UFC lightweight Donald Cerrone had pointed his RV away from Las Vegas and toward New Mexico when UFC President Dana White showed up on his caller ID.

It was an unexpected call. Cerrone had shown up at 8 a.m. on Monday morning to do what he said he would do following a unanimous decision over Myles Jury at UFC 182. He wanted a fight, right away, to wash away the lackluster engagement.

White, though, hadn’t shown up, and UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta didn’t offer an immediate fight.

“Dana was at home ill, so I went and got a bacon-and-eggs breakfast from his executive chef, and talked to Lorenzo a little bit,” Cerrone said today during a media teleconference. “Really, it was going to be, ‘We’ll let you know in a couple days’ kind of answer.”

White, Cerrone recalled today during a UFC conference call, said he was calling as a friend. He had a fight, right away, but he was reluctant to offer it, given that Cerrone had literally just fought.

Not like that had been an issue before. Cerrone had volunteered to fight top-tier lightweight Jim Miller on one week’s notice when Miller’s original opponent withdrew due to injury.

“I don’t know if I want you to take it,” Cerrone, in a separate interview with MMAjunkie Radio, remembers White saying. “But everybody else does. It’s just a dangerous fight. I think you should take some time off.”

Cerrone waited until his friend gave his opinion.

“Lemme call my grandma and make sure she can make it to Boston,” Cerrone replied.

And thus, “Cowboy” came to be booked for a co-headliner against ex-champ Benson Henderson (21-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) two weeks away at UFC Fight Night 59 on Jan. 18 at Boston’s TD Garden. Henderson’s original opponent, Eddie Alvarez (25-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC), was forced to withdraw due to injury.

The last time Cerrone (26-6 MMA, 13-3 UFC) had that amount of time between fights was in 2006, when he fought his first pro MMA bout on Feb. 11 and then fought his second 12 days later. He finished both of his opponents, respectively, in the first and second rounds.

But that was way before he was known as one of the UFC’s most talented lightweights, a company man with a tricked-out RV, and a potential title contender.

Henderson, a former champ in both the now-defunct WEC and UFC, handed Cerrone one-third of his six professional losses, both in the WEC. In their first meeting, the two went to the scorecards in a “Fight of the Year” candidate. Henderson won via unanimous decision. In their second meeting, just six months later, Henderson caught Cerrone in a guillotine choke and ended the fight in less than two minutes.

In his most recent UFC fight, Henderson’s title prospects were muted by Rafael dos Anjos, who went on to secure a fight in March with the man who took both Henderson’s WEC and UFC belts, Anthony Pettis.

It stands to reason, then, that if Henderson beats Cerrone, it could derail a run that could soon bring “Cowboy” the title shot that’s eluded him since he debuted in the UFC’s octagon in 2011.

But one of the reasons Cerrone is so beloved by both his promoters and fans is his lack of caution inside and outside of the cage.

“I wouldn’t take this fight on short notice, one, if I wasn’t sh-t bat loony, and two, if I didn’t think I could beat Ben,” he said. “I’m excited and confident and trying to go out there Sunday night and whip the sh-t out of him. That’s overall how I feel.”

Cerrone remembers the second loss came at a time when his now-surging confidence was at a low ebb. A subsequent win helped rebuild that. But otherwise, he reaches for any significant meaning in the setbacks.

Asked what he took away from the pair of losses, however, he said, “I take the losses that I got from them.”

Of course, Cerrone is confident that he’s a completely different fighter than his initial meetings with Henderson. He said he didn’t really give anyone an opportunity to talk him out of taking a fight that could be demonstrably bad for his career.

“I could sit back and wait like every other fighter,” he said. “But I’m not every other fighter. I’m my own guy, and I don’t give a sh-t.”

He added. “The only problem is when I get that goddamn belt, who’s going to be left to fight? That’s what I want to know.”

On Monday, he fired off a text to his old foe.

“No hard feelings. Let’s go get 50-f-cking-k, brother,” Cerrone wrote to Henderson.

Henderson’s reply?

“Hell yeah.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 59, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show, available on SiriusXM channel 92, is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.