Donald Cerrone has sparked off a major feud after calling out his former camp Jackson’s Wink, due to the fact that they opted to train Mike Perry rather than him for his upcoming fight against ‘Platinum’ at UFC Fight Night 139.
“I went to talk to Greg and Wink and say, ‘Hey, this guy’s brand new to the gym. He’s only been here one camp, a couple of months,” Cerrone told Joe Rogan on the latest edition of his ‘MMA Show’ podcast. “I don’t think that it’s okay for him to come in and call me out. That’s not right. So if he is doing that, I don’t think we should allow him to train here for this fight,’” Cerrone said. “Then f**king Winkeljohn tells me, ‘I thought you called him out’, he’s just a s**t-ass and lies to your face, so to me he was like, ‘Sure, no problem, we’ll clear it up and we won’t have any issues.’”
Cerrone went on to reveal that the next day he was told that the gym would be training Perry instead of him, and accused Mike Winkeljohn of being behind the decision because he gets a cut of Perry’s earning’s since he trains him directly, whereas Cerrone only deals with Greg Jackson.
‘Cowboy’s’ main beef is with Winkeljohn, who he accuses of having run down the gym and turning it into a ‘puppy mill’ since joining forces with Jackson.
“Back when Greg had it, and it was its own school, you couldn’t turn up to a pro class. Some guy couldn’t just come here, knock on your door, and the next thing you know he has shin pads on and he’s sparring.
“Literally at the new gym, bums come in off the street — I swear to God — and will come in and put stuff on and fight. That’s a true story. Random bums off the street. That would never happen back in the day.”
However, Cerrone did make it clear he felt disappointed that Jackson hadn’t stood up for him more, despite having a long association with the star throughout his career.
“With Greg, his name is on that building. It’s Jackson-Wink. Jackson-f**king-Wink,” Cerrone told Rogan. “When it came time to pick the decision and they said, ‘We want to go with Perry.’ Why the f**k didn’t you stand — because Greg’s still with me — he’s like, ‘I’ll just come to the ranch and we’ll sort this out.’ And I’m like, ‘What the f**k are you talking about?’ You tell me I can’t come into the Jackson-Wink gym, but you’re going to backdoor and come into my f**king house and we’re going to train to fight while Perry’s there at the gym.
“You see everything he does and then you’re going to come and you’re going to train me, not to mention you’re holding classes there and — you might not be training him to beat me, but there’s a lot of people there that have trained with me for f**king years. So to me that was the point I was saying. Can we just not have him there for this camp?”
Needless to say Cerrone’s comments have brewed up a storm and naturally Winkeljohn was eager to respond with his side off the story, claiming that ‘Cowboy’ had never shown the gym any loyalty over the years.
“Loyalty is two sides,” Winkeljohn told MMA Junkie. “Cowboy is not loyal to anybody in the gym. He’s on his own. He does his own thing. He has not, from what I can remember in the last 10 years, ever helped anybody out with their own camp. He’s as narcissistic as they come.
“I put up with it for a long time because Greg has the biggest heart in the world,” Winkeljohn said. “He’s like my little brother. But at the same time, it was causing division.
“If Perry wasn’t at my gym, I’m so much happier now that I got rid of the division in my gym (and) somebody that doesn’t want to help others and wants to do his own thing. It has absolutely nothing to do with Perry, and everything to do with Perry.
“What would ‘Cowboy’ do if it was his gym? Well let me think,” he said. “If I wanted to go into his gym use it when I wanted to, not be respectful, not help others, pull people and coaches away from the gym, and do things for myself, and then tell the new gym not to work with this person they’ve been working with because it’s all about yourself, what would ‘Cowboy’ do? I know what ‘Cowboy’ would do: The same thing I did, and that was basically, ‘Sorry kids, (expletive) that.’”
Hot on the heels of those comments, long-time Jackson Wink fighter Diego Sanchez also waded into the dispute and backed up Winkeljohn’s version of events, claiming that Cerrone was never a team player at the camp.
“@joerogan @jacksonwink_mma is on fire we’re on the [⬆] [⬆] [⬆] [⬆] [⬆] [⬆] [⬆] up’s bro no lie,” Sanchez wrote on Instagram.
“I have been here longer than anyone and seen the many stages of our evolution of this team!!! We’re stronger than ever our defeats only helped us to grow and we are coming into the prosperous stage just [👀] and see!!! @cowboycerrone had been so busy building his empire the past three four years and he’s done a fantastic job doing it but that’s been his focus he’s never been here!!! Maybe a grappling class here or there a sparring every 6 months??? That’s not a team mate it’s just someone who is out only for themselves. I’d try to give him a round if we crossed paths here or there the last time he got me real good with a side kick to the liver [👏🏼] [👏🏼] [👏🏼] …. I see it all!! I treat this like a job 9-5 I come everyday I stay when everyone leaves to rest and eat.. so I see it all!! and in the past ten years cowboy never went out of his way to help me get ready for a fight not ounce!”
“That’s why I posted previous about why I was #teamplatinum @platinummikeperry is here to give me rounds if I need them and helped me more in one camp than cowboy did in ten years [🤔] … don’t bad mouth my gym or my coach @mmacoachwink we’re good peeps striving to better our city our state and our sport!!!!
“If Perry falls out come November ILL BE READY TO FILL IN WITH ZERO HESITATION! And we know where @gregjacksonmma will be #loyalty #itsnotallaboutmoney #realtalk.”
