Dana White: The UFC won’t book Cerrone vs. Lauzon again
The UFC president is moving on from the snakebitten fight between Cerrone and Lauzon.
Sorry, but UFC president Dana White is not going to book Donald Cerrone vs. Joe Lauzon again.
Cerrone and Lauzon are now 1-1 in fight cancellations. ‘Cowboy’ was forced to withdraw from their original fight scheduled for UFC 274 in May after reportedly contracting food poisoning and falling ill hours before the pay-per-view. The rescheduled fight was set for the co-main event of UFC Austin this past Saturday, but ‘J-Lau’ was removed after his left knee locked up following official weigh-ins, and he could not stand or walk on the day of the event.
Though Cerrone and Lauzon were still interested in sharing the Octagon at some point, White and the UFC brass are uninterested. When asked if the fight would be booked for a third (and potentially final) time, White said the promotion would move on from it.
“Probably not,” said White during his post-fight press conference (video provided by MMA Junkie). “That thing is getting like Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. No, I will not book that fight again.”
The fight between Ferguson and Nurmagomedov was the very definition of snakebitten. It was scheduled — and canceled — five times for various reasons, including injuries and the coronavirus pandemic. Hoping to avoid that scenario, White decided against rebooking Cerrone and Lauzon.
White also revealed he would begin working on a new date and opponent for Cerrone soon.
“He just cut that weight yesterday,” said White. “We sit, and wanted to see if he wanted to fight in July, but he doesn’t want to cut weight again, so he won’t fight in July. We’ll figure something else out with him.”
Cerrone confirmed that he would be speaking to UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby about his next appearance.
“They offered me one really soon, and I said we’re going to have to talk about a catchweight for sure,” said Cerrone on the UFC post-fight show. “I’ve shown I can make the weight back-to-back. So it’s not the weight. So we’ll see. I’m going to talk to Sean here tonight and we’re going to figure it out. I’m sure you guys will see me in the next couple weeks.”
A name that has offered to fight Cerrone is Damir Ismagulov, who defeated Guram Kutateladze by split decision at UFC Austin.