Donald Cerrone rarely pulls out of fights for any reason and his recent withdrawal from a highly anticipated fight with Joe Lauzon still has him scratching his head.
The lightweight veterans were scheduled to fight at UFC 274 this past May and both fighters successfully weighed in for the bout. The bout was cancelled due to Cerrone’s illness.
Cerrone missed a fight because of illness, which was his first. However, it soon became apparent that he wasn’t in a position to compete.
” I had never felt so sick before and tried to make it seem okay,” Cerrone stated. “Doctors were like, ‘OK, we’re going to let you have until 3:00 and at at 3:00 when we come in here, we’re gonna do some tests and if you’re not ready we’re calling the fight.’ And at 3:00 when they came in, they called the fight. This was very strange. It was like food poisoning. But I felt all vertigo.
” It’s like when you have a few too many drinks with friends and get back at 3 early in the morning. Then you need to stop spinning and put your feet on the ground. It was like that, it was really odd. It was strange. I can remember standing up, and closing my eyes.
Cerrone told a friend he was feeling unwell. They initially dismissed the issue as nerves. Cerrone had previously spoken out about having pre-fightjitters. Cerrone began to feel sick and started vomiting.
UFC President Dana White said at the UFC 274 post-fight press conference that Cerrone became sick after eating tacos at a restaurant in Phoenix, a theory that Cerrone doesn’t buy.
“Every day we’d drive by and there was a stop light and right across was this taco shop,” Cerrone said. It was Cinco de Mayo, and the sound was so loud that I thought it was heaven. The next day, Cerrone said, “Yes, that does look good. That’s going on my list.” So we all ate there, but I don’t think that was it because how could I be the only one that was sick? There was probably 25 of us that went. My children, my spouse, and my grandmother. Nobody else got ill.
“But I did eat this tapioca something at the deli downstairs. It could have been. I don’t think it was the street tacos. Everybody ate it. My children and I shared the same meal. Man, it was a good thing I had crocodile gut. I can eat the egg sandwich from the gas station and be OK. Who knows what it was. It was crazy. No pinpoint to it. It’s all about the taste.
Cerrone’s fight with Lauzon was later rescheduled and takes place this Saturday at UFC Austin.
