Issue 122

December 2014

UFC lightweight Donald Cerrone has cashed more checks than the IRS in the last 12 months – but there's one piece of gold the maverick gunslinger is yet to get his hands on

It's 6am yet Donald Cerrone's Friday is already in full swing. With a weekend of wakeboarding and partying ahead, he's up early at his ranch in Edgewood, New Mexico, checking on the progress of his new training facility and ensuring his livestock have all they need for the next couple of days.

Soon enough, 'Cowboy' is flooring the accelerator of his RV, raising dust during the familiar two-hour drive through the red desert from his ranch to Ute Lake, where his party boat is permanently moored for these two-day excursions. 

Training, partying and extreme sports is a complete way of life for the UFC lightweight contender, who's full-time 'screwing around' philosophy somehow, incredibly, has ignited a sensational hot streak in his fighting career, taking him within touching distance of the UFC belt.

The last 12 months couldn't have been scripted any better for Cerrone. Five fights, five wins and four bonus checks including an unofficial title eliminator with incoming former Bellator king Eddie Alvarez, who he destroyed with leg kicks for a decision win.

Success, it seems, only comes naturally to Cowboy when he's got a beer in one hand, a weekend of free climbing or bull riding ahead, and a fight every other weekend. It's not orthodox by any means, but it sure is proving effective.

Ask to reveal the secret of his new-found success, Cerrone tells FO: “I'm just having fun, man. I'm just playing around and enjoying myself, truthfully; doing all the things I done to get me here in the first place. It's all just clicked. 

“Having fun again and just living life has made all the difference. For a little while I just took it all too serious. I forgot who I was, that's all...”

It has been reported that a climbing accident, when Cerrone fell 40 feet from a ledge at the beginning of 2013, was the catalyst for feeling a new responsibility toward his life and career. But he disregards that opinion and insists it was more a case of peer pressure forcing him to 'grow up' and take his career more seriously that set him on the wrong path.

“The climbing accident I had was actually part of me having fun again,” he laughs. "That wasn't like a trigger for me to go straight and stop fooling around. I'd already decided at that point that I need to have fun again and just enjoy my life. 

“For a while I started listening to everybody. Everybody was talking about how I play more than I train and I started believing it all when what I should have done is just do what I do. I let that s**t get into my head and that's why I lost my way.”

Cowboy insists it was actually going back to the late nights, the partying, beer-drinking and the extreme-sports lifestyle that proved to be his salvation and has set him on the road towards a title shot in 2015. “That's definitely what's happened,” he says, “in fact I'm up early to go wakeboarding right now.” 

He adds: “This lifestyle is me, 100%. It's this lifestyle which makes me myself, and so I can't pretend to be somebody else. I tried to clean up my diet, I tried to change my attitude. I listened to what people were saying and I stopped screwing around and stopped doing dangerous things, like all these cool sports. 

“I started to eat healthy, I quit going out, drinking beer and partying. And it just made me unhappy. Soon enough I started to regret being a fighter and having to go train. I resented the fact I couldn't have fun because I had to train and I started to hate being a fighter.

“It's all about being happy with your life, and having fun. At least, that's what works for me anyway. I couldn't be a fighter and be miserable about having to go train; I love training. But I love the other aspects of my life just as much. And one without the other didn't make sense. It just made me miserable.”

Forget about sports psychologists, forget about nutritionists, strength and conditioning gurus and even whip-cracking coaching teams, Cerrone insists that simply going back to the reasons he started fighting in the first place – because he enjoys it – has been the key to his revitalized title surge. 

“That's absolutely it. That's exactly what I've done. Took the bulls**t out of it and I'm just sticking to what makes it work for me, and that's training and competing because I enjoy fighting. Nothing else.”

It's a unique approach to a career, and while you simply cannot argue with the results, it's also one Cerrone is quick to discourage his colleagues – especially up-and-comers – from recreating themselves.

“I don't know whether it's something I would recommend young fighters to do,” he warns. “Drinking beer with your buddies and going wakeboarding before a fight isn't normal and I don't know anybody else who can train and prepare the way I do. The only advice I would say to them is find what works for you and nobody else.”

Cerrone's novel approach to training, along with his fight-all-the-time gunslinger attitude, has made him a huge fan favorite. While, as his recent spate of bonus checks alludes, he's also massively popular with the UFC brass. None more so than president Dana White.

However, at the center of the Cerrone revival are two other veteran fight figures, both of whom are usually more associated with long hours in the gym, an uncompromising professional approach and some of the best and most successful game-planning in the sport. So how does a renegade Cowboy fit into that fold?

“They've known me long enough now to know that it's best and easier to just let me do whatever I want,” Cerrone says with a smile and a shrug when asked about his relationship with coaches Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn. 

“Greg likes to plan for fights and stuff, whereas I'll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime which makes it fun. But we don't stress about it. We all just laugh about it.”

Almost certain to be shortlisted for 'Fighter of the Year' at the Seventh Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards in early 2015, Cerrone has enjoyed the most lucrative 12 months of his bonus-filled career. His first four fights alone generated wages and bonuses to the tune of $620,000 – and that's just what was reported, not including any locker room or sponsors' checks.

And while Cerrone says that cashing '...of the Night' awards has become a welcome habit, pleasing the fans, building a true legacy he can be proud of, while ultimately tracking the lightweight belt has become as important as becoming the world number one.

“Getting the belt has to be the overall goal, but picking up bonus checks every time I fight too is also the goal,” he adds. “I just want the fans to think every time they see Cowboy on a pay-per-view or on a fight card they have to watch it. They have to pull over and find a bar to watch me, because they know my fights are always going to be something great. And that's the legacy I want. 

“I honestly don't care whether I win or lose too much, as long as the fans love it and choose never to miss my fights. I just want them to know that I go out there to fight because I love it. I want people to know that every time I fight, I put it all on the line, title belt or not.”

And as for the championship, now with Alvarez out of the way, Cerrone sees no reason why he can't be the man standing in front of either Anthony Pettis or Gilbert Melendez, who finally contest the belt at UFC 181 in early December in Las Vegas, come the new year. However, he refuses to sit on the sidelines and wait for it. In fact, he wants a couple of pay days before his championship chance finally arrives. 

He finishes: “I don't want to sit and wait my turn and be patient, I just want my shot, and I just want to keep fighting. 

“I don't want to sit and wait for the winner of Pettis and Melendez. They don't fight until December, which means neither of them will fight again until February or March, but I ain't waiting that long, no thank you. I want fights. And I'll fight anybody. I'll fight three times before they fight again. Line 'em up!”