“What’s going to happen, I have no fucking idea,but let’s run it until the goddamn wheels come off,” Donald Cerrone at the MMAAA launch.
When Cerrone showed up at the launch of the fighter association it took a lot of people by surprise. The one-time lightweight title challenger has always been considered to be a company man, so it was unusual to see him joining forces with an association that challenged some of the practices of the company, including how much fighters get paid.
UFC president Dana White admitted Cerrone’s name popping up alongside the likes of Georges St-Pierre and TJ Dillashaw caught him a little off guard. Speaking on the UFC Unfiltered podcast with Matt Serra and Jim Norton, White confessed he was surprised Cowboy didn’t call him first, especially after all he’s done for him in the past.
“I’m a little shocked that Cowboy Cerrone didn’t give me a call. First of all, he’s only main evented three fights nights in his career. Never held a title in the WEC, never held a title in the UFC and a couple of years ago he was on his boat and he gets into a beef with a guy in another boat. He’s in big trouble. Who does he call? He calls me.”
Cerrone was found not guilty in court over the ‘boat rage’ incident that took place on Lake Granby in June 2013. White claims he shelled out top dollar to acquire the finest legal representative for the fighter.
“What do I do? I go out and find him the best criminal defence lawyer and I spent over $100,000 of my own money for Cowboy Cerrone. So when I see Cowyboy Cerrone standing up there I’m like, ‘Yeah, ok.'”
GSP wants @TheNotoriousMMA to get on board https://t.co/QSYHMtWjse
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 1, 2016
By all accounts, Cerrone got off pretty lightly there. Before that, White took aim at UFC light heavyweight Pat Cummings, who recently claimed that he had become homeless due to insufficient income.
Cummins was brought into fight Daniel Cormier at UFC 170 as a late replacement for Rashad Evans. He was a Starbucks employee when he received the call and White claims he was paid a whopping $300,000 for the fight. The president wondered how he managed to become broke to the point where he was living on the street, when he managed to keep a roof over his head while working in a coffee shop.
https://twitter.com/OfficialDurkin/status/804754906301235201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Again though, Cummins can count his blessings he didn’t receive a pummeling akin to the one Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney got off White. Rebney is a controversial figure in MMA due to a number of issues from his time as Bellator CEO which included a very public dispute with former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, and White was quick to bring that up.
“I don’t know enough about it to really speak about it. The only thing I really need to know is that the biggest scumbag in the history of combat sports ‘Bjork’ is involved in this thing.”
He also called Rebney’s business acumen into question, hinting that he knew nothing about how the whole process of deciding fighters’ pay worked. Of course, this segment of the interview was also expletive-laden.
“The one thing that I do know that came out of this thing is this scumbag who knows nothing about our business says, ‘Yeah, they only pay the fighters eight percent of the revenue.’ I hope you’re talking about Conor McGregor! (laughs) We’re paying eight percent of the revenue? You must mean Conor McGregor! Right, Bjork? You stupid motherfucker!”
“They’re saying, ‘When I was a promoter, I paid 53% of the revenue.’ Because there was no fucking revenue. You’re paying 53%… there was no fucking revenue. If that’s the way we’re going to base this back in the old days, then I was paying 250% of the revenue. What a fucking piece of shit this guy is.”
So… you don’t respect him then?
Good to know.
