Cowboy Cerrone Moving up to Welterweight, Will Face Tim Means at UFC Fight Night 82

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After coming up short in his UFC on FOX 17 lightweight title fight against champion Rafael dos Anjos, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s next fight will be in the welterweight division.

UFC officials announced on Firday that Cerrone would face Tim Means in the UFC Fight Night 82 main event on Feb. 21 in Pittsburgh. It will be Cerrone’s debut at 170 pounds.

Means competed four times in 2015 and is coming off a knockout win over John Howard at UFC Fight Night 80 on Dec. 10. He went 3-1 for the year with the one loss coming to sixth-ranked Matt Brown.

Cerrone had an eight-fight winning streak snapped in his last outing and hopes to rebound from the loss in a new weight class.

UFC Fight Night 82: Cerrone vs. Means takes place at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. It will be the second event the Las Vegas-based fight promotion has hosted in Pennsylvania’s second largest city

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http://www.mmaweekly.com/donald-cerrone-moves-to-welterweight-faces-tim-means-in-ufc-fight-night-82-main-event

I think it's a really good move. There's a ton of great fights for him at 170.

i agree that its a good move. He was too big for lightweight, usually towering over opponents; the cut must have been tremendous and exhausting. It is probably one of the reasons that he could not get to the top, the other one was always his inability to move his head out of the way. He just stands there taking punches while hoping that his harder ones are enough to win. And that is why i am worried about him fighting so much and so often. This next fight will be about two months after being tko'd, cannot be good for his brain. Together, dangerous weight cut, which can affect brain activity and punishment to his head in fights, his later life could be in jeopardy.
i know that they used to fight much more often in pride and other leagues, but it doesn't mean its good. Look at big nog, he can barely put sentences together. Not to mention Wandy's state of mind...
This new influx of information about brain damage in combat or collision sports, where that doctor on whom the movie "concussion" is based, claimed that up to 90 percent of hfl players have CTE, is worrisome. I only imagine how bad fighters damage is.
The rules have to change. The time in between fights should be longer, otherwise, eventually, when more medical scientific evidence comes in and these fighters start showing signs, the changes will be more drastic. Just like with everything people do, overreact and go to the opposite extreme.

He's been susceptible to the body kicks crippling him too so maybe not having to cut weight will help.

Yeah he does fold up pretty badly when he gets hit in the body.
I think a little more muscle would serve him well. It's not always a good idea for fighters to go up in weight. You usually see fighters have some success when moving down, but rarely up. But he's different IMO. He's so scrawny at LW that you can see the points of all the bones in his shoulders and everything! That can't serve his defensive armor game too well. lol!

lol @ defensive armor.

FistK wrote:

lol @ defensive armor.

lol!!

Yeah that's the best phrase I could come up with to try and explain what I was talking about. Sounded better to me than "being a little bit fatter so it doesn't hurt as much when you get punched in the stomach and/or rib area".

i wish the ufc would implement a few more divisions like a 163, 195, and a super hw division. they have enough fighters to fill each class and it would make for a lot of interesting fights

cerrone is in a weird place. he will not be a champ at lw and he wont be a champ at ww i feel bad for the dude because he is a super talented fighter but he will always be the gatekeeper to the title fight

ugh... the last thing I want is more weight classes.

That being said, I think the UFC should do more of (and maybe even encourage) catch-weight fights for not title holders. I don't think catch-weight fights screw up anyone's standings for an individual weight class AND on top of being able to put together more interesting fights, can also double as a feeling out period for fighters thinking of changing classes.

yeah but there are guys who are caught in the middle. guys like cerrone, benson, masvidal, wandy, machida etc theres a lot of fighters that would benefit from a few other weight classes.. i would mostly like to see a 195 division and super hw just for the fun fights.

I could stand to see a super HW heavyweight division and maybe one more, but that's about it.
In fact, what I'd rather see is a SHW division and then a reshuffling of HW and LHW. Something like this;
MW= 171-185
LHW=186-200
HW= 201-230
SHW=230+

that actually makes a lot of sense. id like to see that as well.