Round 6: Cowboy Cerrone lashes out at Nate Diaz

COWBOY Cerrone has vowed to “knock the stutter right back into Nate Diaz” and then take a bagful of cash to prove his stance on UFC fighter salaries.

Cerrone has lashed out at Nate Diaz.

COWBOY Cerrone has promised to “knock the stutter right back into Nate Diaz” — and then take a bagful of cash to prove his stance on UFC fighter salaries.

Speaking with Round 6 from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Cerrone has returned fire after Diaz recently claimed the cult welterweight was hurting fellow fighters by publicly stating he would compete for free.

Only a fortnight ago, Diaz was quoted saying: “Treat yourself like a business and quit f***ing (saying), ‘I’ll fight for free’. That don’t help nobody.

“Stupid ass Cowboy Cerrone says that s**t. That’s bad karma for everybody. You’ll fight for free, now everybody else has got to? Why wouldn’t they pay us? Because they got dumbs**ts like you fighting for free.”

Yet Cerrone, who challenges Patrick Cote on Sunday week at Fight Night 89, suggested Diaz was completely uneducated on the issue, joking he had likely written his tirade “on a napkin, in crayon”.

“Diaz is talking shit. That’s what he does,’’ Cerrone said.

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“He fights for $40,000, beats Conor McGregor and then, suddenly, wants to start running his mouth?

“I don’t know why he came out saying what he did. Most likely he was writing stuff on a napkin, in crayon.

“And that was the best he could come up with.

“I actually congratulate him for being able to put a complete sentence together.”

Asked if he made good money from the UFC, Cerrone continued: “Sure, absolutely.

“And I wish we were all making Conor McGregor money. But the sport isn’t at that point yet.

“So why bitch about it? What does that get me?

“Or I could sit here like Diaz and say I’m not going to fight. But guess what? Then you don’t get paid anything at all you f...en dummy.”

While Diaz is slated for a return bout with McGregor at UFC 202, Cerrone said he would happily take another crack at his long-time rival. But for free?

“I wouldn’t fight him for free, no,’’ Cowboy said. “But I will whoop his arse again.

“It’s not personal. I don’t let things get personal anymore.

“But I will knock that stutter right back into him. I will sit that motherf...er on his arse.”

MACDONALD LOVED LAWLER SLUGFEST

AS he prepares for his return to the octagon after almost a year on the sidelines, welterweight contender Rory MacDonald has given Round 6 an insight into his epic bout with Robbie Lawler at UFC 189.

In one of the greatest exhibitions of violence in MMA history, Macdonald was up on the scorecards before suffering a TKO loss early in the fifth round.

“I like those hard fights. Its difficult when you’re in there but you’ve got to find enjoyment in that and I do.

“Not every fight is hard, most of my fights are fairly one-sided so when you find a guy who’s a competitor and can go back and forth, that’s a once in a lifetime experience and I cherish that.”

It seems strange to cherish having one’s face turned into a bloody mess, but MacDonald is a different breed, even among fighters.

MacDonald had finished the fourth round with a flurry of punches that seemed to put Lawler on the ropes and after the bell the two men stared each other down in what has quickly become one of the iconic moments in UFC history.

“There was a lot of fear” MacDonald admitted to Round 6.

“When he tried to get in my face in the end I had a lot of doubts in myself but I made sure that I didn’t give him one inch.

“I turned around when I saw him walk me down like that and look at me like that and I turned around and I stood back in his face, basically to say ‘you’re going to have to kill me’ which I think he was ready to do.”

The contest was deservingly named 2015’s Fight of the Year at the World MMA Awards and MacDonald opened up on the abrupt finish early in the fifth round.

“When you’re in a fight there’s about three million thoughts per second going through your head and emotions in your brain.

“Your body is telling you mixed signals all the time, whether you should quit, push hard, pull back, go forward.

“So fear is a very natural thing to have in the moment of a fight. If it’s a one-sided beating you’re not going to be afraid of anything. But if you’re in there with a hard fighter and you’re competing in a hard fight, there’s doubt.

“The great fighters, the ones who make it to the top, are the ones who know how to managed that, shove it down and push through it.

“I do my best to really hide any emotion and signs of being tired or being hurt. That was where my energy was, it may have seemed like I was still in the fight but in my head I was far out of the fight.

“When he landed that final shot my body just … … I didn’t really have any answers at that point and my conditioning was at zero and that was it.”

Originally published as Round 6: Cowboy Cerrone lashes out at Nate Diaz