Cowboy: I’m not afraid to be the face of a fighter’s union

UFC welterweight Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone will fight anyone. At UFC 205 he is fighting Kelvin Gastelum. And on Wednesday he took part in a UFC 205 media lunch in Downtown Los Angeles and said he was happy to fight his employers, as the face of a fighter’s union.

“I’ll gladly put my head on the chopping block and say I’ll be the front face of this mother f***er,” said Cerrone, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “I’ve paid my way, man. I’ve earned the right to sit here and speak. I think there’s a lot of people that are scared and not willing to step up and do it. It’s gonna take a couple of us and it needs to be done.”

“I’ll be the guy. I’m not scared. All I’m saying is we need a fighters union 1,000, million percent, especially with the new owners coming in and I think now is the time.”

Cerrone said he had spoken with representatives of different organizations trying to organize fighters, and would continue to dialogue with them.

“I want to know their point of view and how they want to attack the whole situation,” said Cerrone. “Because I don’t know. There’s a lot of things that I don’t know.”

“We have no one to stand up for the fighters’ rights. If something bad were to happen, no one backs him and it’s just him alone and everything gets washed out. We need people to stand up and fight for it.”

“I’m not afraid. I’m not scared to put my neck on the line.”

Donald Cerrone fights Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 205 on November 12, 2016, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.