We’re surprised Cowboy Cerrone still has teeth after his fiery gym encounter with Jon Jones

We almost had a serious mismatch on our hands.

Back before Jon Jones was a changed man - no, the time before that - he was a firebrand. He may have been drinking and carousing but detractors dared not mention the drinking. Or carousing. Or other stuff. Throw brash, wise-cracking Donald Cerrone into the mix and you're bound for trouble. Such was the case, a couple years back, when the duo clashed at the Jackson Winkeljohn gym in Albuquerque. Cerrone told Fighter and The Kid:

"Me and him have plenty of disputes all the time. We almost had at it, him and I at Jackson's. "This is before all the wild Jon came out. I spoke about him being wild and he was like 'What the f**k with you putting me out like that?' and I was like 'What's up motherf**ker?' but that's behind the scenes."

'Cowboy' then claimed Jones is a completely different, and nicer, animal when the cameras are on. Cerrone said:

"What had happened was all the UFC cameras were there that day and I came at Jon like 'What's up?' "He comes at me, puts his God hat on and got to work. He just said 'Cowboy, I just don't understand, I'm so nice to you, always try to help you and this is how you treat me, this is how you want to come at me?' "I remember pointing at him like 'you motherf**ker'."

Cerrone noted that himself and Jones are 'all cool' now. The differing personae claim is interesting, however, as it is an accusation that Daniel Cormier, who defends his UFC light heavyweight belt against Jones at UFC 200, has levelled in recent weeks.