Six years ago, Donald Cerrone didn’t have the optimistic attitude about fighter pay that he currently has.
Tonight, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone will take on Joe Lauzon in the co-main event of UFC Austin. In his perfect world, this would be one of the two remaining fights in Cerrone’s career before completing 50 total fights under Zuffa and then riding off into the sunset.
This target for the fan-favorite gunslinger could only be possible if the legend was satisfied with his career in the company.
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Ahead of his bout against Lauzon tonight, Donald Cerrone made headlines for comments made about fighter pay.
In short, Cerrone believes fighters should focus on making names for themselves and then the money will follow, as opposed to constantly complaining. Here is an excerpt from the recent media scrum:
“Yeah you’re making 12 and 12, but you just fought for Uncle Larry’s show for $500? I get it, win, win, win, get your name, and then the pay comes, and then the opportunities come, and then everything comes with it,” added Cerrone.
Ironically, six years ago, Cerrone was singing a different tune, and he even received a response from the bossman himself.
The following story is presented to you in its original, unaltered form, courtesy of The MMA News Archives.
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 23, 2016, 1:34 PM]
Headline: Dana White Responds To Cerrone Saying “According To My Pay, I Don’t Mean Sh*t To UFC”
Author: Matt Boone
UFC President Dana White appeared as the guest on the first-ever edition of the brand new “UFC Unfiltered” podcast with his “Dana White: Lookin’ For A Fight” co-star and former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Serra and comedian Jim Norton.
In addition to a number of noteworthy topics the UFC boss commented on, he reacted to the comments recently made by UFC Welterweight contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who made some head-turning comments about his pay after his dominant performance against Patrick Cote at UFC Fight Night 89. White responded to Cerrone’s stating that, “according to my pay, I don’t mean sh*t to the UFC.” at a UFC post-fight press conference earlier this month.
“Me and Cerrone are as tight as tight can be,” the UFC president said Tuesday on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. “And there’s a lot of personal stuff with me and Cerrone, too, on the positive side. But the kid made over $200,000 on a fight on free TV on the co-main event and the gate was $900,000. How much money does Cerrone expect to make on a co-main event? The kid looked great.”
According to White, who mentioned that he spoke with Cerrone since he made the comments, claimed that “Cowboy” told him that he was “half-joking” when he made the remark.
“This day and age, every fighter on Earth, especially when you look at the money Conor, Ronda, some of these people are making out there, it gets crazy,” White said. “Listen, everybody wants to make a million dollars. Everybody wants to make a million dollars. Some people get there and some people don’t.”
While “Cowboy” is 2-0 since moving up to the 170 pound division, and has won 10 of his last 11 fights, the UFC President claims he is too inconsistent to truly reach that next level.
“You’ve gotta win them all,” White said. “Every one is the most important and you’ve gotta work your way up and you’ve gotta win those big fights. And ‘Cowboy,’ again a kid that I love, hasn’t always taken everything so serious. You can’t be f*ckin’ rock climbing two days before your fight or wakeboarding the day of your fight. … You want to make that serious, big money, you have to get in the right mindset. And the way that he looked the other night against Patrick Cote is the way you have to fight when you fight dos Anjos or Diaz or any of the big guys. When you get to that big fight, you’ve gotta win.”
As the discussion on the topic came to an end, White indicated that Cerrone isn’t far off from being part of “that big fight.”
“I think the thing that’s frustrating, especially for a guy like ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, he has the personality,” White said. “Everybody loves the kid. His fighting style is f*cking exactly what I like. It’s right up my alley. Everybody I love about a fighter ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone is. He’s a couple fights away from having that big fight.”
You can check out the first episode of “UFC Unfiltered” with the Dana White interview by clicking here.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Dana White quotes.
Continue Reading Archives: White Responds To Cerrone’s Fighter Pay Complaints (2016) at MMA News.