Donald Cerrone announces return to lightweight division: “I’m gonna give it my all”

Donald Cerrone is putting the UFC welterweight division behind him and heading back to the lightweight division.

Cerrone has spent the most recent chapter of his career competing in the 170-pound welterweight category. Despite a strong start in the division, however, he’s recently fallen on hard times, experiencing losses to Anthony Pettis and Conor McGregor and draw against Niko Price in his most recent welterweight fights.

On the heels of these losses, Cerrone has decided to drop back to lightweight, where he’s experienced the biggest wins of his illustrious MMA career.

“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 in a video 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.

“It’s brutal, man, it’s hard,” Cerrone added. “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.”

Do you think this is the right move for Donald Cerrone?