Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone is maybe the most active fighter in MMA right now. Having just pegged his fourth win in eight months last night with a KO of tough veteran Jim Miller, Cerrone may be just one more win away from a shot at the UFC lightweight title.
But the tough ‘Cowboy’ image is so much more than just a moniker for the 31-year-old – it’s a lifestyle. To prove this, Fighters Only took a trip a few years ago to Donald’s residence at the TapouT Ranch in New Mexico, where he resides with friend and teammate Leonard Garcia.
In this week’s ‘Throwback Thursday’, we look back at our time spent with Cerrone and Garcia at their dream home.
“We always had people around us coming into the area for training camps and we just thought, ‘Why not find somewhere we can all stay?’ It seems crazy but it’s a good time,” Cerrone told FO. “Then we thought, ‘We’ve got all this land, we should build us a gym too!'”
As well as being the ideal living space, Donald and Leonard ensured they had everything they needed to train and sharpen their mixed martial arts skills, with a 25-foot cage, wide range of training equipment and accommodation to hold up to 16 professional fighters.
“You gotta have some fights and knowledge, but come down and get it on,” Cowboy said regarding having fighters over to stay and train with himself and Garcia. “Having guys come is a bonus because at Jackson’s you get in kind of the same rhythm with the guys because you learn what they do and what they don’t do. Here, you learn a lot ‘cos you got new guys coming in every month bringing new techniques and training.”
Cerrone truly likes to live a free-roaming lifestyle, partaking in extreme sports when he’s not training or competing inside the Octagon. Donald also likes to go by his own rules when he’s out on the road, as he showed recently with a quick video tour of his RV (see video below).
But before Donald had the luxury of a state-of-the-art RV, he and his buddies were travelling around in an old school bus of all things!
“We bought this big yellow school bus and put a bunch of couches in it and then kitted it out with an Apple TV,” Cerrone told FO. “So if one of the local guys has a fight we’ll all jump in it and drive to it. It’s easier just to pay one gas tank and everyone load up on the bus and drive down to the gym. That’s a hoot in itself, just partying on the bus.”
