20/02/2018
Fan favourite Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone went into the main event at UFC Austin holding a 3 fight losing streak. By the end of a thoroughly entertaining 4 minutes and 58 seconds, he had snapped that streak and proven to the world that there is plenty of fight left in him yet.
The fight itself was a back and forth stand up brawl with both fighters landing heavy shots right up until Cerrone landed a crisp right hand which dropped Medeiros onto his face. Cerrone swooped for the finish and referee Herb Dean stopped the fight with just two seconds left in the first round.
With the victory, ‘Cowboy‘ moves to 33-10-0, 1 NC and equalled a company record previously held by Georges St Pierre and Michael Bisping – 20 career UFC wins.
Speaking on the FOX Sports post-fight show, Cerrone announced his intention to drop back down to 155lbs.
“I want ’55. I want to go get that belt, Khabib, I’m coming, baby. I’m coming. I ain’t scared to fight you.”
‘Cowboy‘ has a long history of fighting at lightweight and holds wins over former champion Eddie Alvarez, Jeremy Stephens and Benson Henderson at 155lbs. A loss against champion Rafael Dos Anjos led to Cerrone moving up to welterweight where he won his first four bouts before dropping his next three fights – the first time in his career he has endured back to back losses, let alone three.
Cerrone recognises that he is giving up some size and power to the natural welterweights he has been fighting. While he is 5-3 at welterweight, he acknowledged that perhaps lightweight is his best chance of success.
“These big ol’ boys hit hard and they’re a lot bigger, man,” Cerrone said. “Like, I woke up at 168 (pounds), made weight easy. I wish there was a ‘65 weight class. UFC, can we get a 165 weight class, please? Because that’d be cool.
“But yeah, I don’t know. Who knows, I’ll just fight whatever they tell me. They’ll call me and say, ‘We need you at 170,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Okay.’
“They all pay the same to me so it don’t matter what it is.”
Would you like to see Cowboy return to the lightweight division? Who would you like to see him fight next? Let us know in the comments.
For more of my MMA content, you can find me on Twitter @tommymull_mma.
