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UFC 182 shows the maturation of Donald Cerrone

Cowboy’ reaching goal to keep emotion out of his fights

UFC 178 Lightweights Cerrone and Alvarez

L.E. Baskow

UFC 178 lightweight Donald Cerrone spits some tobacco juice into a bottle during media day questions at the MGM Grand Arena on Thursday, September 25, 2014. .

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone spits a wad of chewing tobacco into a Styrofoam cup and reclines in his chair with a smirk extending across his face.

The perennial lightweight contender is lounging in the shadows of Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, who have nurtured one of the biggest rivalries in mixed martial arts history, ahead of UFC 182. Cerrone is relieved that, for once, he’s not the one in the middle of a conflict captivating a fight-week audience.

“For me, it would probably consume me,” Cerrone says. “For me, it would be hatred. Fighting angry and fighting mad isn’t good. I would just try to kill them and, in this sport, one overzealous something gets you caught so you’ve got to play it smart, play it right.”

Cerrone learned from experience. The former WEC star has only lost three times in 15 fights since merging into the UFC four years ago, but two of them were in bouts where he allowed bitterness to get the best of him.

The 31-year-old considers straying from grudges a testament to his maturation as an athlete and one reason for his current five-fight winning streak. Cerrone (25-6 MMA, 12-3 UFC) wants to clarify that he feels no resentment towards Myles Jury (15-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC), whom he meets in UFC 182’s co-main event Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Any reports to the contrary are misrepresentations at best, fabrications at worst.

Cerrone did ask to face Jury, mostly because of the 26-year-old’s undefeated record. And he has taken exception to a few comments made by Jury, mostly an innocent gloat of beating Cerrone’s teammate Diego Sanchez in “easy” fashion immediately after the fight earlier this year.

UFC 182 Countdown: Cerrone vs. Jury

But it ends there.

“I stay away from all that emotional (expletive),” Cerrone said. “There’s no emotional attachment.”

That wasn’t always his attitude. Cerrone used to welcome friction.

Three years ago to the day, Cerrone was also preparing for a co-main event slot on the UFC’s annual New Year’s Eve weekend card in Las Vegas. He just wasn’t as carefree.

Cerrone seethed at Nate Diaz, especially after a scuffle in the MGM Grand lobby that UFC President Dana White narrowly saved from turning into a forerunner for the one ignited by Jones and Cormier. He said he carried the animosity into the fight to his detriment.

Diaz won a unanimous decision, but Cerrone had chances to steal rounds. Cerrone chopped Diaz down with leg kicks multiple times, but refused to go to the ground himself because he so badly wanted to knock out Diaz.

He encountered the same predicament against Eddie Alvarez three months ago at UFC 178, but calmly listened to his coaches and switched his tactics to win a unanimous decision.

“The smart fighter came in and said, ‘let’s get this W,’” Cerrone said. “I’m not a wild, crazy punk kid anymore.”

The transformation wasn’t immediate. Rather, Cerrone fell into the Diaz trap for a second time at the beginning of 2013.

After calling out current UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis for months and starting a rivalry, Cerrone was aloof in their meeting at UFC on Fox 6. Pettis knocked him out with a kick to the body in less than three minutes.

Cerrone’s most recent defeat came six months later against Rafael dos Anjos, who required no mind games and simply established himself as the better fighter in a unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 27. That’s the only route to victory available to Jury, according to Cerrone.

Cerrone is less than a 2-to-1 favorite, meaning many find Jury capable. Not yet in his prime, a victory over one of the UFC’s most established lightweights would be quite the way for the longtime prospect to announce his arrival to the top.

“I’ve been saying for a while I’m going to be the best fighter in the world,” Jury said on the UFC’s Countdown preview show. “It’s just a matter of time and opportunities until I get that.”

Those are the kinds of remarks that would irk Cerrone, who doesn’t feel Jury should be entitled to anything, in the past. Now he leans back and lets the words pass.

“That’s why I don’t watch footage,” Cerrone said. “I don’t want to hear him say something and then me get all pumped up about it. I stay the hell out of it, and let him talk whatever he wants.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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