Donald Cerrone wanted his fight with Joe Lauzon in front of a crowd, and during a pre-UFC 274 scrum, he explained why.
Early this year, the UFC announced the booking of the fight between veterans Donald Cerrone and Joe Lauzon for an APEX event in April. But for reasons unbeknownst to many, the bout was pushed back to UFC 274 this Saturday in Phoenix, Arizona.
During his pre-fight media scrum on Wednesday, Cerrone said he preferred for the fight to be in front of a large crowd. And while trying hard to hold back tears, he explained why.
“It’s not me, it’s my son,” he told reporters. “I can’t wait to walk out of that tunnel and see the look on his face… he knows finally what I do. It’s crazy how emotional I get, but anytime I was working out and I didn’t want to do it, that’s who I thought of.
“I can’t f—ng wait. I cannot wait to see him smile, like, ‘Wow, this is my dad!’ That’s why I wanted a sold-out crowd to walk out that tunnel, blow the roof off this place, and look over and see my son, like, ‘Wow, dad. That’s you.’”
Cerrone couldn’t help but look back on his early days with the Tapout crew and how it’s affected his view on his career over the years until today.
“I remember when I first signed with Tapout, and Mask used to tell me ‘I’m just looking for one person that can touch millions.’ I don’t care about touching all these people, I just want to find one person I can touch, one person that can touch a million people and change lives,” he said.
“And I feel like they did a good job of finding me and making an impression on me to help mold and sculpt these people.
“Now, I know what it means to find that person, and when I walk out of that tunnel, I cannot wait to walk and see my son and say, like, ‘Yup. I’m changing you, boy. You’re gonna grow up with the morals and ethics that I think are appropriate in this world. And change you and help you move on to sculpt the next generation of people.’”
Cerrone (36-16, 2 NC) is looking to bounce back from a three-year winless streak. He last saw action in May 2021 against Alex Morono and lost via first-round TKO.