On Wednesday, Donald Cerrone dropped a bombshell when the former Jackson-Winkeljohn fighter took aim at his long-time camp, specifically, coach Mike Winkeljohn. Cerrone will be facing Mike Perry, a recent addition to the JacksonWink team, at UFC Denver and he says when he voiced concerns about Perry training at the same camp as him, Winkeljohn told him he was no longer welcome at JacksonWink.
Speaking with MMAJunkie, Winkeljohn responded to Cerrone’s allegations, defending his decision to work with Perry and saying that ‘Cowboy’ is the one who created division in the first place by splintering off into his own camp within JacksonWink.
“Loyalty is two sides,” Winkeljohn said. “‘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 [Jackson] has the biggest heart in the world. He’s like my little brother. But at the same time, it was causing division.”
Winkeljohn says he has not trained Cerrone since 2010. Instead, ‘Cowboy’ works with other coaches from JacksonWink while training primarily at a gym built on his property, about 30 minutes away, called the BMF Ranch. Winkeljohn claims that not only did that sow discord in the gym, it also hurt JacksonWink because the fighters working out there were not successful. At the end of the day, this break up was a long time coming, and one Winkeljohn is happy finally happened.
“And by the way, of the teams that went out there, I think it’s 100 percent of people lost, because ‘Cowboy’ wants to do what he wants to do on his time frame, and it didn’t work for the fighters that train out there at the gym,” Winkeljohn continued. “So that made our percentage look bad, because we lost a lot of fights because of it.
“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.”
Cerrone would disagree that his own training had any negative effect on JacksonWink. In his comments towards the coach, Cerrone argued that since Winkeljohn came into the picture he had lowered the standards of the gym in pursuit of money, saying that the gym had “turned into a puppy mill” where anyone could come in off the street and fight. Winklejohn dismissed the allegations, doubling down that Cerrone is the problem child here and that, were the roles reversed, he would do the same thing.
Donald Cerrone faces Mike Perry in the co-main event of UFC Denver on November 10.
