‘That’d be cool’
That’s what Donald Cerrone said Saturday night when asked about the possibility of a fight with Conor McGregor. “I hope the fight goes through. I can’t get my hopes up.”
McGregor was open to a fight with Cerrone after watching him score a second-round TKO over Alexander Hernandez at UFC’s ESPN debut from Brooklyn. The win was impressive enough for McGregor to bite at Cerrone’s callouts of late.
“For a fight like that Donald, I’ll fight you. Congratulations,” McGregor tweeted Saturday night.
For a fight like that Donald, I’ll fight you.
Congratulations.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 20, 2019
So while both men seem willing to do the fight, Cerrone knows that at the end of the day, McGregor calls his own shots. “He dictates everything, man,” Cerrone told reporters.
If UFC president Dana White has anything to do with it, and he does, he says he’d like to see the fight happen.
“I mean, anything’s possible,” White said. “If those guys want that and the fans want to see it, that’s what I do…Obviously, don’t run out there and say that’s the fight I’m making. I don’t know what I’m going to do. But I like the fact that two of these guys that are complete dogs and fight anybody are willing to fight each other. That’s fun.”
Khabib eyeing GSP
If Conor McGregor is occupied with Donald Cerrone, that means UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov will need to find another big fight for himself. One possibility might be former welterweight and middleweight champ Georges St-Pierre.
“Georges St. Pierre is a very big name,” Nurmagomedov told Submission Radio (transcribed by MMAFighting). “I like, an opponent who is a very tough opponent and he’s a little bit bigger than me. If we’re gonna fight, we have to fight at 155, because 170 is his weight and he’s gonna be a little bit bigger than me. For me, it’s like a smart decision taking him to 155. He’s a very big challenge for me. Like, for my legacy, he’s a very good match-up for my legacy, for fans, for money, for everywhere now. I don’t know about his future, about his plans, but I respect him. In my opinion, he’s the greatest athlete who ever competed in the UFC, because he’s a champion inside the cage and outside the cage too. We’ll see.”
St-Pierre has talked of fighting at 155 pounds in the past, despite spending his entire career at 170 and fighting once at middleweight. His transition to middleweight led to some health issues so moving down might not be as appealing as it used to be. A shot at a UFC championship in a third division though may be enough to entice GSP back to the cage.
Monday Notebook
-Rachael Ostovich is staying positive following her loss to Paige VanZant in Brooklyn. “It’s definitely been a whirlwind, this past couple of months,” Ostovich said (via MMAJunkie). “And I just keep taking it day by day. And that’s just what it is, today, just another day. It’s not a bad life, just a bad day.”
-Dana White told reporters after UFC Brooklyn that he thinks Jessica Eye is getting the next flyweight title shot against Valentina Shevchenko.
Bellator 214 Countdown
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