Donald Cerrone’s long road to UFC lightweight gold was ended in 66 seconds as Rafael dos Anjos recorded his first successful defence of the belt. The Brazilian stormed through Cerrone at 1.06 of the first round for the quickest stoppage in UFC lightweight title history.
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Now, a lengthy 155-pound storyline is set to commence as Dos Anjos, Nate Diaz, who impressively upset top-ten fighter Michael Johnson, and Charles Oliveira, who scored a nasty guillotine choke to beat Myles Jury, all called out featherweight king Conor McGregor at UFC on Fox 17.
And it didn’t take long for the divisive Irishman to respond as he wrote on Twitter yesterday: “Line them up on their knees with their hands out. I want them to beg me.”
The loss was the first for Cerrone since August 2013, when he dropped a decision to Dos Anjos. Riding an eight-fight winning streak, Cerrone promised a rematch would be different, but the Brazilian was more than up to the challenge.
After the win, Dos Anjos sent his invitation to McGregor, who captured the featherweight belt by knocking out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds last weekend, to move up to lightweight.
Line them up on their knees with their hands out. I want them to beg me. pic.twitter.com/YCYf0QslNR
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) December 20, 2015
The former plumber and his coach, John Kavanagh, have expressed an interest in fighting at lightweight in 2016 and Dos Anjos said: “Listen, McGregor. If you want to come to the lightweight division, this is my division.”
But Diaz also fancies a shot at the Irishman and arguably provided the strongest case to do so after his thrilling win over Johnson.
In an interview immediately after the unanimous victory he said: “Conor McGregor, you’re taking everything I worked for. I’m gonna fight your ass. You know what’s the real fight, what’s the real money fight – me. Not these clowns that you already punked at the press conference. Ain’t nobody wants to see that. You know you can beat them already. It’s an easy fight. You want the real s***. Right here.”
It’s clear that McGregor is a man in demand and earlier in the night Oliveira also laid claim to taking on the UFC’s biggest star.
“I’m coming,” Oliveira said looking straight into the camera. “Conor don’t get happy ‘cause I’m going to get you.”
It all means that Frankie Edgar, who became the No. 1 contender to take a shot at McGregor’s featherweight crown after knocking out Chad Mendes last weekend may have to wait a little longer.
On who “Notorious” will fight next Kavanagh wrote in his the42.ie column: “If Frankie Edgar wants a shot at the featherweight title or Aldo wants a rematch, we’re fine with that. But they’ll have to wait, because that lightweight belt is next on the agenda.”
