Donald Cerrone is excited to fight Diego Sanchez.
On May 8, Sanchez is set for his retirement fight against Cowboy at welterweight. For Cerrone, he says the fight came together after Sanchez begged the UFC for it to happen.
“Everyone was booked up,” Cerrone said on his YouTube channel (via MMAFighting). “All the fights were booked. Yeah, ‘55 is what I wanted to do. Then Diego Sanchez went and, I guess, showed up to the UFC and begged and pleaded with them to make me his retirement fight. So they called me and they asked me and I said, ‘Sure.’
“With this fight, yeah, it is at ‘70 but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get big. I’m gonna treat it like a ‘55 fight. I’m gonna try and walk in there at ‘70- or 168. Try and be on weight, fight at ‘70 and just be ready for moving my body down to 155. That’s the plan.”
Entering the fight, both men have been on a skid and there is no question their best days are behind them. However, it is a fight with a storyline. When Cerrone had the feud with JacksonWink and left the gym Sanchez was the one who stepped up and offered to fight Cowboy but it did not come to fruition but will now get the chance on May 8.
“He says it’s two legends going at it,” Cerrone said. “I don’t think so. He talked a lot shit when I left Jackson’s and now he did the same thing and left. It’s funny. I was just doing what I had to do. Built my own gym, trained my own people, starting making this mold which I think was the right move to do in my career and he had a lot to say about it. He said he wanted to fight me so here’s his chance. Be careful what you wish for. So yeah, this should be a fun highlight reel fight for me.”
Regardless, Donald Cerrone is confident he will get his hand raised. He knows if this fight happened 10 years ago, it likely would’ve been a loss for him, but is confident he will send Sanchez to retirement on a loss.
“I’m not overlooking the kid, by no means,” Cerrone said. “There’s areas where he could be dangerous and if I was fighting old Diego, 10 years ago, yeah, he was tough. Hard pace. I used to train with the guy, I know. . . He wants this to be his ride into the sunset, and I have no problem giving it to him.”
