Former two-time welterweight title challenger, Stephen Thompson has offered former lightweight title chaser, Donald Cerrone a route back to the UFC in the form of a pairing against himself — urging the Colorado native to consider a matchup if he wants to refrain from a lightweight return.
Thompson, the current number eleven ranked welterweight contender, has been sidelined from action since he faced off with the surging, Joaquin Buckley at UFC 307 late last year, suffering an eventual third round knockout loss to the St. Louis finisher.
As for Cerrone, the former undisputed lightweight title challenger and Hall of Fame inductee, hit the headlines in a major way last annum to boot, confirming plans to make a return to combat sports and enter the Octagon again for the first time since his 2022 retirement loss against Jim Miller in their rematch clash.
Stephen Thompson offers Donald Cerrone fight in UFC return
And officially eyeing a return to the anti-doping testing pool ahead of a mooted summer return to action, Cerrone has been offered an interesting pairing with Simpsonville striker, Thompson — who suggested the veterans should face off next.
“So maybe I’m thinking April-May time [for a return to the UFC], I think would be cool just because I’m a huge fan of (Donald) Cerrone and he comes from that old school era that I kind of came from almost 13-14 years ago, so it’s cool that he wants to jump back out there,” Stephen Thompson said on the Overdogs Podcast.
“I thought it would be awesome if he doesn’t want to cut the weight to 155, maybe to make that fight at 170, I thought it would be really cool to have two veterans like that step back out there and face off against each other,” Stephen Thompson explained. “But nothing booked yet, but that’s what I’m kind of shooting for, that April-May time.”
