‘Cowboy’ Drops Back Down To Lightweight

Longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) veteran Donald Cerrone is dropping back down to Lightweight. “Cowboy” made the move up to the Welterweight division for the second time to face Conor McGregor at UFC 246, resulting in a first round knockout (see it again here).

Soon thereafter, Cerrone lost to Anthony Pettis at UFC 249 via unanimous decision, and then fought to a draw against Niko Price at UFC Vegas 11. In fact, “Cowboy’s” last win at 170 pounds came against Mike Perry back in 2018, so he’s hoping a drop back down to 155 pounds is the remedy to get him back on track. And despite going just 0-4-1 in his last five outings, Cerrone has no plans in retiring anytime soon.

“Everyone talking about I should slow down or I should stop. I want to retire when I want to retire. I don’t care what everyone else will say,” Cerrone said on his YouTube channel (via The Mac Life). “Realistically I probably got a couple of years left, and that’s probably four or five fights left in me. Who knows. I’m gonna go back to ’55 and make a run. Let’s go,” he said.

“It’s brutal, man, it’s hard,” Cerrone added about cutting down to 155 pounds. “It’s tough. It’s a lot of dedication, it’s a lot of teamwork. If I’m gonna do it and make a run, I’m gonna give it my all. I don’t want to half-ass it. I want to bunker down. … It would suck to remember the last bits of my fight career when I’m old and I’m like, ‘Man, I should have gave it a try. I should have ridden the wave and [not] slacked the last part of my career and regretted it. Just tighten it up, rock it, do it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work but at least I tried.

“It’s better than me saying, ‘We just kept it at [170], I just kept snowmobiling and playing and screwing off and letting it just dwindle off,” Cerrone added. “I’ll just buckle down, get serious and I only got a couple more years, so let’s do it.”

As a UFC Lightweight, “Cowboy” amassed a record of 17-6 compared to just 6-6 competing at 170 pounds.

It stands to reason that if Cerrone only has five or six fights remaining in his career, we likely won’t be seeing the “Cowboy” of old who liked to fight every two or three months, as his bouts will likely be a bit more spread out.

That being said, care to throw out a suggestion or three for his comeback fight?