Donald Cerrone eyeing fight with Demian Maia after UFC 205

Donald Cerrone may have spent most of his UFC career as a top ranked lightweight, however Cerrone has recently been on a tear of the UFC’s welterweight division as he has gone 3-0 over the course of 2016. In his welterweight debut, Cerrone submitted Alex ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira before making it 2-0 when he became the first man to TKO Patrick Cote during ‘UFC Fight Night: Ottawa’. Most recently, Cerrone stepped into the Octagon against Rick Story at UFC 202 back in August, delivering a spectacular highlight reel TKO to earn himself the #6 ranking on the UFC’s official rankings.

With welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and #2 ranked welterweight Stephen Thompson currently set to fight at UFC 205 on November 12th, and Cerrone currently booked to fight #5 ranked Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 205, ‘Cowboy’ believes a matchup with #3 ranked Demian Maia is in the near future given that #4 ranked Carlos Condit has yet to decide whether he will retire.

Cerrone spoke during a media luncheon. MMAFighting has the scoop:

“What I really want to do (after UFC 205), which I think makes the most sense right now is Demian Maia,” Cerrone said during a pre-UFC 205 media lunch on Wednesday. “Let’s see if Demian will be ready to fight on December 30th. He’s up there kicking ass, so that’s what I want to fight.”

“He’s probably the guy to fight next for the title, right? He’s crushing everybody. A lot of those people get scared of people when they’re good. I like it. So, bring that sh-t on.”

In typical Donald Cerrone fashion however, ‘Cowboy’ admitted that if the money was right, he would be willing to drop all the way down to featherweight:

“Oh man, if the money’s right, I’d damn sure would make 145 (pounds). “No problem. It would suck, but here I am today, this morning, I was 176/177 pounds, eating whatever I want. So, it’s nice to fight up and heavy, right? For sure.”

This isn’t the first time Cerrone has expressed a willingness to make a drastic jump in weight. When discussing his future at welterweight in a recent interview, Cerrone informed fans that he would even be willing to go all the way up to middleweight if the opportunity arose.

With that being said, Cerrone likely won’t be leaving the welterweight division any time soon given his recent dominance.