Donald Cerrone: Unbeaten Darren Till 'might be more dangerous' than Robbie Lawler

EDMONTON – Donald Cerrone is unsurprisingly thrilled to return to the octagon next month at UFC Fight Night 118, even if he has to travel for his first fight overseas in a decade.

Cerrone (32-9 MMA, 19-6 UFC) will headline UFC Fight Night 118 opposite undefeated welterweight prospect Darren Till (15-0-1 MMA, 3-0-1 UFC). The event takes place Oct. 21 at Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland, and streams on UFC Fight Pass.

There’s no secret “Cowboy” is ready and willing to fight anyone at any time. Till asked for a marquee matchup following his unanimous-decision win over Bojan Velickovic at UFC Fight Night 115 this past weekend, calling himself the best striker in the 170-pound division.

Cerrone, No. 12 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, said he’s ready to help figure out whether that’s true.

“We’ll find out (if he’s the best striker),” Cerrone told MMAjunkie. “Good, I hope you are. It’s good fun. I love fighting, and apparently he does too. It’s going to be in Poland. Euro-trip 2017, here we come. … I don’t even watch my own fights let alone other people’s. I don’t know anything about him, but good. Right on. It’s a good opportunity for him.”

Cerrone is coming off a unanimous-decision loss to former UFC champ Robbie Lawler at UFC 214 in July. It was one of the most anticipated fights of the year, and now he moves into a bout against a foe he admittedly knows nothing about. Despite his lack of awareness about Till, Cerrone said he’s taking the fight as seriously as any other in his career.

“I know Robbie, so this new guy might be more dangerous,” Cerrone said. “I was up-and-coming once. I was in his shoes. He might be the next guy. You can’t look at him like, ‘Oh, this guy sucks.’ He’s undefeated. We’ll see. It’s like going from like a farm team, called up to the big show and now he’s the main event, five rounds – that’s a lot. Lights, camera, action.

“We’ll see how he does with the pressure and everything. I don’t know much about the guy, but I’m sure he’s super pumped. He has five weeks. It’s not like he has a lot of time to worry about this. Oh (expletive), here we go.”

Although Cerrone doesn’t care much for repercussions, it’s hard to deny accepting a fight with Till at this point is risky. Cerrone is sitting on a two-fight losing skid for the first time in his career and certainly has no desire for it to stretch to three.

The American said he’s not putting pressure on himself, though. He’s going to enter the fight with a smile on his face like always, and if he performs well, a return to the win column will come.

“Fighting Robbie was probably one of the funnest fights I’ve ever had,” Cerrone said. “I took a loss, but I don’t think I lost much credit. Hopefully not. Hopefully people aren’t mad. Back-to-back losses sucks. I don’t think about it like that. I just go and do what I love. Now I get to go to Europe and do what I love.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 118, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.