Donald Cerrone and former UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis are both competing at UFC 246, with Cerrone headlining against Conor McGregor and Pettis facing Diego Ferreira.
Coach Duke Roufus says that Pettis and Cerrone were willing to fight each other for a second time, but the UFC didn't want to do it.
“They wanted to fight each other, they both accepted the fight, the UFC just doesn’t want to do it,” Roufus said to MMA Fighting. “It’s definitely not ‘Cowboy’. They both were down to do it, it’s just the UFC didn’t want to do the fight.”
Pettis and Cerrone met for the first time at UFC On Fox 6 in January of 2013, a bout Pettis won by first round knockout.
Roufus says there is another fighter who is interested in facing Pettis and that person is Dan Hardy.
“I’ve heard through the grapevine that Dan Hardy in his comeback wants to fight Anthony, that’s a good fight,” Roufus said. “Not in any way putting Dan down, I think that stylistically it’s a great fight for both fighters, for the fans, and that’s what we’re trying to do is find good fights that are interesting in our aspects.”
UFC 246 takes place on Saturday, January 18 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
