For Donald Cerrone ‘Cowboy’ isn’t just a nickname, it sums up his whole approach to the fight game. Whether it’s in his laid back approach to finding opponents or his willingness to take on all comers, Cerrone’s attitude and ability to deliver inside the cage have made him a firm favourite with UFC fans.
Cerrone: “I’m hillbilly buddy, I’m not particular about anything.”
Not content with the regular old fighter hotel and a first class fight from Jackson’s in New Mexico, Cerrone and his team jumped in his RV and made a roadtrip of it, taking in a championship game in the process.
“We went and hit the Broncos game on Sunday before we came up here, so we drove up to the game and kept on driving up to Chicago.”
While he’s not particular about his fight preparation, he’s even less picky about his fights go and who he fights.
“I just told them I don’t care, I just want a date. I don’t care who I fight, find me someone who will take the fight and let’s do it. That’s what they did. I think he’s trying to make a point, so he’s coming hard which I want. The harder he comes the better the fight’s going to be.”
“I’m going for five or six fights this year, so let’s bring em on! Every two months, c’,mon!”
Recently, Cerrone spoke of having being less than careful with how he spends his money, and how he was looking to fight as often as possible to make more money, and maintain his lifestyle. With few fighters opening up on their personal finances, what motivated Cerrone to be so frank?
“I was just doing an interview and somebody was talking about money and I just said ‘yeah I need to fight because I’m broke. Fighting brings more money to me so I can buy more shit, so I like it.”
Cerrone’s name was back in the headlines last week when he was called out by featherweight fighter Cole Miller, who claimed that the two had a beef going back a number of years, and Cerrone certainly doesn’t seem disinterested in the fight should he make the call to drop down to the featherweight division.
“If I go to 145, Cole Miller will be the first person I fight, so he can have his wish granted. It depends if they can keep me busy at 155 or if I need to go down, it all depends – we’ll see how it plays out. Talk’s cheap right? Whatever.”
Sharing the card with Cerrone on Saturday is former lightweight champion Benson Henderson, who’s Seattle Seahawks will challenge Cerrone’s Denver Broncos in this ear’s Superbowl, and Cerrone says the banter between the two has already begun.
“We’ve been going back and forth on Twitter already, so it should be fun.”
After getting close to a title fight before, Cerrone is hungry for another title shot in the future. In working his way back up, Cerrone has no qualms about fighting anyone in the lightweight division – even fighters named Khabib Nurmagamedov.
“Do not care. I will fight anybody. ANYBODY. I will never turn a fight down. How does that sound?”
The eight time Fight of the Night winner is a proven finisher, and is guaranteed to entertain whoever he fights – there’s a reason the UFC chose to put him on a television card for the fourth time in two years. But as he says, “talk’s cheap”, and Cerrone prefers to do his talking in the cage. What message does he have for the fans ahead of Saturday’s fight?
“Just tune in. It’s going down.”
