White to Cowboy: How much money do you think you should be making?

UFC welterweight Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone appeared alongside a group of fellow notables, during the announcement of the MMAAA debut. The group seeks to bargain with the UFC, and aims eventually see an anti-trust exemption for the league, and a union. Cerrone recently expressed some ambiguity about the debut, but was clear, too, on what he wanted.

“I’m still going to stand strong with those,” said Cerrone. “And say this is what we need – as a whole, we need health care and some kind of pension or retirement. The UFC has been nothing but great to me, I can’t complain, they give me what I want.”

UFC president Dana White recently appeared on Sportsnet’s Tim & Sid and said he and Cerrone had dinner and talked about it.

“Cerrone apologized to me for going up there,” said White, as transcribed by Adrian Collins for NewsTalk.com. “[he said] ‘I didn’t know about it, I didn’t know that guy was involved, I didn’t know enough.’

“I was saying about Cowboy, and he doesn’t disagree: He’s never won a title in the WEC or the UFC, he’s headlined three events in his whole career. The guy is going to make $1.3 million from fighting this year, and that doesn’t include his sponsorship, which could put him anywhere from $1.6 million to $1.7 or $1.8 million. I don’t know what the number is, that’s his business not mine, but how much money do you think you should be making Cowboy?”

“We have a health insurance plan now for the fighters. If anything happens in the Octagon, they’re fully covered […] but outside now we have a deal for training, because a lot of guys get hurt in training. Is it the greatest policy ever? No. But let me tell you something, don’t ever be mistaken on why insurance companies are in business – to make money.”

“When we talk about post-fight. Cerrone and all the other fighters, you’re making a million something this year, that is your retirement. You can’t live off the sponsorship money and throw a million in the bank? And do that for the next couple of years and hopefully invest the money wisely? That’s all of our situations, we’re all in that same situation.”

Whit said he has massive respect for the fighters involved – Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez, Tim Kennedy, TJ Dillashaw, and Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. And he says he has no hard feelings. However, MMAAA organizer Bjorn Rebney not so much.

“There are three unions out there right now, and what they’re really doing is they’re trying to put their hands in guys’ pockets, and they’re all fighting against each other!

“These are all grown men and women we’re talking about. When you’re a fighter or a professional athlete or a celebrity, or whatever it is, someone is always trying to put their hand in your pocket. As grown men and women, you can choose who puts their hand in your pocket. You can do whatever you want to do. But at the end of the day, the big fail on this thing is putting ‘Bjork’ Rebney in this thing.”

“Bjork is such a dirty, scummy human being that he had to leave boxing and come to MMA, that’s how bad this guy is. One of the classiest, smartest, legendary guys that you will ever meet in your life is Sugar Ray Leonard. Ask Sugar Ray what he thinks of Bjork. The guy’s so dirty…do you want that guy’s hand in your pocket? The answer is no.”