On Saturday night, the long festering feud between Donald Cerrone and Mike Winkeljohn finally came to a head when Cerrone took on Mike Perry at UFC Denver. Cerrone came out on top, submitting Winkeljohn’s avatar in the first round with an armbar. Afterwards, neither Cerrone nor Winkeljohn appeared ready to let the feud die out, but there is one man who is: Mike Perry.

Speaking recently with Submission Radio, Perry revealed that he was only ever a tangential player in the feud between Winkeljohn and Cerrone, and feels that having the pressure of someone else’s fight adversely affected his performance.

“Listen, I’m gonna tell you something here and it’s gonna sound crazy,” said Perry. “I’m not gonna take nothing away from Cowboy. He won fair and square. But I felt like I was staring defeat in the face that night. I felt like, you know, okay, if it had gone the other way, they would’ve been like, oh, Cowboy had all the pressure. But me, I was fighting a fight that wasn’t my fight, it was Jackson/Wink versus Cowboy Cerrone. So, it was my coaching that took my body over. It was something, the way that we trained that I was ending up with takedowns on people. And then their Jiu Jitsu wasn’t the level of Cowboy Cerrone to counter me.

“So, I think I stared defeat in the face that night and I got in the cage anyways. I felt like I was gonna lose before I ever walked in. Maybe that’s just because I lost now, but I just felt like everything was against me. And it was just to make me stronger. I felt like I learned more from that loss than I would’ve ever learned from a win. That’s it. I was looking at the grim reaper and I entered the cage with him. I brought the real Cowboy Cerrone. We were the best two fighters on the planet when we were in that cage. Period.”

In fairness to Perry, the beef with Cerrone never was his own. Perry moved out to JacksonWink to improve his game prior to any mention of a fight with Cowboy, and even trained some together. Then circumstances pitted them against one another, causing Winkeljohn to side with Perry and revealing long-simmering tensions between certain factions of the camp. That drama has already lead to some fighters exiting the camp and now it appears it all could have been for nought since Perry isn’t committed to staying with JacksonWink or Winkeljohn for future camps.

“I like Frank “The Tank” [Lester],” Perry said. “Wherever he’s at, that’s where I’m trying to work my kickboxing. (If) he’s at Jackson/Wink, I’d love to come to Jackson/Wink. I’m willing to help the people there as much as I can, so I can get some help. But I’m also going back to Florida. My coach Julian Williams from Florida was a part of that fight, he was in the corner with me and Frank “The Tank” and Coach Wink. . .

“Frank “The Tank” will still be a part of my team, and I got Julian Williams and I’m looking for – I don’t know who the third person that’s going to fill that spot is. I mean, does it have to be Winkeljohn? Because it seems like the big gyms run parts of the UFC. It seems like the UFC wants the big gyms to fight the big gyms, so whoever that is, that’s my key in, I’m not the key yet.”

That could make things interesting for Perry as on that same episode of Submission Radio, Winkeljohn called Lester “basically bipolar” and saying he will “definitely talk with Frank” in response to Lester siding with Cowboy and calling Winkeljohn a “bully” in an Instagram post. Considering this, Lester’s time at JacksonWink may be ending soon and if it does, Perry doesn’t plan to stick it out with Winkeljohn.

“We just don’t click like that,” said Perry. “I want to be around Frank “The Tank”. I want to be around Julian Williams. You know, being around Coach Wink I’m like, ahhh. I like him, he’s a great guy, but he knows that we didn’t click like that. We didn’t spend tremendous amounts of time together learning from one another.

“I like how it worked out, but it’s just, I know what Julian brings to the table, I know what Frank “The Tank” brings to the table. I feel like my manager is a good third cornerman just because he does the most as far as advertising me and getting me bigger pay checks and things like that. So, I haven’t found a truly valuable third person yet. I know that the value that Frank “The Tank” and Julian Williams gives me is tremendous, and I haven’t found someone to match that third spot.”

The Saga of Cowboy and Wink rages on.

MUST-READ STORIES

TUF. Pannie Kianzad onto the finals on the latest episode of The Ultimate Fighter.

Brawl. Dillon Danis, two others receive extensions on temporary suspensions for UFC 229 brawl involvement.

Fake urine. Ex-UFC fighter Cody McKenzie receives four-year NAC suspension for fake urine sample.

Minimum. Sean O’Malley receives six-month NAC suspension for failed drug test.

ONE. Miesha Tate says move to ONE partly because she doesn’t ‘identify’ with the ‘sh*t show’ western promotion has become.

Extension. Benson Henderson re-signs with Bellator.

VIDEO STEW

The A-Side Live Chat.

UFC Denver rewind.

Breaking down Cerrone’s armbar.

The most successful cheaters in MMA.

NSAC chairman on Conor and Khabib’s suspensions.

Kelvin on Pantera and his middleweight title shot.

LISTEN UP

Heavy Hands. Looking back at the wildness of UFC Denver and ahead to UFC Buenos Aires.

Bushido Talk. Discussing UFC Denver, Buenos Aires, and Cowboy vs. Conor.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Statement.

.08 nanograms and they pulled me off the biggest card, suspended me and fined me . 1 Nanogram is exactly 0.000000000001 kilograms. For everyone who thinks I am stupid enough to take a banned substance before the biggest fight of my career, .Thanks to the fans that support me❤️ — Sean O'Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) November 15, 2018

Update.

Moving down.

@RusHammerMMA you wanna fight before the end of the year ‍♂️ let’s do it https://t.co/WfeCyS6B3P — Luis Antonio Pena (@violentbobross) November 14, 2018

My family is staying home this Xmas, sorry Marv, no fight for you :) pic.twitter.com/ztYAwvXcIu — Artem Lobov (@RusHammerMMA) November 15, 2018

Khabib on his charitable works.

That explains it.

The barber messed my eyebrows up a week before the fight. I told him I want DBZ, I meant Goku but he gave me mr.popo ‍♂️ ruined my confidence .... ‍♂️ — Platinum Mike Perry (@PlatinumPerry) November 15, 2018

Also, on his broken arm statement.

Yo when I said he broke my arm I wasn’t thinking how people were going to think my forearm snapped in half. My bones are good but MRI tomorrow will show where I took the damage that took my arm out , I refuse to sign up for some @DrBeauHightower crazy surgery — Platinum Mike Perry (@PlatinumPerry) November 15, 2018

Congrats.

Nothing can compare to how proud I am to welcome my baby girl into this world. #prouddad #hangwoman pic.twitter.com/HyvRPaWEdH — Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) November 15, 2018

Very cool.

I am the 1st Female in History to be awarded America's Oldest Belt.

The Diamond-Studded @PoliceGazette Diamond Belt;. Designed and Awarded by Scott R. Burt @BKBHOF in the Spirit of its 1884 founder, Richard K. Fox.

#policegazette #diamondbelt #bareknucklequeen pic.twitter.com/eGEObrSFZq — Bec Rawlings (@RowdyBec) November 15, 2018

Get this man a fight.

He’s so mad.

Louis is a good fighter but I would fuck him up. They just want the people with Instagram followers you fucking duds ! You are ruining our sport https://t.co/BKTyCfgg0R — Jarred Brooks (@The_monkeygod) November 14, 2018

How the fuck you gone tell someone to kick rocks then win 3 times against puds then signed in a bigger division? Y’all are money mongral fucking pussies . — Jarred Brooks (@The_monkeygod) November 14, 2018

And massively overconfident.

@TJDillashaw I don’t think you can beat me if you cut down to flyweight . Bantamweight different story . But I’m way faster than you and with the size matched up at 25 . I would definitely beat you . — Jarred Brooks (@The_monkeygod) November 14, 2018

CB is moving up soon it seems.

Yes getting ready to sign a fight at LHW https://t.co/OqJ94aYuj3 — CB Dollaway (@cbdollaway) November 14, 2018

Legend status.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Justin Gaethje (19-2) vs. Anthony Pettis (21-8); UFC, Early 2019.

TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2008: Brock Lesnar became the UFC heavyweight champion by knocking out Randy Couture at UFC 91.

2013: Quinton Jackson made his Bellator debut, knocking out Joey Beltran at Bellator 108. Also that evening, Vitaly Minakov knocked out Alexander Volkov to win the Bellator heavyweight title and Patricio Freire won the season nine featherweight tournament by knocking out Justin Wilcox.

2014: Fabricio Werdum knocked out Mark Hunt with a flying knee to win the UFC interim heavyweight title at UFC 180.

Also that night, Tito Ortiz won a split decision over Stephan Bonnar at Bellator 131. In the co-main event, Will Brooks won the vacant Bellator lightweight title by knocking out Michael Chandler.

2015: Holly Holm shook up the world, knocking out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 and claiming the UFC women’s bantamweight title. In the co-main event that night, Joanna Jedrzejczyk won a unanimous decision over Valerie Letourneau to retain her strawweight title.

FINAL THOUGHTS

For more from the ongoing Winkeljohn saga, I recommend listening to Wink’s interview with Sub Radio. Not to put too fine a point on it but Wink really has a way of putting blame on everyone that isn’t him.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

EXIT POLL

Poll What side are you on? This poll is closed. 96% Cowboy Cerrone (1749 votes)

3% Mike Winkeljohn (61 votes) 1810 votes total Vote Now

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