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What’s the story?
Donald Cerrone has outlined his desire for a shot at the UFC Lightweight Championship in the coming months as he prepares to face Tony Ferguson this weekend at UFC 238.
Although the match has not officially been declared as a Number One Contender match, ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone has made it clear that he fully expects to be next in line should he overcome Ferguson on June 6th.
In case you didn’t know...
UFC’s Lightweight division has really started to pick up recently. Just this week it was announced that the title unification bout between Dustin Poirier and Khabib Nurmagomedov would be taking place at UFC 242 in September.
UFC President, Dana White, even went as far as to suggest that Conor McGregor would be waiting in the wings for a match against the winner of Poirier and Nurmagomedov.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, White said:
“Conor wants the rematch with Khabib. All these guys have been fighting, again, this thing’s going to play out this weekend and then September 7 in Abu Dhabi, and then we’ll figure out what’s next for Conor. I absolutely could [see a rematch].”
Needless to say, Cerrone has very different ideas…
The heart of the matter
You can forgive Cerrone for believing he should have his chance to fight for the Lightweight throne. After all, if he does manage to defeat Ferguson at UFC 238 this weekend, he would be on a four-fight win streak against a host of top-level Lightweight fighters.
Cerrone had this to say in a recent conversation with MMA Junkie:
“This is a No. 1 contender, so this is undoubtedly the way (to the belt). I think I can go in there and finish him. I really do. He’s got a kind of questionable jaw, and he’s just real looney and crazy. If you can beat crazy with crazy, let’s go.”
What’s next?
Dana White will be in no rush to plan out the long term future of the Lightweight division at this point.
You have to believe that White will wait to see what happens at UFC 238 and 242 before making any concrete plans for the division.
However, rest assured that this weekend Donald Cerrone and Tony Ferguson will be doing everything they can to make it impossible for White to overlook them when it comes to deciding the next number one contender to the UFC Lightweight Champion.
