'Cowboy' Cerrone moves to 170, meets Tim Means in UFC Fight Night 82 main event

Donald Cerrone

After getting stopped in 66 seconds in his shot at lightweight gold earlier this month in Orlando, Donald Cerrone is heading to welterweight.

Cerrone (28-7 MMA, 15-4 UFC) will move from 155 to 170 pounds and will debut in the division against Tim Means (25-7-1 MMA, 7-4 UFC) in the main event of UFC Fight Night 82 in Pittsburgh. UFC officials made the announcement tonight prior to the weigh-ins for UFC 195 in Las Vegas.

Cerrone got his shot at the lightweight title at UFC on FOX 17 in December following an eight-fight winning streak. But in the main event in Florida, champion Rafael dos Anjos stopped him just 66 seconds into the fight with a TKO. The champ never let “Cowboy” get started in the fight, hurting him with a knee before pounding him out with punches quickly into the bout.

After the fight, Cerrone told MMAjunkie he was unsure just how fast he would want to get back to work – adding that he wasn’t sure how fast the UFC would call him, given his performance against dos Anjos. But Cerrone gave no indication that a move to welterweight might be in his future.

Means got back in the win column in December with a “Performance of the Night” second-round knockout of John Howard at UFC Fight Night 80 in Las Vegas. Prior to that, he had a five-fight winning streak snapped when he was submitted by Matt Brown at UFC 189 in July.

With the addition, the latest UFC Fight Night 82 card includes:

• Donald Cerrone vs. Tim Means
• Cody Garbrandt vs. John Lineker
• Sarah Moras vs. Lauren Murphy
• Derek Brunson vs. Roan Carneiro
• Chris Camozzi vs. Joe Riggs
• Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Brandon Thatch
• Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Anthony Hamilton
• Shane Campbell vs. James Krause
• Alex Garcia vs. Sean Strickland
• Trevor Smith vs. Leonardo Augusto Guimaraes
• Daniel Sarafian vs. opponent TBA
• Bryan Barberena vs. Jonavin Webb

For more on UFC Fight Night 82, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.