'Cowboy' Cerrone reveals what happened in his meeting with Dana White
Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone picked up his fourth win in a row as a welterweight on Saturday night with a devastating third-round knockout over Matt Brown.
As important as that win was for Cerrone's career, his fight may have actually been less nerve-racking than the meeting he had with UFC president Dana White just two days ago.
Cerrone met with White after he decided to join the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) — a new group that formed in hopes of getting a collective bargaining agreement with the UFC amongst other demands — and that led to a little bit of tension between the two of them.
"I'm a little shocked and I'll tell you this — that ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone didn't give me a call if you're that unhappy," White said after Cerrone was announced as one of the board members of the MMAAA.
Cerrone ultimately met with White on Thursday where the two of them hashed out their differences, including the lack of communication that happened where he failed to tell the UFC president about the issues he had with the promotion before the new association was launched.
"It went very good. It wasn't a lunch, he just pulled me aside after the media scrum and we talked for about 15 or 20 minutes and he's a happy man and I'm a happy man," Cerrone revealed. "So we just talked about what I wanted, what he expected out of me and it went very well."
While Cerrone seemed a little less than excited about working with the MMAAA after learning that former Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney was involved as an advisor, he still believed there were issues that needed to be resolved between the fighters and the UFC.
From the sound of things, White was happy to listen to Cerrone's complaints and ultimately they put the issue behind them after speaking a couple of days ago.
"1,000-percent receptive, definitely," Cerrone said about White. "It was always in a good place. It reminds me of when you get in trouble with your dad and they don’t ground you, they just tell you how disappointed they are in you, which is even worse. So that's kind of what he did to me and he's just like 'you let me down,' it's not so much let him down but just kind of a slap in his face.
"I guess I should have let him know what I was getting involved in. It is what it is, but we're on the up and up now."
Cerrone didn't get the chance to talk to White after his knockout on Saturday night, but chances are he'll be chasing him down to talk about his next fight in the Octagon.
Following his victory, Cerrone immediately asked for the chance to compete on the upcoming FOX UFC Fight Night card in his hometown of Denver in January. While that might seem like a quick turnaround for most fighters, that's just par for the course for Cerrone, who loves to fight as often as the UFC will allow him.
In a perfect world, Cerrone knows who he'd like to face but if that matchup isn't available, he'll take whoever the UFC will give him so long as he can fight in Denver.
"It doesn't matter at all. If I had to pick one, I'd want Demian Maia cause he's on the way to the title fight but if I had to hurry up and choose someone for Denver, it's whoever they want to give me. That doesn't matter to me at all. Staying busy, staying fun that's what I love," Cerrone said.
"Hopefully, I get back here and they have a contract waiting for me. If it's (Jorge) Masvidal, (expletive) A, if it's someone else, even better, let's go."
