Donald Cerrone: Rankings don't Fkng matter!

Donald Cerrone agreed to fight Darren Till because 'rankings don't (expletive) matter anyway'

From mmajunkie.com

GDANSK, Poland – Donald Cerrone knows he has a lot more to lose than gain in his UFC Fight Night 118 headliner with Darren Till, but he doesn’t seem to care.

An established fan-favorite like Cerrone (32-9 MMA, 19-6 UFC) agreeing to fight an unheralded opponent like Till (15-0-1 MMA, 3-0-1 UFC) is an increasingly rare occurrence in the modern UFC. Top fighters are largely concerned about facing someone who has a ranking next to their name; they aren’t as willing to take the risk of fighting lesser-known opposition compared to when official rankings didn’t exist in the sport.

Cerrone, who meets Till in Saturday’s welterweight main event on the UFC Fight Pass-streamed card at Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland, isn’t one to fret over such things. His enjoyment of the sport trumps the politics of enhancing or weakening his position in the division, and he said that’s for the best, because fighters who dwell on their place in the rankings don’t appear much better off.

“The rankings don’t matter,” Cerrone told MMAjunkie. “I feel like in the last year the rankings don’t (expletive) matter anyway, right? ‘Cowboy’ takes a fight with somebody (unranked), and they’re like, ‘What the (expletive)?’ But someone who has the title can fight anybody they want, and it’s like, ‘Ah, that’s just a good fight.’ Come on, man. It seems like the last year the rankings aren’t mattering. I just needed an opponent.”