Donald Cerrone worried Khabib Nurmagomedov fight won't be entertaining for fans

Donald Cerrone and Khabib Nurmagomedov haven’t officially signed on the dotted line, but Cerrone knows Nurmagomedov is the only man left if he wants to earn a title shot.

In fact, Nurmagomedov (22-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) and Gilbert Melendez are the only Top 10 fighters in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings Cerrone (27-6 MMA, 14-3 UFC) hasn’t already fought.

“This is the guy – that’s it,” Cerrone told MMAjunkie. “He’s the only one left before getting the belt. Stylistically, he’s going to be a terrible fight, man. I’m a striker, he’s a wrestler. So I’ve gotta get my wrestling on. I like fighting. I don’t give a sh-t.”

Cerrone is currently on a seven-fight winning streak, most recently beating Benson Henderson at UFC Fight Night 59 in Boston about a month ago.

In the undefeated Nurmagomedov, Cerrone faces an opponent who might require him to deviate from his standard approach to training. Cerrone generally approaches every camp the same, but acknowledges that change may be necessary – to a degree.

“I’ll definitely gauge my training toward wrestling,” Cerrone said. “But you never know what he’s going to do. He may try – but I doubt it. His striking’s not top level. He’s probably just going to try to wrestle the sh-t out of me.”

Having picked up eight fight-night bonuses in his UFC career, Cerrone is one of the most crowd pleasing fighters in the promotion – something he takes pride in, and something he knows might be tough to continue against a wrestler.

“I want to fight,” he said. “Not only fight on a date, but actually go in there and throw down. So, for someone that wants to just come and wrestle me and not make it an entertaining fight, I hate that on my side because I don’t give the fans what they want to see. I want to throw down.”

Check out the full video of Cerrone’s interview with MMAjunkie above.

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