mma / News

Donald Cerrone is Planning to Sit Down and Talk With Dana White About the MMAAA

December 7, 2016 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Donald Cerrone spoke at the UFC 206 media day (via MMAjunkie) about his involvement with the MMA Athletes Association, his fight with Matt Brown and more. Some highlights are below:

On his involvement with the MMAAA: “As far as the association goes, man, Georges (St-Pierre) and Tim (Kennedy) called me and asked me to be a part of it. I didn’t know I was sitting on a board. That kind of took me by surprise. I spoke to Dana today, he’s coming into town and we’re going to have dinner and talk. There’s a lot of things I think this sport needs, like retirement and pension, health care. I wasn’t there saying, ‘We’re moving forward today. We’re going on strike. We need more money.’ That wasn’t coming out of my mouth at all. There are a couple people that were there that I don’t plan on working with or being a part of. I’m not mentioning any names. I was there more voicing my opinion on what the sport needs. Moving forward, I’m going to stand strong on those, I believe it’s what the sport needs. I think we need health care and we need some sort of pension or retirement. The UFC has been nothing but great to me. They give me what I want. Like Dana said, that’s true, I called him and he helped me out. I was in a bind. He got the best lawyers you can pay and saved my ass. Yeah, I’m happy all around but those are things I need to address. I don’t mind being the face, I spoke about it before and addressed that.”

On his positive relationship with Dana White: “We’re going to sit down and meet. He said, ‘Listen, kid, you can do whatever you want.’ We have a good relationship, him and I. He’s right, I probably should have called him and said, ‘Hey man, I’m going to do this. That way you don’t get a backhand to the face.’”

On his fight with Brown: “(The fight is) exciting. Matt and I used to train together. I’m sure he knows exactly what I’m going to do and I know what he’s going to do. It’s going to be fun, man. He’s a tough, durable guy, man. We’ll go out there and give everyone what they want to see: two guys looking for the knockout.”