Former Bantamweight Champion Miesha Tate Side Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone In JacksonWink Feud
Earlier this week Donald Cerrone was a guest at The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, where he dropped a bombshell and spit venom against his long-time camp, JacksonWink MMA. The things get heated when his coaches allow the new import and his upcoming opponent Mike Perry to continue training at the gym despite Cerrone’s longstanding affiliation with the gym for over a decade. ‘Cowboy’ requested that Perry shouldn’t be allowed to workout at least until their showdown is over, Cerrone was told you are no longer welcome to this gym.
He even blasted coach Mike Winkeljohn particularly over running the quality of training at the gym and mismanagement. In response to that Mike Winkeljohn called Cerrone “narcissistic” and said he’s happier that ‘Cowboy’ is no longer with the training team.
This very public feud between Jackson MMA and Cerrone has the MMA community formulated very different opinions, while some fans and pundits side the gym and others entirely sporting Donald Cerrone. Former UFC champion Miesha Tate is also in this category and leaned fully on Cerrone side. (Via MMAFighting)
“This is reminiscent,” Tate said. “I feel like we’ve heard this story about this camp before when it was Rashad Evans and him feeling like he was pushed out of the spot with Jon Jones coming in.
“What I think is not cool, if it had been someone that had been training there like Carlos Condit or someone like that who had been training there a long time and they were gonna fight each other and both had that mutual respect, and mutual foundation at that gym, that’s different. But when the new guy is coming in and he’s like, ‘I wanna fight Cowboy’ and he comes to Cowboy’s gym, I think that the right thing to do by the gym – I think there’s some loyalty that should be towards Cowboy. He’s been there a really, really long time.”
Tate says she fully understand the frustration that Cerrone has been going through, and believes the situation could have been handled more tactfully by JacksonWink MMA.
‘This is probably not the camp for you to come in, Mike, because you’re fighting our boy. Cowboy has been with us forever. We’d love for you to come in for the next camp but Cowboy’s our dude,’” Tate said. “That’s how I think. Even though I know Cowboy doesn’t drive there every single day, he doesn’t train at the gym – there are some other reasons I think behind that, I think – that’s just me. That’s how I hope my gym would operate if I was under those circumstances.”
Donald Cerrone will battle Mike Perry in the co-main event of UFC Denver on Nov. 10.
What do you think of Miesha Tate’s take on this very public feud?
