Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone Pursuing Fight Against Conor McGregor
Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone is returning to the lightweight division and he has his sights set on a showdown against former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor.
Last Saturday night, Cerrone made short work of Mike Perry with a first round arm bar submission in what is expected to be his final fight at welterweight — at least for now — as he revealed afterwards that he planned to return to 155 pounds.
Cerrone spent the majority of his career fighting at lightweight and previously competed for the championship, although he came up short in his previous bid to win the title.
Now Cerrone is moving back to lightweight with the specific desire to go after the championship again and he hopes his first fight back will come against McGregor.
Cerrone released a photo on Tuesday alongside McGregor saying ‘just waiting on him’, which made it appear that an offer for the fight had already been made.
Sources close to the situation stated that no formal fight offer has been made to McGregor or Cerrone by the UFC regarding the potential matchup. It’s highly unlikely McGregor will be offered any fights until after he appears before the Nevada Athletic Commission on Dec. 10 to answer for his role in a post-fight brawl that occurred after his bout against Nurmagomedov ended at UFC 229.
McGregor faces possible penalties such as fines and suspensions and the UFC won’t attempt to book him into another fight until after his hearing in December.
That said, sources confirmed that Cerrone is absolutely pursuing the fight with McGregor through the UFC with hopes of facing him in 2019.
Cerrone and McGregor do have shared history together after getting into a verbal war at a UFC pre-fight press conference several years ago. There was also a separate backstage incident that reportedly took place between the two fighters when they were both competing on the same card.
For his part, McGregor has requested a rematch with Nurmagomedov for his next fight but added that he would be willing to fight whoever it would take for him to get back to a second shot at the undefeated Russian.
Given Cerrone’s name value as well as his records where he is now the fighter with the most wins and most finishes in UFC history, he could be a viable candidate for McGregor’s next opponent.
Obviously, nothing has been offered or accepted at this point in time but it’s absolutely a fight that Cerrone wants as he aims to return to the lightweight division and make an immediate splash in his first bout back.
