With a planned bout with Anthony Pettis suddenly in doubt, UFC lightweight contender Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone isn't sure what to do with himself.
Pettis was on Monday hospitalized with a staph infection in his arm, and while the former WEC champ is hoping for a quick recovery, Cerrone is concerned "Showtime" might not be ready for a planned January contest.
Now, "Cowboy" has to decide if the reward of Pettis is worth the risk of waiting. With just two fights under his belt in 2012, Cerrone is more interested in staying busy, and he'll happily move up a weight class to do it.
"That's the No. 1 contendership, so of course that means something," Cerrone told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "That's the ultimate goal to get that title, chase that dream. So it makes sense. Does waiting on him make sense? I don't know."
Cerrone fought most recently in August, when he earned a thrilling 76-second knockout of former training partner Melvin Guillard. Both before that fight and again after, he was linked to a potential bout with fellow WEC vet Pettis, but the Roufusport product has endured a series of injuries, including shoulder surgery and now an infection, that have left a viable date for the contest anything but a certainty.
"It sucks," Cerrone admitted. "I need to get with my management team, and we need to figure out what's going on. Is Pettis going to be out longer? Do we need to look at somebody else? What is our plan of attack? I don't even know. If you're getting surgery on your elbow, how long are you going to be out for you. Are you going to be ready in January? Are you not?
"We were supposed to go for Denver. No. OK, we'll be ready in December. January. Now February? March? I understand the guy is hurt, but I've got bills to pay, too."
For now, it's simply more questions than answers for Cerrone. Both UFC officials and his own management team have advised the 29-year-old against taking fights simply to stay busy, especially when an 8-1 mark over his past nine fights have inched him to within striking distance of a UFC title shot.
But Cerrone is a fighter at heart, and he's finding patience to be a difficult virtue.
"Absolutely 100 percent I want that belt, but do I want to stay active and keep fighting?" Cerrone asked. "That gives me the lifestyle I want to live – staying active and staying busy.
"As I get older and my career goes on, I'm going to have to start being more selective on the fights, but listen, if I'm going to preach and I'm going to say, 'Cowboy will fight anybody, anywhere, anytime,' when they call me I'm going to have to be a man of my word."
And Cerrone says that word doesn't necessarily apply only to favorable matchups, fights that would allow for a full training camp or even fights in his own weight class. Just call him, Cerrone said. Just call him.
"I'm 180 pounds right now," Cerrone said. "For me to make 170 would be a cakewalk. I would definitely do it 100 percent. I would never say no to a fight. If Jon Jones calls, I'll fight him. That's my teammate. Leonard Garcia at 145, that's my brother, and I'd fight him. That's just my attitude toward this sport. You've got to get out there, and you've got to lay it all on the line. You've got to fight hard because that's what people want to see.
"At this point, they could call me tomorrow and say, 'Hey, man, we need you next week,' and I'll be game on."
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