Donald Cerrone says UFC telling him and Anthony Pettis to be ready for January bout

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

A bout between Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis has been a seeming inevitability for the last several months, but the fight itself has yet to be officially booked. The two fighters have been very clear in their willingness to fight one another, but Pettis' slowed recovery from shoulder surgery has delayed things a bit.

The two were in line for a coaching slot opposite one another on The Ultimate Fighter, but the UFC ultimately went with Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen for that slot. Now that they're not taking part in that, they're still awaiting word on when their fight will take place.

In an interview with BleacherReport.com, Cerrone revealed that the UFC has given them at least an idea of when they'll fight, but the actual date is yet to be locked down.

"Nothing’s set, they just keep telling us, mid-January, end of January, be ready for January," Cerrone said. "You know January will be a quicker opportunity to fight, if we were doing the [Ultimate Fighter the fight] would have been delayed until June or July."

Cerrone admits he would have enjoyed coaching TUF against Pettis, but he's more concerned now with getting back in the cage and having this fight happen.

"Obviously we got overrun by a bigger, badder wolf," he said. "That would have been awesome to be a coach against him, that would have been fun, it'd be entertaining, but I just want to fight."

Penick's Analysis: This Cerrone-Pettis fight seems like it's been in the works forever, and when it finally takes place it's going to be immensely exciting. With The Ultimate Fighter moving nights in January, it may be likely that this bout is being held out for an FX event to lead into the debut episode, and because of that they may be holding off on revealing anything about that date until they're ready to announce the new Ultimate Fighter day. This fight would be a great bout for FX at this stage, and the winner will probably earn a shot at the UFC Lightweight Champion.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_14752.shtml

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