WEC: Who Wouldn't Love a Bull Rider Turned Fighter?

Possibly I am one of a small number of people who has been a lifelong fan of the Rodeo before becoming a die-hard MMA fan.

My husband, two sons, and I all have had experience in competing in Rodeo events.

When my oldest son, who is crazy enough to undertake any extreme sport, was about sixteen years old, he chose to ride bulls in Illinois High School Rodeo.

It did not appear to be the safest choice out of all his options; my preference for him, considering his size of 6'1" and 180 pounds, was steer wrestling, calf roping, or team roping.

Being it was his choice, and since his father had briefly ridden bulls when he was younger than sixteen, I was overruled and bulls it was.

Until you have stood next to a bull pen, heard and felt (yes, I said and meant felt) a bull below, and had the clothes on your body tremble from the pure power of a 2000 pounds Brahma bull cross, you cannot begin to appreciate the strength the animal possesses and the danger it poses for its rider.

Donald "the Cowboy" Cerrone knows of this power from first hand experience.

Although he has changed interests in favor of a career of fighting MMA in the Zuffa-owned WEC organization, he would have had my undying admiration due to the fact that he had once competed in bull riding.

You, or I really should say "I," have got to love a sixteen-year-old who will wear an old-felt Western "cowboy" hat to a toney high school where snobby teenagers and uptight teachers are going to try to make his life pure hell for having the guts and individuality to do such a brash thing.

Now, "Cowboy" wears the same hat into the octagon to be introduced before his fights.

Like most cowboys who have rodeo-ed, Donald is superstitious about his hat.  He has won every time he has worn the hat into the ring. Seeing he has a perfect record of 8-0-0, I would keep wearing it, too.

His last two fights were televised on Versus, and luckily my husband subscribed just in time for me to see Donald beat Kenneth Alexander and most recently Danny Costillo, both by submissions.

Donald has won 100% of his fights by submissions—seven triangle chokes and one arm bar. He thanks his long legs for his uncanny ability to go for a submission from any position in a fight.

Naturally, I will be very eager to see the 155-pound six-footer's next fight, and hope it goes a little longer than 56 seconds.

And, of course, because I am so curious, if I could ask Donald who trains at Greg Jackson's gym in Albuquerque, N.M. with most of my favorite fighters, which of the MMA fighters he knows and trains with, would make the best bull riding prospect.

Maybe Roger Huerte?