Donald Cerrone doesn’t view knocking out sparring partners as a badge of honor.
Cerrone is scheduled to take on Justin Gaethje this Saturday night (Sept. 14). The lightweight scrap will headline UFC Vancouver. While the bout is highly anticipated due to its high probability of excitement, there’s also an interesting story going into the match-up.
Gaethje told MMAJunkie.com that Cerrone actually knocked him out during a sparring session back in 2012.
“He knocked me out … he dropped me in sparring,” Gaethje said. “I don’t even know if I had a pro fight at the time. I was a kid then and a man now and I’m excited to get in there and give him back that one, yeah.”
Speaking to reporters during a media scrum, “Cowboy” said he doesn’t think the sparring session holds any weight going into this Saturday night’s bout (via MMAMania.com).
“I would have never brought that up on my end, you know?” Cerrone told the combat sports media ahead of UFC Vancouver. “So I don’t know why he did. But training is totally different than fighting, and it must have been a weird, lucky shot. That was so many years and he’s a totally different guy and its gonna be the fight everyone thinks it’s going to be.”
When Cerrone meets Gaethje this weekend, he’ll look to bounce back from a TKO loss to Tony Ferguson. Meanwhile for Gaethje, he hopes to extend his winning streak to three as he’s earned two straight first-round knockout wins over Edson Barboza and James Vick.
