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Jorge Masvidal explains his disdain for Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone
Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone might be one of the most well liked fighters on the UFC roster, but don't count Jorge Masvidal as one of his fans.
Masvidal went on a very public campaign asking for a fight with Cerrone following his first round TKO win over Jake Ellenberger in December. It will be the second fight in a row where Masvidal has faced a top 15 opponent, which is something he's been clamoring to receive since moving to the welterweight division.
"It's just a dude with a number by (his name) is what I've been gunning for. I've had so many close calls of getting top 10 dudes, both of us signing bout agreements and somehow the fight doesn’t go down," Masvidal lamented when speaking to the Fight Society podcast. "That's happened four times that I've signed a bout agreement against a top 10 dude.
"They sign the bout agreement, they put out the posters, the UFC announces the fight coming soon, gives us the date, the arena, buy the tickets online -- for some reason the fight doesn’t come to fruition. It's (expletive) nuts."
Fights changing on a moment's notice, without much regard for Masvidal, is the main reason Cerrone has become the target of his aggression in recent weeks.
Now Masvidal plans on taking it out on Cerrone now that he's finally been granted a fight with him this Saturday night in Denver.
"I feel like I'm going to break his face. I'm telling you I have a lot of ill will towards him for different reasons," Masvidal explained. "He's taken literally food from my plate on two different occasions of those fights that got pulled from me. They pulled fighters from me who were already signed and ready to fight me and I was ready to fight them and they give it to him.
"I know it's not him intentionally doing that but somebody's got to pay. That somebody's name is "Cowboy". He's got to pay with interest."
Masvidal's agitation with Cerrone comes one fight after "Cowboy" faced similar opposition from Matt Brown leading into their matchup at UFC 206.
Cerrone is best known as a jovial competitor during fight week, opting for smiles, handshakes and hugs rather than intense stare downs and getting into a verbal altercations with his opponents. Brown refused to play that game and instead gave Cerrone a stoic response every time the two of them engaged in any kind of pre-fight promotion.
Masvidal has no plans to joke around with "Cowboy" in the lead up to their co-main event fight either, but even if he's acts like his best friend it won't change the way he's going to fight the No. 5 ranked welterweight once they step into the cage together.
"Me and "Cowboy" have met a couple times and we trained together at Albuquerque a long time ago when I was in Japan and I think he was in WEC. So he knows who I am. I could be all smiles, hugging him up, giving him kisses on the cheek, I'm still going to beat his ass," Masvidal said. "Or I could be the not so nice guy and I'm still going to beat his ass. He knows it."
To add to Masvidal's desire to go out and finish Cerrone is the fact that the fight is taking place in his opponent's hometown. According to Masvidal, not many fighters would be willing to face "Cowboy" on his home turf but he was more than willing to accept that challenge.
Fighting in Cerrone's backyard only gave Masvidal that much more motivation to truly send a message by his performance in this matchup because he's not looking for the judges to get involved at all on Saturday night. In fact, Masvidal doesn't believe he'd get a fair shake in Denver even if he actually did beat Cerrone on the scorecards.
One other factor that has the American Top Team fighter gunning for a stoppage is that Masvidal has been the victim of some heartbreaking split decisions throughout his UFC career so he's just dedicated himself to put a stop to this contest long before the final bell so there's no controversy when it's over.
"I'm not going to out point this dude. I know I'm not going to win a decision in Denver, this (expletive) white dude from Denver. It's not going to happen," Masvidal. "I don't win decisions in Florida. It's not going to happen, I'm going to beat this guy in his own home state.
"So I'm going to go in there and execute him so he doesn't have to worry about the split decisions on this one, I promise you."
When it comes to predictions, Masvidal isn't going to pull a Conor McGregor and try to pick the round and method on how he'll finish "Cowboy" but he definitely has an idea about how the fight will end.
In studying past fights to get ready for their showdown this weekend, Masvidal says he's seen enough footage to know that when the going gets tough, "Cowboy" starts looking for an exit strategy.
"I don't see him at any point having the lead in the fight. I just see him like he's done in the past saying 'you know what maybe it's not my day today and look for a way out'," Masvidal said about Cerrone. "You can look at all my losses, don't go to my wins, just go to my losses and look at my eyes and see if I've ever found a way out of a fight. If I ever even thought to tap or let me not engage and just be real defensive and try to survive. That's never happened in my career.
"You can see in his fights where it's happened multiple times. So that's how I feel."
Despite all the trash talk and ill will Masvidal feels for Cerrone, he knows this is going to be a fight fans are going to love. Masvidal promises he's not looking to out point Cerrone and he's definitely not gunning for a grinding, three round affair.
Masvidal wants to hurt Cerrone and the only guarantee he's willing to make is that one of them will be going to the hospital when this brawl is finished.
"To tell you the truth, I wish the fight was right now. I just want to break this guy's (expletive) face," Masvidal said. "This is not a sparring match. You're not going to see me touching gloves.
"You're going to see me getting after it and either I'll be leaving to the hospital in an ambulance or he'll be leaving to the ambulance in a helicopter because it's going to be a (expletive) fight. I'm coming to fight and I'm coming to break his (expletive) face."
Listen to the rest of Masvidal's interview on this week's episode of the Fight Society podcast via Soundcloud or iTunes.
