Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone has a second chance to step into the cage with Joe Lauzon this week, after a fight in late April fell through when he came down with a bad case of food poisoning.
But what exactly took him out of that April match-up, and why did the fight fall through at the eleventh hour?
“I have never been that sick, ever. And I tried to pretend it was okay,” Cerrone (36-16, 2NC) explained during this week’s UFC Austin media day. The doctors at hand gave Cerrone until 3PM on the day of the fight to see if things would turn around. When they didn’t, they called the fight.
“It was really weird, I got like food poisoning, but I was all vertigo-y. You know like when you drink with your buddies and you get home at 3AM and then you’ve got to put your foot on the floor to quit spinning? It was like that.”
Many, including UFC President Dana White, had claimed that Cerrone’s ailment had been the result of some bad street tacos. Cerrone disputes that. Sure, he hit up a street taco place in advance of Cinco De Mayo (and in advance of his fight), but he believes the culprit was something else he ate.
“We all ate there, but I don’t think that was it [the tacos], because how could I be the only one that was sick? There was probably, I don’t know, 25 of us that went— my kids, my wife, my grandma, nobody else got ill,” recalled Cerrone. “But I did eat this Tapioca something at the deli downstairs; I think that’s what it could have been. I don’t think it was the street tacos, because everybody ate it, and we all ate— me and my kids ate off the same plate. Plus I got a crocodile gut, normally I can eat the egg sandwich from the gas station and be okay.”
Either way, we can hope Cowboy is a little more selective with his diet ahead of UFC Austin this Saturday, just to be safe.
In the meantime, Saturday could turn out to be one of the last times we see Cowboy in the cage. The plan is still, he said, to have 50 fights between the WEC and UFC. Counting a couple of No Contests (record-wise, they don’t count, but he did make the walk), this Saturday will be fight number 48 between the two promotions.
“Two more. Two more after this one,” Cerrone confirmed this week. “50 is an incredible number, I mean hopefully no one will touch it, so I can bow out.”
When he does head along the dusty trail for good, Cerrone has no plans on taking a match-up with some young buck.
“No, no no no. Another legend would be fun, a cool fight. Stay away from the young kids, they’re f*cking tough and killers man,” Cerrone stated. “They’re so good, this sport has evolved unbelievably. It’s fun meeting and talking to all the kids at the PI [Performance Institute], of course I did the camp at the PI so I see all the young kids up-and-comers, see them fighting for their job and staying hungry, and it pushes you. But I remember when I first came in the sport; you could be good at a couple of them and great at one [discipline], and now it’s like, you have to be great at striking, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, everything, and these kids that are coming in are great at everything. So it’s crazy.”
Watch the full UFC Austin media day appearance by Cowboy Cerrone above. The event takes place this Saturday, June 18 at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
