UFC 246: Donald Cerrone on How Conor McGregor “Took The Edge Off” For Upcoming Fight

When it was announced that Donald Cerrone and Conor McGregor are going to battle in a welterweight contest, and not at lightweight, it caught more than a few people off guard. Well, as it turns out, it looks like “Cowboy” also wasn’t expecting that to happen, but he’s happy that it did.

Cerrone thanks McGregor for welterweight fight

Although McGregor has fought at welterweight in the past, his 2016 bouts with Nate Diaz took place at 170, the expectation was that his next bout would be at lightweight. After all, following his loss to lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov last October, McGregor repeatedly called for a rematch. When his return was being planned, McGregor didn’t mention any welterweights as possibilities.

Well, now McGregor is booked to fight Cerrone at UFC 246, January 18th, at 170. Recently the docu-series “More Than a Cowboy” was released, which is following Cerrone leading up to the bout. According to a recent report from MMA Junkie, one of the episodes featured Cerrone saying the following, about McGregor’s request to have the fight at 170.

“He just took the edge off,” said Cerrone. “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!”

“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 … 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?”

Yup. While having the fight at 170 also means McGregor doesn’t have to make the cut, it’s not surprising to hear Cerrone was pretty stoked about the news. While Cerrone isn’t big for that weight class, as he alluded to, making 155 is still a tough road for him.

Further, more than a few people have argued that having the fight at 170 favors Cerrone. Will Conor still have the same pop in his hands at that weight? Will Cerrone’s cardio be that much better since he doesn’t have to make the drop to 155? We shall see soon enough.

UFC 246 line-up

Here is the complete line-up for UFC 246, which will be hosted by T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on January 18th.

UFC 246 Main Card 0n ESPN+ PPV (10 p.m. ET):

170 lbs.: Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone
135 lbs.: Holly Holm vs. Raquel Pennington
265 lbs.: Maurice Greene vs. Aleksei Oleinik
115 lbs.: Claudia Gadelha vs. Alexa Grasso
155 lbs.: Diego Ferreira vs. Anthony Pettis

UFC 246 Prelims Card 0n ESPN (8 p.m. ET):

145 lbs.: Maycee Barber vs. Roxanne Modafferi
145 lbs.: Andre Fili vs. Sodiq Yusuff
155 lbs.: Drew Dober vs. Nasrat Haqparast
145 lbs.: Grant Dawson vs. Chas Skelly

UFC 246 Early Prelims Card 0n ESPN+ (6 p.m. ET):

205 lbs.: Aleksa Camur vs. Justin Ledet
125 lbs.: Askar Askarov vs. Tim Elliott
135 lbs.: Brian Kelleher vs. Ode Osbourne
125 lbs.: J.J. Aldrich vs. Sabina Mazo

*Fight card, bout order and the amount of matches subject to change.

Line-up via MMA Mania