Conor McGregor had his pick of opponents for UFC 196 once Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of the scheduled main event with an injury.
Lightweights lined up for a big-money fight against ‘The Notorious’ and one such fighter was Donald Cerrone who, fresh from his victory over Alex Oliveira, revealed he’d be open to stepping in on short notice.
As it happened, McGregor went a different route and accepted a fight with Nate Diaz which proved to be an unrewarding gamble as it resulted in the first UFC defeat for ‘The Notorious’ back in March.
And as the welterweight exploits of ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone continue this weekend in Ottawa, where he meets heavy-handed Patrick Cote, the 33-year-old has revealed that he doesn’t believe in the famous ‘red panty night’ notion and would actually prefer to fight Nate Diaz again (Cerrone lost a decision to Diaz in 2011) than take on McGregor.
“I’d rather fight Diaz over Conor,” Cerrone told MMAJunkie’s Mike Bohn.
“Everyone talks about that as the money fight, but people don’t understand. They’re like, ‘If you get that fight, that’s the money fight.’ No, I’m under contract. I get paid the same whether I fight Patrick Cote or I fight Conor.
“He might make more money because he got pay-per-view. I didn’t do a good job promoting myself and making myself big and get pay-per-view money. I get the same $80,000 to fight anybody.”
