Donald Cerrone likes the idea of fighting Conor McGregor at 170 pounds.
Cerrone (36-13 MMA, 23-10 UFC) will headline UFC 246 when he takes on McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) on Jan. 18 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in a welterweight bout. And Cerrone admitted he’s glad to not have to drain himself in the weeks leading up to the fight.
“He just took the edge off,” said Cerrone in his documentary series ‘More than a Cowboy’. “A lot of cutting that weight… Making it to fight week is just battling the weight cut, but now we get to go in there and have fun. Oh man. Thank you!”
Cerrone had a solid run at welterweight, going 6-4, taking out the likes of Alex Oliveira, Matt Brown, and Mike Perry.
But the former UFC lightweight title challenger made the drop back down to 155 pounds and has been competing at that weight for each of his past four fights.
He was all set to cut down to lightweight once again, until McGregor requested for the fight to be at welterweight.
“That was Conor’s idea,” Cerrone said. “We were already gearing up, trying to get down towards 155 and he said let’s do it at ’70 and I was like ‘done, OK’. It never mattered to me, weight never mattered to me either.
“The only problem me fighting at… when I was up at ’70, are those guys are big. Big, big. I’m like 177 right now, 178 and that’s like eating whatever I want. I think he wants to enjoy the holidays with his family and eat and drink, get in there and have fun, so I don’t blame him. Why not?”