The wheels are in motion for Donald
Cerrone’s
Ultimate Fighting Championship return.
Advertisement
During a recent appearance on The Pacman Jones Show, “Cowboy” revealed that
he has re-entered the drug testing pool in homes of making a
comeback to the Octagon by next summer. The UFC Hall of Famer
initially
announced his retirement following a second-round submission
loss to Jim Miller at
UFC 276 in July 2022. The Combat Sports Anti-Doping website shows
that Cerrone has submitted to one test session thus far in
2024.
“I just re-entered the testing pool,” Cerrone said on the show. “I
have to be six months clean. Probably June, July we will make the
comeback. Coming back for two more. Just two more. I want 50 fights
in the UFC [under the Zuffa umbrella]. I promised the wife no
matter what happens, no matter the outcomes – two more and that’s
it.”
While Cerrone has previously competed at lightweight and
welterweight during his UFC tenure, he expects to fight in the
middleweight division this time around.
“I think it’ll be at [185 pounds] is what I’m coming back at,”
Cerrone said. “We’ll see my weight as I start to pick up my
training.”
Cerrone’s return has been the subject of some controversy, as the
41-year-old BMF Ranch founder has openly admitted to receiving
testosterone replacement therapy during his hiatus.
“When I retired, I told you I was getting my hair done and get on
steroids,” Cerrone said in a video on Instagram this past October.
“The No. 50 [under the Zuffa banner] has been sitting on my mind
for a while. So, I’ve been working with Transcend for the last two
years, taking TRT and a bunch of peptides. Now we got a protocol
for all you people that, ‘Oh, what if you get on it, you can’t ever
come off.’ Well, I now have to come off and piss clean, fight in a
few months. So, watch this.”
“Cowboy” has 48 combined fights while competing for
World Extreme Cagefighting and the UFC, a journey that began in
2007. The 41-year-old “Cowboy” is winless in his last seven UFC
appearances dating back to June 2019. His most recent victory was a
unanimous decision triumph against Al Iaquinta
in the UFC Fight Night 151 headliner on May 4, 2019.
Before calling it a career, Cerrone was one of the UFC’s most
popular athletes, renowned for his entertaining style and
willingness to maintain an active fight schedule. He enjoyed
success at both welterweight and lightweight, challenging for
155-pound gold in both the UFC and WEC. His record includes wins
over the likes of Charles
Oliveira, Jeremy
Stephens, Melvin
Guillard, Edson
Barboza, Miller, Eddie
Alvarez, Benson
Henderson, Patrick
Cote, Matt Brown,
and Mike
Perry. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2023.