Cerrone’s jabs target champ, not next foe

Donald Cerrone doesn’t like Jamie Varner and has made that abundantly clear to anyone who will listen during the buildup to his main event fight on Saturday in San Antonio.

“He’s a punk,” Cerrone said of Varner on a conference call. “He talks a lot of crap. I just don’t like him as a person.”

The only problem is that Cerrone’s opponent Saturday is Ben Henderson.

After improving to 10-1 with a quick win over James Krause in June, Cerrone found himself back in line to avenge his only career defeat with a second chance at Varner, the World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion.

But Cerrone soon learned Varner wouldn’t be able to defend his belt because of the lingering effects of a broken hand. So WEC told Cerrone he would fight Henderson on Sept. 2 for an interim belt that was created because Varner has been out for nearly nine months.

That date had to be canceled after Henderson suffered an undisclosed injury during training, but the two will finally meet Saturday.

“I’ve had back-to-back training camps (without a fight),” Cerrone said. “I’m excited to get in there and throw down.”

Cerrone admitted it will be a challenge to take on Henderson when Varner is still the focus of his thoughts.

“That’s a huge problem,” he said. “You know (Henderson) is the guy who’s in the way of me getting to Varner. What gets me up and gets me going is getting through him to get to Varner. That’s what fires me up the most.”

Cerrone’s fight against Varner in January ended prematurely when Cerrone accidentally landed a knee to a downed Varner. The champion was given time to recover but said he could not go on, so the bout went to the scorecards and Varner was the winner.

Since then Varner and Cerrone have sparred verbally. Cerrone recently lauded Varner’s skills before backhanding him in his next breath.

“You know I really got nothing bad to say about (Varner’s) fight game. He puts it out all on the line,” Cerrone said during his conference call. “Him as a person … I don’t have much nice to say about the guy. I’d like to punch him in his face every time I see him. … I just don’t like the dude. He’s a punk. He just bugs me. You know he’s just one of those people you just see and I hate his face.”

Cerrone should get his rematch with Varner this year if he defeats Henderson. WEC general manager Reed Harris said Varner received medical clearance to resume training.

• RATINGS HIT — What Roy Nelson’s destruction of Kimbo Slice on last week’s episode of “The Ultimate Fighter” lacked in entertainment value, it made up for with high ratings.

According to Spike TV, it was the most-watched episode of an original series in the network’s history. Among men, it was the most-watched program of any kind on Spike.

The final 15 minutes of the episode drew 6.1 million viewers.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@ reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.