VIDEO | Donald Cerrone: A Piece of Me Died When Robbie Lawler Fight Fell Through

The recent announcement that former lightweight title challenger Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler would be fighting at UFC 205 this November sent the MMA community into a mass celebration. The announcement that this bout had been cancelled just days after it had been booked, meanwhile, drove the fight world into the pits of despair.

While the fans were unsurprisingly bummed out by news of Lawler’s withdrawal from the fight, however, it’s unlikely that anyone was hit harder by this change of plans than Cerrone himself.

The fan favorite gunslinger expressed his disappointment with the bout’s cancellation in a recent media scrum in Cleveland (via MMAFighting).

“Robbie came to me, face-to-face” Cerrone said, detailing the moment he learned the bout was off. “He came over and told me face-to-face, and said ‘I want to let you know man-to-man that this fight’s not happening.’ I was like ‘what are you talking about’, and he just said ‘yeah, I’m not going to do it.’ I said ‘it’s Madison Square Garden.’

“If I was to step aside, a little piece of fan died in me, because damn, that’s a fight I would love to watch. It sucks, but he said he had some shit going on and that he wanted to let his head heal up a little more from the knockout [loss] he just had.”

The good news, however, is that Cowboy still plans to compete on the historic New York card.

“F**k yeah,” he said, when asked if he still planned on fighting in Madison Square Garden. 

Cerrone also offered up some thoughts on who he’d like to fight in New York City, and his answer shouldn’t surprise anyone. Though he admitted he’d love a shot at lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, he also said he’s down to fight anybody.

“I guess I’ll start rallying for Eddie Alvarez again,” he said. “I dunno man. I’ll fight anybody, I really don’t care.” 

Cerrone has spent his last three fights at welterweight, scoring beautiful stoppage wins over game opposition in Alex Oliveira, Patrick Cote and most recently, Rick Story. Between the stacked welterweight and lightweight divisions, there are some seriously compelling opponent possibilities out there for him.

Who would you like to see him fight at UFC 205? Sound off, PENN nation!