent reps. Cerrone has the motivation. Chicago, NOW Arena, November 28.
