Donald Cerrone might have dodged a bullet. ‘Cowboy’ had been waiting for the brash Irishman to sign on the dotted line for a rumoured showdown in July. However, McGregor wasn’t interested in fighting in the co-main event of a pay-per-view, and Donald Cerrone wasn’t interested in sitting on the sidelines, waiting for Conor McGregor.

UFC instead booked Cerrone in a fight with Al Iaquinta, and with what has transpired over the past 48 hours, Donald Cerrone could consider himself to be lucky.

First, there was the bombshell of Conor announcing his (alleged) retirement via a tweet. Then yesterday, the New York Times published a story regarding Conor McGregor being investigated for sexual assault claims. Amidst all of this drama, it is safe to say that Conor’s future is now in a limbo.

However, ‘Cowboy’, during his appearance on SportsCenter claimed that Conor was going nowhere, and his retirement announcement was just a power-play.

“We saw it last night, actually, we were up. Just landed in Canada we were up here reading it. I don’t believe it, I don’t think it is happening”, Cerrone said on SportsCenter (transcript via BJPenn.com). “I really don’t. I think it is a ploy to stay relevant. I don’t think he is going anywhere.”

Cerrone further said that the talk of McGregor heading to WWE were completely off the mark.

“No, I don’t buy it at all”, Cerrone explained. “It will look a lot like what he did but I don’t think that is true. I just think he put that out to stir up the media. I read something he may go to the WWE. I don’t know. He may have to get out of his UFC contract to do that. Retiring is one way out, but I doubt it. He’s not going anywhere.”

Donald Cerrone was then asked just why the fight between the two fell through. And the beer-drinking face-puncher told the story in his own words.

“I was just done waiting, done playing the game. He is radio silent, so I wasn’t going to sit and wait, sit and wait, and sit and wait, and then all of the sudden something like this happens where he retires”, Cerrone said. “I would have just been out. So I said I am not going to sit and wait for you Conor. I am going to take another fight. If you want to fight me in July, I will fight now and I’ll fight you again.”