It might be an excruciating summer for Donald Cerrone, but the UFC is asking him to sit tight and wait.
On Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight it was reported that Cerrone has been informed by the UFC that he is next in line to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title, once dos Anjos. The new 155-pound champ is recovering for surgery to repair a torn MCL, and is expected to be ready to fight again in December.
Cerrone is coming off a TKO victory over John Makdessi at UFC 187 in May. Makdessi was a replacement for Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was originally booked to meet “Cowboy” in a No. 1 contender’s bout. With Nurmagomedov still on the shelf, Cerrone was the leading candidate to get a shot at dos Anjos when he came back.
However, even though Cerrone had indicated initially that he would wait out the timetable for dos Anjos’ return, in the last week he seemed to have changed his mind.
“So I woke up this morning thinking I’m not really the sit around until December kinda guy??” he tweeted out last week.
According to the report, Cerrone in fact did ask the UFC for another fight while dos Anjos’ recovers, but the UFC told him no, that he was getting the title should and he will have to wait it out.
Cerrone is currently on an eight-fight win streak, dating back to 2013. His last loss came in August of that year against none other than Rafael dos Anjos, who scored a unanimous decision victory over him at UFC Fight Night 27 in Indianapolis.