Ultimate Fighting Championship

Donald Cerrone details why he'd rather fight Nate Diaz over Conor McGregor

Published Jun. 17, 2016 6:21 p.m. ET

foxsports

UFC veteran Donald Cerrone has a welterweight fight scheduled against Patrick Cote this Saturday, but he also has plenty of big fights ahead of him when he decides to head back down to the lightweight division.

One of those matchups is a 155-pound tilt against featherweight champion Conor McGregor. Cerrone, however, has a different name at the top of his priority list: McGregor's UFC 202 opponent Nate Diaz.

"I'd rather fight Diaz over Conor," Cerrone told MMAJunkie's Mike Bohn. "Everyone talks about that as the money fight, but people don't understand. They're like, 'If you get that fight, that's the money fight.' No, I'm under contract. I get paid the same whether I fight Patrick Cote or I fight Conor. He might make more money because he got pay-per-view. I didn't do a good job promoting myself and making myself big and get pay-per-view money. I get the same $80,000 to fight anybody."

Since entering the UFC in 2011, Cerrone has only lost to three men: Anthony Pettis, Rafael dos Anjos (x2) and Nate Diaz. Diaz absolutely destroyed Cerrone in there fight at UFC 141, landing a career-high 238 significant strikes over just three rounds.

Since then, Cerrone has won 12 of his last 15 fights, working his way to the division's top five and has been linked to fights with the division's best.

So it's no surprise Cowboy would want another crack at that one.

The McGregor fight surely has to be on Cerrone's radar, but obviously for reasons outside of monetary gain.