He learned fencing under Ezio Triccoli, a family friend, who also coached Olympic champions Valentina Vezzali and Giovanna Trillini in their formative years.

[2] His bad temper got the best of him once again in the 1986 World Championships in Sofia: this time he received a full-year suspension after abusing the referees during his bout against Austria's Joachim Wendt.

At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Cerioni defeated three-time World Champion Aleksandr Romankov from the Soviet Union in the semi-finals, then East Germany's Udo Wagner, to earn the gold medal.

Cerioni took over Club Scherma Jesi while going on with his career, earning a team silver medal at the 1997 World Championships in Cape Town.

After the 2004 Summer Olympics he succeeded Andrea Magro as director of foil at the Italian Fencing Federation for the men's team.

[6] In December 2012 he announced that he would join the Russian Fencing Federation–Italy's main rival–as director of foil for both men and women,[6] taking with him assistant coach Giovanni Bortolaso and physical conditioning trainer Maurizio Zomparelli.