The rookie case
2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147
His first card in a licensed Zuffa product, issued while he was still a WEC fighter and a year before he ever walked to a UFC cage. Topps carried WEC fighters in this 150-card base set, and the eBay catalogue title keeps the 'WEC Fighter' designation, which is how you tell it apart from his later UFC-era base cards.
- Earliest licensed card2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 High confidence
- First MMA card2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 High confidence
- First UFC card2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 High confidence
- First certified autograph2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autographs #FA-DCE High confidence
- Recognized rookie card2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 Probable
The evidence behind each
- 2010Earliest licensed card — Cardboard Connection gives the 24 February 2010 release date and the 140 UFC plus 10 WEC composition, and SportsCardsPro's card page confirms 'Donald Cerrone #147, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event'. The only other 2010 candidate, Leaf MMA #36, is from a set released 22 September 2010.
- 2010First MMA card — Collectibles.com's register records nothing before 2010 and states he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2010'.
- 2010First UFC card — Cardboard Connection confirms the WEC fighters sit in the Main Event base set; his first card as a UFC fighter proper is 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #73.
- 2011First certified autograph — Cardboard Connection dates Title Shot to 4 May 2011 and records a 50-card Fighter Autographs subset, which matches the archive. The other 2011 Cerrone signature, Finest UFC #A-DCE, comes from a product released 31 August 2011, and Collectibles.com's register shows the Title Shot autograph as his earliest priced card. No Cerrone signature exists in any 2010 product.
- 2010Recognized rookie card — Collectibles.com states 'Donald Cerrone debuted as a Rookie in 2010' without naming a card, and eBay's catalogue title for #147 carries '(RC)'. SportsCardsPro's rookie field on the same card reads 'No', and no printed rookie logo has been documented. The only other 2010 card of him, Leaf MMA #36, is from an unlicensed set released seven months later.
Key Cerrone cards
10 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.
Card history
Cerrone's cardboard starts in the WEC rather than the UFC. Topps carried WEC fighters in its 150-card 2010 Topps UFC Main Event set — 140 UFC fighters and 10 WEC fighters — released on 24 February 2010, and #147 is his first card in a licensed Zuffa product, issued a year before he ever walked to a UFC cage and eight months before the two promotions merged, with the 'WEC Fighter' designation in the catalogue title that distinguishes it from his later base cards. The same year brought 2010 Leaf MMA #36, listed as 'Donald Cowboy Cerrone' in a 100-card base set that carries no UFC or WEC marks at all; Leaf shipped on 8 October, seven and a half months after Main Event, so the licensed card is unambiguously the earlier of the two.
The rookie question is decided by convention rather than by print. eBay's catalogue sells Main Event #147 as the (RC), while SportsCardsPro's data panel on the same card reads 'Is Rookie Card: No', and nothing confirms a printed RC logo on it; Collectibles.com's register simply dates his rookie season to 2010 without naming a card. Leaf #36 is flagged 'not a rookie card' on the strength of being unlicensed, and it is seven months later besides. Most sellers instead treat 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #73 as his 'real' UFC card, but that came out on 4 May 2011, fourteen months after Main Event, so the earliest licensed card and the card the market calls the rookie are the same thing only if you accept the marketplace flag.
2011 is the year everything a Cerrone collector chases arrives. He beat Paul Kelly at UFC 126 in February, and Topps' 4 May Title Shot release — a 150-card crossover set of UFC veterans, legends, debutants and WEC fighters — gave him base #73 plus his first two certified autographs: Fighter Autographs #FA-DCE, from a 50-fighter subset, and Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-DCE, a signed swatch from a 35-contender subset and the harder of the two to run down. No print run is published for either subset. Title Shot's parallel names are also reported two ways, one source giving Gold, Onyx /88, Red /8 and Diamond 1/1 where another gives Silver /188 and Bronze /88.
Finest, released 31 August 2011, gave him his first chrome card and his first proper serial-numbered chase: base #76 with Refractor, X-Fractor /388, Gold Refractor /88, Octa-Fractor /8 and Red Refractor 1/1. The Finest Fighters autograph #A-DCE carries the deepest parallel run of any Cerrone signature from the Topps years — X-Fractor /88, Gold Refractor /25, Octa-Fractor /8, Red Refractor 1/1 — but the checklist tags it as an exchange card, so packs held a redemption rather than the signed card, which is one reason live copies are thinner than the print runs suggest. The same product produced an Iron Sharpens Iron dual autograph with Clay Guida numbered to 25. After that the trail goes quiet for a decade.
Panini's first Prizm UFC brought him back at base #12, behind the widest colour ladder he ever had — Silver and Green through Red /275, Neon Green /75, Mojo /25, Gold /10, Lucky Envelopes /8, Octagon /8 and Black 1/1 — and gave him Prizm Signatures #1, literally the first card of a tight 20-subject autograph checklist and his first Panini-era signature, with Gold /10 and Black 1/1 at the top. He went into the UFC Hall of Fame's Modern Wing in July 2023 with more Zuffa wins and more post-fight bonuses than anyone, and Topps answered the following March with the 13-subject Hall of Fame Autographs subset of Chrome UFC, #HFA-DCE, running Refractor /150, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1. The checklist starts that ladder at /150, so whether an unnumbered version exists is unclear.
Autographs
5 certified autographs in the archive.
Card eras
Topps UFC Main Event, released 24 February 2010, built a 150-card base set from 140 UFC fighters and 10 WEC fighters, and #147 is Cerrone's first licensed card — eight months before the WEC merged into the UFC. Leaf's unlicensed 2010 Leaf MMA gave him a #36 the same year, but not until 22 September.
He beat Paul Kelly at UFC 126 in February, and Topps put him in the May release of Title Shot at #73 with a Fighter Autographs #FA-DCE and a Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-DCE. Finest UFC followed with base #76 through the full refractor ladder and the #A-DCE Finest Fighters Autographs exchange card.
Panini's first Prizm UFC used him at base #12 and, more importantly, gave him Prizm Signatures #1 — the first card of the Signatures subset and his first Panini-era certified autograph.
A year after his July 2023 induction into the UFC Hall of Fame's Modern Wing, Topps Chrome UFC put him in the 13-card Hall of Fame Autographs subset at #HFA-DCE, Refractor /150 down to a SuperFractor 1/1.
Rookie parallels
Sets
Where Cerrone's key cards come from.
- 20102010 Topps UFC Main Event1 key card
- 20102010 Leaf MMA1 key card
- 20112011 Topps UFC Title Shot1 key card
- 20112011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autographs1 key card
- 20112011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autograph Relics1 key card
- 20112011 Finest UFC1 key card
- 20112011 Finest UFC Autographs1 key card
- 20212021 Panini Prizm UFC1 key card
- 20212021 Panini Prizm UFC Signatures1 key card
- 20242024 Topps Chrome UFC Hall of Fame Autographs1 key card
Buying & wanted
- 012010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 (WEC Fighter) — the rookie, and its Gold parallel
- 022011 Finest UFC Finest Fighters Autographs #A-DCE Octa-Fractor /8 or Red Refractor 1/1
- 032011 Finest UFC Iron Sharpens Iron Dual Autographs #ISI-JC (Clay Guida / Donald Cerrone) /25
- 042024 Topps Chrome UFC Hall of Fame Autographs #HFA-DCE Refractor /150 or better
Nothing from the archive is currently available.
Cards come and go one at a time. Selling one?
No FightCardboard verified sales recorded yet.
A verified sale is a transaction we completed or watched happen. Until there is one, there is nothing here to cite.
Sources & research High confidence×10Probable×6
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Donald Cerrone's rookie card: 2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 — Donald Cerrone.
2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 is his first card in a licensed Zuffa product. Topps included WEC fighters in the set (Cardboard Connection's Title Shot write-up confirms Topps was still carrying WEC fighters into 2011), and Cerrone's card is catalogued on eBay as '2010 Topps UFC Main Event - WEC Fighter Donald Cerrone #147 (RC)'. SportsCardsPro lists the same card at #147 but its data panel reads 'Is Rookie Card: No', so the RC designation is a marketplace convention rather than a printed RC logo. Main Event released 23 Feb 2010 (TCDB, via the archive's existing set record), which puts it ahead of everything else he has.
- eBay2010 Topps UFC Main Event - WEC Fighter Donald Cerrone #147 (RC), accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProDonald Cerrone #147 | 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProDonald Cerrone #36 | 2010 Leaf MMA, accessed September 22, 2026
- 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autograph Relics, accessed September 22, 2026
- eBay2010 Topps UFC Main Event Donald Cerrone #147 Base Card, accessed September 22, 2026
Cerrone's cardboard starts in the WEC rather than the UFC. Topps carried WEC fighters in its 150-card 2010 Topps UFC Main Event set — 140 UFC fighters and 10 WEC fighters — released on 24 February 2010, and #147 is his first card in a licensed Zuffa product, issued a year before he ever walked to a UFC cage and eight months before the two promotions merged, with the 'WEC Fighter' designation in the catalogue title that distinguishes it from his later base cards. The same year brought 2010 Leaf MMA #36, listed as 'Donald Cowboy Cerrone' in a 100-card base set that carries no UFC or WEC marks at all; Leaf shipped on 8 October, seven and a half months after Main Event, so the licensed card is unambiguously the earlier of the two.
The rookie question is decided by convention rather than by print. eBay's catalogue sells Main Event #147 as the (RC), while SportsCardsPro's data panel on the same card reads 'Is Rookie Card: No', and nothing confirms a printed RC logo on it; Collectibles.com's register simply dates his rookie season to 2010 without naming a card. Leaf #36 is flagged 'not a rookie card' on the strength of being unlicensed, and it is seven months later besides. Most sellers instead treat 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #73 as his 'real' UFC card, but that came out on 4 May 2011, fourteen months after Main Event, so the earliest licensed card and the card the market calls the rookie are the same thing only if you accept the marketplace flag.
2011 is the year everything a Cerrone collector chases arrives. He beat Paul Kelly at UFC 126 in February, and Topps' 4 May Title Shot release — a 150-card crossover set of UFC veterans, legends, debutants and WEC fighters — gave him base #73 plus his first two certified autographs: Fighter Autographs #FA-DCE, from a 50-fighter subset, and Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-DCE, a signed swatch from a 35-contender subset and the harder of the two to run down. No print run is published for either subset. Title Shot's parallel names are also reported two ways, one source giving Gold, Onyx /88, Red /8 and Diamond 1/1 where another gives Silver /188 and Bronze /88.
- 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autograph Relics, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProDonald Cerrone #FA-DCE | 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Autographs, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProDonald Cerrone #FAR-DCE | 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Relic Autographs, accessed September 22, 2026
Finest, released 31 August 2011, gave him his first chrome card and his first proper serial-numbered chase: base #76 with Refractor, X-Fractor /388, Gold Refractor /88, Octa-Fractor /8 and Red Refractor 1/1. The Finest Fighters autograph #A-DCE carries the deepest parallel run of any Cerrone signature from the Topps years — X-Fractor /88, Gold Refractor /25, Octa-Fractor /8, Red Refractor 1/1 — but the checklist tags it as an exchange card, so packs held a redemption rather than the signed card, which is one reason live copies are thinner than the print runs suggest. The same product produced an Iron Sharpens Iron dual autograph with Clay Guida numbered to 25. After that the trail goes quiet for a decade.
Panini's first Prizm UFC brought him back at base #12, behind the widest colour ladder he ever had — Silver and Green through Red /275, Neon Green /75, Mojo /25, Gold /10, Lucky Envelopes /8, Octagon /8 and Black 1/1 — and gave him Prizm Signatures #1, literally the first card of a tight 20-subject autograph checklist and his first Panini-era signature, with Gold /10 and Black 1/1 at the top. He went into the UFC Hall of Fame's Modern Wing in July 2023 with more Zuffa wins and more post-fight bonuses than anyone, and Topps answered the following March with the 13-subject Hall of Fame Autographs subset of Chrome UFC, #HFA-DCE, running Refractor /150, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1. The checklist starts that ladder at /150, so whether an unnumbered version exists is unclear.
- Checklist Center2021 Panini Prizm UFC — MMA Card Checklists, accessed September 22, 2026
- Checklist Insider2024 Topps Chrome UFC Checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- SportsCardsProDonald Cerrone [Gold Refractor] #HFA-DCE /50 | 2024 Topps Chrome UFC Hall of Fame Autographs, accessed September 22, 2026
2010 Topps UFC Main Event #147 — Donald Cerrone.
2010 Leaf MMA #36 — Donald Cerrone.
2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #73 — Donald Cerrone.
2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autographs #FA-DCE — Donald Cerrone.
2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-DCE — Donald Cerrone.
2011 Finest UFC #76 — Donald Cerrone.
2011 Finest UFC Autographs #A-DCE — Donald Cerrone.
2021 Panini Prizm UFC #12 — Donald Cerrone.
2021 Panini Prizm UFC Signatures #1 — Donald Cerrone.
2024 Topps Chrome UFC Hall of Fame Autographs #HFA-DCE — Donald Cerrone.
- Checklist Insider2024 Topps Chrome UFC Checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- SportsCardsProDonald Cerrone [Gold Refractor] #HFA-DCE /50 | 2024 Topps Chrome UFC Hall of Fame Autographs, accessed September 22, 2026
- eBay2024 Topps Chrome UFC - Hall of Fame Autographs Donald Cerrone #HFA-DCE (AU) (catalogue page), accessed September 22, 2026