Donald Cerrone Reveals Who He Was Supposed To Fight At UFC Austin

Fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone will make his return in the main event of UFC Fight Night 126 on Feb. 18, 2017 in Austin, Texas against Hawaiian Yancy Medeiros, but he recently revealed that that wasn’t always plan.

In fact, “Cowboy”, who has competed at 170 pounds for the last two years, recently revealed that he was going to drop back down to lightweight for a rematch with Matt Brown:

“I was going back to 155-pounds, and I thought the fight was supposed to be with Matt Brown,” Cerrone told Jim Norton and Matt Serra in a recent appearance on UFC Unfiltered. “Matt Brown called, and I begged the UFC for the fight, I told them that he wanted to do it.”

“So originally, the fight was me and Matt Brown in Austin, main event,” Cerrone said. “So, I was like, ‘alright, I wanted to go down to 155, but f—k it, whatever, no problem. So then, they said ‘well, now Matt, I guess the day doesn’t work for him, I don’t know what the excuse was.”

Brown, who’s lost three of his last four fights, dropped a brutal knockout loss to Cerrone at UFC 206 in December 2016. He then bounced back with a vicious stoppage victory over Diego Sancez in a bout that he said he would retire after.

Cerrone, however, feels as if “The Immortal” may have wanted ‘redemption’:

“He was talking about retirement, and I guess maybe I was the fight that he wants redemption,” Cerrone said. “He doesn’t wanna go out like that – I have no idea. He was asking for the fight, and I was obliged to give it to him.”

As far as Medeiros goes, the 30-year-old has won three consecutive bouts and is coming off of a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate against Alex Oliveira at UFC 218 last month. When it was revealed that he would be available to fight, “Cowboy” jumped at the opportunity:

“So, now, here I am, main event in Austin, by myself, and then Yancy’s like ‘I’ll do it!’ So I said ‘OK, here we go!’

After dropping three straight fights, Cerrone will look to get back into the win column.