The UFC have informed Donald Cerrone and Johny Hendricks that they’ve been earmarked for title shots in their respective divisions next.
It was already widely anticipated that ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone would be the next in line to fight lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos after amassing an impressive eight fight winning streak over the course of the past year and a half.
However, Cerrone is the type of guy that likes to keep active, and so even though he has a golden opportunity at his feet he’s recently started hinting that he doesn’t want to wait around for the injured dos Anjos to return at the end of the year.
“So I woke up this morning thinking I’m not really the sit around until December kinda guy??” Cerrone wrote last week.
The 32 year-old actually went as far as to float the idea of getting another fight in the mean time to the UFC’s brass, but according to the UFC Tonight show they turned him down and insisted that they want him to fight for the title.
Cerrone has fought Dos Anjos previously – in fact the current champion was the last man to defeat him, outpointing him back in the summer of 2013.
Meanwhile, in the welterweight division Hendricks is reported to have been earmarked for another shot at the title.
The former champion is expected to be in attendance at UFC 189 next month to watch current title holder Robbie Lawler fight Rory MacDonald in the co-main event of the evening and will then fight the winner at an event later in the year.
Hendricks is coming off a decision victory over Matt Brown back in March, his first fight back after losing his title to Lawler in December of last year.
