"Biggest kick in the n**s" - Joe Lauzon talks about what it was like when he heard the fight with Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone was off
Joe Lauzon was set to fight Donald Cerrone at UFC 274 in what was looking to be an extremely fun scrap to open the pay-per-view event. Unfortunately, Cerrone got food poisoning, and the fight was canceled hours before the show started.
Lauzon went on The MMA Hour to describe what it was like learning his fight was off. He said:
"For two days I kept saying I had this gut feeling this fight's not going to happen. I've never felt like this before ... I feel like it's the stupidest thing, I know 'Cowboy' would show up and fight with a broken leg. But I got this weird gut feeling this fight is not going to happen.
"I saw 'Cowboy' on Wednesday morning, eight AM, nine AM, something like that. And he looked rough. You could tell he was already miserable, dehydrated a little bit. I'm sure he was on limited food. You could see it right away.
He added:
"The feeling just got worse. And then we were joking 'Oh I hope he misses weight, we'll take a piece of his purse.' And then he made weight and okay we're good but I still had this feeling. And then fight doesn't happen. Biggest kick in the n**s of my entire life."
Watch the full interview with Joe Lauzon on The MMA Hour below:
While nothing has been finalized, UFC matchmakers are planning on pushing the Joe Lauzon vs. Donald Cerrone fight back for a future card.
Joe Lauzon on when he would like to fight next.
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Joe Lauzon details what the UFC paid him after Donald Cerrone pulled out of their fight
When fights get canceled at the last minute, there are always questions as to who gets paid what. Will Donald Cerrone get paid his show money? It's uncertain.
Joe Lauzon clarified his situation on The MMA Hour, and it sounds like the UFC is paying him his show purse. He said:
"I think that they're going to give me my show money and I'll get the Venum [uniform] money. So I'll get ... I think my show money is $74,000 so I'll get $74,000 and I'll get $21,000. But honestly, I didn't even get the chance. I could have not trained and showed up and gotten kicked in the face and gotten $95,000.
"It wasn't about that. I wanted to get that win money. I wanted to get that bonus money. It could have easily been a $230,000 weekend. Very very easily. The fights weren't great on the card. We could have easily gotten Fight of the Night. We could have had performance bonuses. It could have been a $300,000 weekend like that."
He added:
"I'm super thankful to the UFC, they could have told me hey, we're going to re-book it in six weeks and we're going to give you $10,000 for now and whatever. So I'm super happy and grateful they're giving me my show money. But it's still a bummer."