Dana White on Donald Cerrone: Everyone wants to make a million dollars, but some don't get there

Donald Cerrone didn't seem happy with his purse Saturday night after beating Patrick Cote at UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Thompson.

All things considered, though, Dana White doesn't think Cerrone did too bad for himself.

"Me and Cerrone are as tight as tight can be," the UFC president said Tuesday on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. "And there's a lot of personal stuff with me and Cerrone, too, on the positive side. But the kid made over $200,000 on a fight on free TV on the co-main event and the gate was $900,000. How much money does Cerrone expect to make on a co-main event? The kid looked great."

The Ontario Athletic Commission doesn't release fighter purses, but Cerrone made $79,000 to show and another $79,000 to win in his last fight, a victory over Alex Oliveira, in February. On Saturday night, Cerrone also earned a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus. He has 17 fight-night bonuses in his impressive career.

When read a list of UFC accomplishments, Cerrone smirked and said, 'According to my pay, I don't mean sh*t to the UFC.'"

White said on the podcast that he has spoken to Cerrone since and the two will sit down together for a meeting. He said "Cowboy" told him he was "half joking" when he made the comment at the post-fight press conference.

"This day and age, every fighter on Earth, especially when you look at the money Conor, Ronda, some of these people are making out there, it gets crazy," White said. "Listen, everybody wants to make a million dollars. Everybody wants to make a million dollars. Some people get there and some people don't."

Cerrone (30-7, 1 NC) is 2-0 as a welterweight after falling in a lightweight fight to Rafael dos Anjos via first-round TKO at UFC on FOX 17 back in December. "Cowboy" has won 10 of 11 fighters otherwise, but the knock on him is that he can't win the fight that gets him over that hump. White said he's "inconsistent."

"You've gotta win them all," White said. "Every one is the most important and you've gotta work your way up and you've gotta win those big fights. And 'Cowboy,' again a kid that I love, hasn't always taken everything so serious. You can't be f*ckin' rock climbing two days before your fight or wakeboarding the day of your fight. ... You want to make that serious, big money, you have to get in the right mindset. And the way that he looked the other night against Patrick Cote is the way you have to fight when you fight dos Anjos or Diaz or any of the big guys. When you get to that big fight, you've gotta win."

There are likely big fights in Cerrone's future, especially now that he's opened up the door to welterweight, which has a glut of elite fighters with fairly big names. Cerrone is 33 years old now, but still has a chance for those kinds of riches.

"I think the thing that's frustrating, especially for a guy like 'Cowboy' Cerrone, he has the personality," White said. "Everybody loves the kid. His fighting style is f*cking exactly what I like. It's right up my alley. Everybody I love about a fighter 'Cowboy' Cerrone is. He's a couple fights away from having that big fight."