He’s one of the meanest gunslingers in the UFC lightweight division, so we saddled up and headed out West for a showdown with the original ‘Cowboy’ at his TapouT Training Ranch in New Mexico... Yeehaw!

With his trademark TapouT-branded Resistol hat, tight denim, dirty boots and gritty Southern drawl, there is certainly no mistaking Donald Cerrone outside of the Octagon. And after an incredible run of results in 2011, there is little chance of mistaking him inside it either. 

No other former WEC fighter – including bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and lightweight contender Ben Henderson – has made as big of an impact on the Octagon as ‘Cowboy,’ following the organization's merger with the UFC 12 months ago.

After picking up more bonus checks than a city banker last year, Cerrone rode off into the sunset, his saddlebags bursting with cash and the 2011 Fighters Only World MMA Awards’ ‘Breakthrough Fighter of the Year’ silver statue tucked into his belt.

Cerrone said: “If you'd have asked me 12 months ago where I would be right now I'd have had no idea. I just wasn’t right, my head wasn't right. But ask me now where I'll be a year next year and I'm gonna be champion of the world. I know it. I feel it."

With five straight wins from the last 12 months, and a December 30th showdown with Nate Diaz still on the horizon at time of going to press, Cerrone emerged as one of the UFC’s hottest and most popular figures in 2011. His lengthy six-foot frame and fierce confidence makes him one of the most intimidating guys at 155lb, but the Colorado-born mixed martial artist is far more than just an impressive physical specimen.

His professional kickboxing record of 29-0-1 is proof enough that Cerrone is one of the most technically skilled strikers on the UFC lightweight roster.

That being said, on inspection of his MMA record, it would be far easier to mistake the Greg Jackson protégé as something of a submission specialist, as the former Muay Thai champion has earned the majority of his paid victories in the cage via tapout. 

Yet, even with his career at an all-time high, Cowboy still finds time amongst his hectic training schedule to accommodate other fighters, inviting them to live and train with him at his home gym at the TapouT Ranch in New Mexico.

“I'm really looking forward to this summer putting together a [Muay] Thai camp,” he explains. “Kickboxing is something that's fallen off so I'm going to put together a Thai camp for about 25 to 30 people for two or three weeks. I'm going to put it together and start working with companies so I can get everything sponsored and get new gear. That's the plan.”

All charitable deeds aside, the regime of a world-class athlete is no light-hearted affair. Every aspect of Cerrone's training is carefully planned and calculated, ensuring that the wild western warrior gets the most out of every training session. 

Being one of the larger individuals at 155lb, he favors conditioning workouts over weight training. “I can't put on much strength because then I put on size and size is hard to get rid of, so I try to stay within a 10 to 15 minute period with my [weight] workout.

I do more fast, explosive lightweight workouts. I really like using the ropes, Burn Machine, sit-ups, push-ups, you know? S**t like that. No-brainers that you can make up and put together.”

One of Donald's most hazardous conditioning exercises (besides fighting, of course) involves scaling a worryingly unsafe climbing wall. “Me and Leonard [Garcia], we both use it but it's hard when you're at the top because we don't have any pads or anything, so when you're tired and fatigued your ass just falls on the concrete.

It gets a little dangerous. You've got to be right on the money and if you're tired, you're done.”

It would be all too easy to criticize the TapouT Ranch residents for putting safety second, especially in this day and age of recovery suits and high-tech training equipment. But perhaps the key to fighting with such fearless styles like those of Cerrone and Garcia lies in taking those risks in training, to test fate to the limit so that, when faced with danger in the cage, you can overcome those fears and push through them. 

When he's not coaching budding fighters or dancing with death, MMA's most-wanted man likes to push himself to the absolute limit by going through his undisputed favorite fight training exercise.

“F**king Thai pads, bro. There's no shape like pad shape. I don't think you can get it. If you can crack pads for 15 minutes then you're in shape, so that's what I always fall back to. When I rip pads, that's when I know I'm in shape.” He adds: “In the gym I don't really ever have a problem.

I love training. I love my job.”

It certainly helps to breed success if you have a natural love and passion for your occupation. If an athlete lacks drive in training then the results in competition will almost always tell the tale of the athlete's unwillingness to work. Cerrone's fight record, with its victory-heavy ratio, shows his dedication to the job, but even a man like 'Cowboy', who loves his business, needs to unwind occasionally. 

The former Muay Thai champ talks openly about messing around in the gym. “I mainly go f**k around, to be honest. A good round of bulls**t just to warm up. If I'm rolling or hitting pads I just screw around, hit stupid and warm my shoulders up. Just don't get serious. When it's time to go it's time to go, but other than that just goof around.

You've got to warm your body up. I'm getting old. I used to be able to roll out and hit hard but I can't do that s**t no more.

“Now that I've gotten older I've had to warm up more. I can't train four times a day anymore. I'm at two [times a day] and I wake up and I'm sore, my back's aching, my sides hurt. I feel like a 100-year-old man.

I wake up on the weekend and I'm like, 'Oh my God, I just want to lay in bed.' I used to be able to go, go, go. I see the young guys coming up now and they're just grinding away every day and I'm like, 'F**k man, you guys are crazy.' There was a time when that was me.

Now I train smarter and that's all there is to it. You've just got to make it count.”

Ever the tough, gritty combatant, Cerrone makes no excuses when it comes to training, no matter how sick or injured he may be. “I've got bone-onitis in every joint of my body. Everything hurts. You just wake up and deal with it. That's all there is to it. You just 'Cowboy' up, get in the f**kin' truck and go.”

Though the Greg Jackson-trained lightweight is well versed in striking and submissions, there is a third element in the mixed martial arts game that Cerrone admits he does not have such a natural talent for.

“I'm getting to the point where, I wouldn't say I enjoy wrestling, but I'm doing it more and more. Before I'd just be like, ‘Ah, f**k it, let's hit pads,’ because that was where I was comfortable.

So my wrestling training has really picked up and I'm also doing a lot

of swimming.”

If there is one certainty in this sport, it is that evolution is essential. Those who do not learn and grow with the times soon find themselves out of the running, being dominated and defeated by younger, hungrier and more skilled opponents.

Donald Cerrone is determined not to get left behind. Though he may still be a relatively young man in the game, he knows that a solid striking base is not enough to carry you to the top in MMA, and he can't afford to waste time in learning the other tricks of the trade.

“When everyone kept taking me down I had no choice but to learn jiu-jitsu so I could make them pay for taking me down. That was my only hope because my wrestling game sucked.”

He may not be afraid to take shots at himself, but the 'Breakthrough Fighter of the Year' would much rather be throwing the blows in the other direction. “There's just something about knocking somebody out that I think is awesome. It feels different than a regular punch, I can't even explain it. The feeling is so nice.

There's a certain sound and a certain feel when you hit someone with that KO punch.” Cerrone continues, emphasizing his hunger to finish a fight in stand-up style, “I'd rather knock someone out than submit them.”

So, is there anything that motivates Cowboy to train and fight hard more than the promise of putting out someone's lights with his fist? “Money, to be completely honest with you. That's why we do everything, right?” 

If making money is top of Donald's agenda then he has to be happy with the way his career has gone so far.

When you rack up all of his win and '...of the Night' bonuses, you really start to see the benefits of Cerrone's dedication and ferocious fighting style. 

Considering that there is an equally, if not more reckless resident at the TapouT Ranch, namely UFC featherweight fighter Leonard Garcia, you could be forgiven for assuming that there is some kind of correlation between Cerrone's and Garcia's friendship and their fighting styles. When asked about the possibility of Leonard's 'Bad Boy' influence on him, Cerrone explains: “I don't go out there and fight hard just because he fought hard, that's just our style and that's why we work so well together. We get on each other's nerves all the time, but we're the same type of person and that's why we get along so well.” 

As close friends as they may be, Cerrone can't resist taking a competitive yet jovial jibe at his Mexican compadre. He laughs: “I'll f**k that dude up!” 

His approach to training and fighting may, at times, seem reckless, but don't be fooled. Cerrone is not entirely the wild ride-'em wreck-'em Cowboy that he might sometimes seem to be.

The UFC lightweight takes his job very seriously and is constantly looking to improve himself, both in the gym and in the cage.

"That's been the hardest thing I've done, trying to figure out how I can bring what I do in the gym into the cage. Bringing those things together and making it come alive on the night is something that's still in progress. I'm still working out what the secret is.”

We know that Cerrone likes to train hard and fight harder, but how does he handle his diet?

Most people are never able to truly appreciate the luxury of being allowed to eat whatever they want, whenever they want to eat it.

But for the likes of professional fighters and some other athletes, food is nothing more than fuel. That is unless your name is Donald Cerrone. Asked if he is strict with his eating habits: “Hell no! I love Chipotle Mexican Grill. They just opened one here up in f**kin' New Mexico and I drove by and there's a line all the way round the whole block.

I was like, ‘Damn, that could've been me.’”

Donald's devil-may-care approach to his nutritional habits might not seem like such a big deal to the average human being, but for a modern day athlete to be so laissez-faire when talking about his diet is quite uncommon nowadays, especially in the world of MMA, where every pound counts. Cutting weight is increasingly thought of as an exact and delicate science, and any fighter who has ever missed weight on Dana White's watch knows how punishing the UFC can be when one of their athletes gets careless.

Is Donald really willing to risk losing out on half his purse for a few extra treats? Well, as it turns out, Cerrone simply has his own method to making weight. “My natural weight is about 177lb. I eat whatever I want until about two weeks before the fight, then I quit eating all the s**t and try and eat more protein and all the stuff that's better.

Then my body comes down to about 168. I can eat whatever I want and be 175, 173 after training. So if I just cut the s**t out I get to about 168 and that's where I feel the best.

Then I cut the rest while I'm out there the week before the fight.

Easy, breezy, beautiful.”

His practices may be a little less precise than those of a nutritional expert like Mike Dolce, but you can't argue with the results.

In fact, you could even make the argument that, with his seemingly stress-free approach to eating, Cerrone's diet plan means that he runs little to no risk of dehydrating himself, or starving his body of any essential nutrients.

It also frees up his mind so that he can focus solely on his physical training.

If you consider the success rate of other fighters who fight or have fought at or close to their natural weight, then you must consider also the possibility that being able to fuel your body as you please is a good way to ensure that you perform at your very best.

Current and former champions Frankie Edgar, Dan Henderson and Bas Rutten are all men who have said 'no' to the cut and have felt the weight of gold around their waste.

Admittedly, Cerrone does drop about 20lb before a fight, but he is adamant that it is no burden to him, stating, quite simply: “The cuts aren't tough at all.” 

However, despite his confessed love for candy bars, Cerrone always relishes a new challenge and is not averse to changing his laid-back eating routine if the rewards are worth the trouble.

When asked about the possibility of a drop to featherweight, MMA's number-one wild western fighter was surprisingly open to the idea.

“Oh yeah, definitely, but it would be a lifestyle change. I would not be allowed to eat all the s**t I eat now, but it can be done.

I just want to keep fighting, so it doesn't matter if I go to '45, '55 or '70. Wherever I can keep fighting. That's all I want to do. [I've had] six fights this year, let's do seven fights next year.

Show me the money. I'm only in this sport for a little while.”