Donald Cerrone has angrily denied he is being paid to take a dive against Conor McGregor at UFC 246.
Former two-weight UFC champion McGregor will make his long-awaited return to the octagon when he fights Cerrone at welterweight on January 18.
McGregor is expected to target fights against Jorge Masvidal and a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov if he gets past Cerrone in Las Vegas.
But while all the attention ahead of UFC 246 has focused on McGregor's first fight since losing to Nurmagomedov 14 months ago, Cerrone insists he is no speed bump on the Irishman's road to bigger match-ups.
There have even been rumours Cerrone is taking a huge payday from the UFC to lose against McGregor and set him up for the fights ahead.
'The Cowboy' hit out angrily at such speculation.
“Hell no, I’m not bowing down,” Cerrone told MMA Fighting .
“There’s a bunch of s**t going around, people keep telling me ‘I heard you’re getting paid to take a dive.’
"There wouldn’t be enough money in the world for someone to pay me to take a dive. I could never look myself in the mirror if somebody paid me to take a dive. S**t, never happen."
He added: “I’d rather fight for free than take money to f**king lose. That’s not me. I’m going to fight my ass off like I do every time.”
Cerrone has lost his last two fights, against Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje - and many believe it should be the latter of those two getting to headline UFC 246 against McGregor.
However, he holds the records for most wins and most finishes in UFC history, and won three in a row before facing Ferguson and Gaethje.
“I’m still No. 4 or 5 or whatever the hell I am," he said.
"It’s not like I’m getting beat up by bums, somewhere down there getting tumbleweeded in the rankings pool.
“I don’t know where I’m sitting but I’m still at the top of the list.”
