For those who checked out the Fightful live coverage of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association’s debut announcement a little over a week ago, you would’ve noticed that longtime UFC veteran Donald Cerrone was announced as one of the initial five members of the board.
Cerrone, who is preparing to battle Matt Brown at UFC 206 this weekend, is already backing away from his involvement in the association.
"As far as the Association goes man, Georges [St-Pierre] and Tim [Kennedy] called me and asked me to be part of it," Cerrone said at a UFC 206 media scrum. "I didn’t know I was sitting on a board. That kind of took me by surprise, sitting there like, 'oh wow.' I spoke to Dana (White) today on the phone. He’s coming to town, and we’re going to go out to dinner and talk. There’s a lot of things I think this sport needs, you know, retirement pension, health care, things I think we need. I wasn’t sitting there saying, ‘we’re moving forward today, we’re going on strike, we need more money,' That wasn’t coming out of mouth at all. There were a couple of people that were there that I don’t plan on working with and being a part of, not mentioning any names. I was there mostly just voicing my opinion of what this sport needs. Moving forward, I’m still going to stand strong with those and say this is what I believe we need. I believe as a whole we need health care, we need some kind of pension for retirement. The UFC has been nothing but great to me. I can’t complain, they give me what I want. Like Dana said, I called him and he helped me out. That’s true, man. I was in a bind, he got the best lawyers you can pay, and saved my ass."
Cerrone did have a brief conversation recently with UFC President Dana White, which Cerrone elaborated on.
"He said, listen kid, you can do anything you want. We have a good relationship him and I, and he’s right I probably should have called him and said, ‘hey man, I’m going to do this,’ instead of getting back-handed in the face,” said Cerrone.
UFC 206 takes place on Saturday, December 10 from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis headlining.
