VIDEO | Watch Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Matt Brown’s evolution from enemies to friends in this fan edit

Last Saturday, the UFC returned to Toronto for the first time since 2013 with UFC 206. Though the card was somewhat lacking in big names, it delivered as an unforgettably exciting night of combat all the same.

One of the highlights of the action-packed main card was a welterweight battle between fan favorites Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Matt Brown. While it was the back-and-forth nature of this fight that made it so exciting, it was made even more compelling by Brown’s surprising trash talk of Cowboy in the lead up to the fight.

While Cowboy is one of the most beloved fighters in the game today, Brown mean-mugged him all through fight week, refusing to shake his hand at press events, and disparaging his character on more than one occasion.

“I don’t care for his personality,” Brown said in the lead-up to the fight. “You know, I’ve been around him in the gym and around different places and just never cared for the way he acted. So it’s easy to get fired up for someone like that.” 

“Not everyone likes me I guess,” Cowboy said of Brown’s fight week disrespect. “Hey, can’t make ’em all like me. If he hates me, whatever.” 

After two rounds of frenzied battle that saw the two fighters rattle each other multiple times with head kicks and punches, however, Cowboy made a last ditch effort at mending fences with Brown, extending his hand for a glove-touch at the beginning of the third. Brown not only obliged him with a glove-touch, but gave him a hug too. Beef squashed.

Cowboy, of course, proceeded to remove Brown’s batteries with a perfectly timed head kick  in the subsequent moments, but their reconciliation seems to have survived this emphatic knockout.

Watch Cowboy and Brown’s full transformation from enemies to friends in the fun fan edit at the top of this post.

Were you surprised by Brown’s pre-fight trash talk of Cowboy? Sound off, PENN Nation!