Donald Cerrone Will Literally Fight Anyone the UFC Puts in Front of Him
Donald Cerrone walked out of Atlantic City with three things on his mind: his grandma, NASCAR, and the next fight he'll have.
First he'll hang with g'ma and other family on the Jersey Shore, then it's off to watch his buddy Kevin Harvick race a car at speeds quicker than you can say “Donald is good at kicking and face-punching.” But soon after that, “Cowboy” wants to ride back into the Octagon for another fight, another payday, and much like Wednesday night's fight in Atlantic City, another $50,000 bonus.
And it won't matter who he's paired with; Cerrone just needs a date and time to show up and scrap.
“I will literally fight anybody,” Cerrone said during the UFC Fight Night 45 post-fight press conference. “UFC tells me a day and time to be there, and I'll gladly be there. Nate [Diaz], Khabib [Nurmagomedov], anybody. I want to fight. Sooner the better, and I'm looking forward to getting back out there.”
Cerrone won his fourth fight in a row on Wednesday, putting his hands — not to mention his well-placed high kick — on his way to a knockout of resident contender Jim Miller in the UFC Fight Night main event.
The win was also his fourth consecutive finish, and it firmly placed Cerrone in the shuffle of the always-competitive UFC lightweight division.
The fighter was cautious with Miller at first, as Cerrone has been in most of his fights. The slow start is something he typically plans on, and he explained that with everything happening at the moment, one has to go through a feeling-out process before pulling the trigger.
“I concern myself because that's a dangerous time,” Cerrone said. “Just trying to feel him out and figure it out and put it all together. There's a lot going on.
“When you're really in there and gotta do it, it's hard to pull the trigger. Mastering that art is something I'm still working on.”
But in typical Cerrone fashion, he eventually found his groove. The fighter landed a head kick that would lead to the end of the fight in the second round.
Now it's on to family, friends, race cars, and an eventual spending spree of his bonus money. Hopefully, for Cerrone's sake, he'll get another bonus check sooner than later. And maybe next time he'll get some chants in his favor, unlike the ones from Wednesday's crowd, which cheered on their local fighter.
Surely grandma will chant his name.
“You hear the boos, and then ‘Miller, Miller, Miller,' but it doesn't motivate me either way,” Cerrone said. “It would have been a lot cooler if it was ‘Cowboy, Cowboy, Cowboy.'”
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