Morning Report: Mike Winkeljohn takes shot at ‘cancer’ Donald Cerrone following big win at UFC Denver

For the last few months, Donald Cerrone and Mike Winkeljohn have been publicly feuding, after a fallout over the circumstances surrounding Cerrone’s booking against Mike Perry at UFC Denver. Cerrone – who has trained for most of his career at Winkeljohn’s gym, JacksonWink MMA – wanted the gym to not allow Perry – who had only recently joined the gym – to train there for their fight against one another. Winkeljohn refused and instead insisted that Cerrone leave the gym, prompting “Cowboy” to call out Winkeljohn for ruining the gym in the first place. Winkeljohnclapped back and suddenly Cerrone’s fight with Perry had a lot more animosity behind it.

On Saturday night, Cerrone took that animosity out on Perry’s arm, breaking it in the first round.

But though Cowboy clearly won the battle, it seems like the war of words is far from done. Following Cerrone’s win, Winkeljohn took to Instagram where he posted a video of his reaction to the entire situation, calling Cerrone a cancer that needed to be removed from the gym.

“What’s this about loyalty,” Winkeljohn said. “Loyalty is two sided. Especially for the media, who only sees one side. Where was Cowboy Cerrone the last ten years, helping others in the gym? Nowhere to be found. He didn’t come to our classes, he didn’t even use Greg Jackson his last two fight camps. When he came, he would grab sparring partners, then he would take those sparring partners back up to his ranch, where he would pay for fun free sh*t. So those guys would go up there, sometimes they would stay and train, and they would lose. Hmmm. Any gym owner would tell you, cancer has to be removed. It’s removed. The gym has no drama. It’s a happy place, I’m a happy guy. That being said, I really wish that Mike Perry had not taken Cowboy down.

“Anyway, if you have fighter experience and you want to come train with the best fighters in the world, and help each other – Jon Jones, Holly Holm, Michelle Waterson, Devin Clark, Bevon Lewis, Carlos Condit, CR, John Dodson and so many others – you’re more than welcome. If you’re one of those guys who swings on Donald Cerrone’s you-know-what, that’s weak and weird.”

Though Winkeljohn claims that all of the problems are resolved now, the drama at JacksonWink has caused fighters and coaches at the academy to choose sides and has already caused some fighters to leave. This latest salvo from Winkeljohn could exacerbate the issue.