Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - UFC Hall of Famer Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone Interview

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

On Episode 8 of “Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour,” NASCAR Legend Kevin Harvick sits down with UFC Legend Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone for an electrifying conversation. Join us as they delve into Cerrone's off-road racing journey, experience in UFC, competing against Conor McGregor, his close relationship with Dana White, the importance of family, and much more! Plus, get an exclusive look at Donald's passion for acting and his love for TV and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I said, hey, man, you got a problem? Like, there's something going on. Like, I don't understand. He's like, oh, no, no, no. Our power steering pump was out. Our fuel pump kept shutting off. We had to keep pulling over. I was like, all right.

So that was the closest I ever been to whipping someone's ass out at the desert. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. And today we are going to interview one of my great friends, first client, at Kevin Harvick management. and always an entertaining interview, Donald Cowboy Soroni, 2003 UFC Hall of Fame inductee and one heck of a showman through the years. And now calls himself a race car driver. So this should be a good interview.

So let's welcome in Donald Cowboy Seroni. All right, today on Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR and Fox, we've got 2023 UFC Hall of Fame. name inductee Donald Serroney with us today. And as usual, this guy's got a project going on at home outside shooting guns, building something in the sauna, in his favorite plunge tank, whatever it may be. So what are we building today, Donald? We're building a new tack room for the horses. New tack room for horses. So that doesn't surprise me. But I'm just going to get right to it.

What in the hell are you doing going from UFC fighter to race car? driver. How did this start? I know you've always been around everything that we do from a racing standpoint, but now you are full bore into the racing thing. You just got done with the MIMP 400 and flipping buggies. What has happened out there? I don't know. I just got super involved into the racing and fell in love with it. Well, you know, you have the bug. You know exactly what it's all about. So I don't know if it was, at the end of your career was still as fun as it was. Like the end of my fighting was not as fun as it was when I first started. So I imagine that's kind of where you knew it was time to hang it up.

But for me, I'm like the beginning you, when you started, you know, I fell in love with racing. And I just want to do as much as I can. So you're doing nitro circus right now. There's your dog. Nitro cross. Nitro cross. That's right. I forgot.

There's nitro cross and nitro circus. Nitro Cross. And so what's the long-term goal? Is it to run the Baja 1,000? What's the end game here? There is no end game. It's just to race as much as I can. So we raised the Baja 1000 last year.

We took fifth place. I guess the end goal would be to run the Baja in the truck because that would just need. I need KHA to loan me about 150K. Can you guys manage that or no? It wouldn't be alone. It would be more of a gift. It'd be a gift. I'm sure that I'm sure that we could,

I'm sure that we could help you get to that point. But that's the hardest. I'm sure as you've learned, that's the hardest part about racing is trying to figure out where you're going to get the sponsorship to come from because you've got to buy a lot of tires and gas and everything else in between that it takes to get there. And it's cubic dollars equals cubic speed. Yeah, the truck's about $100 per mile.

That's what we've come out to be. So, yes. $100 a mile? Yeah, about that. Well, I guess that's okay. So this Volkswagen flip, and I watched this flip, and I'm thinking to myself, my God, that looks like it hurt. Did that, I mean, were you buckled in like you appropriately should be? Did you have your helmet and everything on?

Do you have a Hans device? Tell me about flipping this bug. So the answer to that is no, because I thought I was just in a bug. But that was like the most violent crash I've ever been in. but now I promise Lindsay I'll never get a race car again without all the proper stuff

so I haven't been in since so yes I have a Hans have a helmet have all the proper stuff but no I didn't have my Hans and I had a motocross helmet on I didn't even have it buckled

so I blew my helmet off in the crash it was all bad all bad your helmet blew off inside the car yeah I held it against I took my chin and held my like a cradle little babies holding on to it while.

Yeah, it bounced first hit, it just flew off. So did it, did it take you while to get out of the car? Did you have to go to the infield care center? Or did you just tough it out? That is tough, I mean, I was laying on the side for a while. And the guys came over like, oh, you already have your helmet on? I'm like, yeah, yeah, I took it off right away. It was uncomfortable.

Oh, my God. That does not surprise me one bit. But, Jesus, I don't even, I don't even know what to what to say after that. But it's very entertaining. It's very entertaining to watch your path through the racing piece of it because I know how intense you are and I know how much you just like to keep pushing things. And the racing thing, when you start pushing things, winds up costing you money. And I think that there's probably some good life lessons that are taught in there that say,

okay, well, I could shove this in there. But I know how much that right front fender costs. I know how much the tire costs. how much the suspension costs. So I say that, and then I see you roll into the races with three different classes. So do you think about how much the parts and pieces cost when you shove it in there? Or are you just like, screw it? I'm going in there.

I'll figure out how much it costs later. Yeah, like right now I have my buggy's totaled. The truck is pretty wrecked, and the bug's okay. So the cheapest one made it through pretty good this. but the other two is going to take a hit, so we'll see. So who's working on them? Well, the truck is down in California because I know nothing about trucks, so I have actual whole team of guys that run that,

but the Can-Am's here and the bugs here. So you guys work on them in your shop, and you're over there working on them? Not today, I'm not, but I will, yeah. Yeah. So you've got yourself in the middle of another, we'll get away from the racing thing, because it sounds like you've fully got that under control. you've got yourself in the middle of another intense situation here with Dana White's bull.

Tell me how this happened. How do you get yourself into riding the baddest bull? Did you ride bulls? Had you had too many Budwisers when you committed to this? How did this happen? Well, yeah, I rode bowls back in high school. So well, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, God, when it was high school? Yeah, 2000, I graduated.

So, yeah, 14 years ago, I used to ride bowls. I haven't even thought about it or considered it since. I put the kids camp on every single year. So doing the ride to raise money for kids camp. It's kind of how it all unfolded. And I thought, why not give Dana? At the time, I didn't realize it was the bad as bowl. Only three people have actually covered his bowl.

And I kind of got my foot in my mouth. But now I got to just go do it. hold on and let her have. So we'll see. I've been practicing a lot. The practice bowl, which I'm getting on now, are nothing compared to the actual bowl.

I'm going to go ride. Yeah, I just try and trying to practice, do what I can. I'm actually going to Dallas tomorrow, head over at J.B. Mooney's and get off the bowl. So we'll see. So is this like when you used to fight, Dana has a big say and how much you practice so that he knows that you're going to not go out there and kill yourself when,

to make sure that you're doing what you're supposed to do. Did you guys have to come to some sort of agreement on how much you would practice? Or is he just like, all right, you idiot, you're going to ride this bull. And you can prepare if you want. And either way, the show is going to happen. Yeah, that's how it's going to, how it went. But he's like, oh, I was actually taking a series and going to ride it. But I, like, legitimately want to go ride it.

I don't want to just go get on it. One second later, you get bucked up. I want to go put the boots to some bitch and give it. So we'll see. Well, as usual, I guess. more power to you because you're a braver man. You're a braver man the most. But as we as we talk about Dana White, he's been a big part of your life throughout your whole fighting career and the things that you have done. Talk us through how Dana has helped you through your fighting career.

I mean, we've been with you just for those that don't know. Donald was our first client at Kevin Harvick management. We tap out brought Donald to Texas Motor Speedway. And we became friends and went to watch him fight. And that's, that's really was the birth of, of Kevin Harvick management when Donald came to us and said, hey, will you manage me? And from that point, we've, we've, helped him through everything that he's done. But being a part of that on the KHA side, we've learned that Dana White is, is very involved with the fighters and everything that, that you guys do. So how was he, tell us how he was instrumental and some of the, your best, your best Dana White stories from things that, you know, you had to work through it in order to get a fight or

something that happened that everybody will think is something that would be fun to know. Well, just, I mean, for one, being a professional athlete, there are a lot of rules at what you can't do, like you can't go to horseback riding, you can't go skiing, you can't, there's a lot of things that they don't allow you do once you sign a contract committed to a fight that you could possibly go get injured. But he never made those apply to me. He'd always like, on kid just don't do i know you're going to do it don't get hurt so i never had the uh i never had the uh i never had the rules what i couldn't couldn't do he never told me yes or no he never told me don't take that fight he's always very supported like this is what you want to do we'll get you

as many fights as you want and just later in my career he started like pulling me back like man let's uh let's slow down a little bit let's let's think about retirement let's i got this racing organization i just bought let's kind of shift you over to that so he's he's he's kind of fake where my life helped me with the raving and man just financially through my whole career and even now today so it's the guy does a lot for me a lot of people talk crap about him and tell him oh he just doesn't pay the fighters enough and my answer to them is you got to go create yourself a name like like be like sugar shane omalley is right now you want to make money become that become that guy and you make the money you become the cowboy sroni you make that money other than

that they're not just going to pay you to not move the needle and and and make the money so I think I made him money to the career, so he always helped me out. What was one of the times that Dana was like, hey man, you probably don't need to be fighting or a fight that you were injured during camp because for us, we were always in the dark as the management company.

We never knew with you where you stood because what did you always tell us? But neither is he. Yeah, there's a difference between my favorite Cowboy's saying, is there's a difference between being hurt and injured. So what the hell does that mean? So please explain to me what that means now that you're done fighting.

Well, if you're injured, you can't fight. If you just hurt, you can figure it out. And I always tell you when that pain in my knee or that pain in my shoulder or that pain in my rib, it's a long way away from my heart. So I'd always just fight through it and figure out a way to get it done. What was the one where you shouldn't have fought? Connor. Connor.

Were you hurt? Yeah. Hurt and just mentally wasn't ready for that. I just was done, didn't want to be there. And yeah, so that one probably shouldn't have happened. Probably there's a couple of them along the way that I probably shouldn't have never done. And some I took and ended up winning and was like, oh, see, we're fine. And I probably never should have went in there with the injury that I had.

But it's fighting is how we get paid and I had things to buy. That's right. Yeah. And I think we all kind of live by that motto with whatever we do. And you do what you do until there's just that ultimate moment where it sticks out and says, hey, we can't do it anymore. I think as you mentioned that Connor fight, I was there that night. And your walkouts were always pretty amazing and intense.

And the crowd was always was always into them. What's that feeling like when you walk out of that tunnel and you're walking out in the crowd? Are you just completely pumped up or you think that you're going to die? What's that feeling like walking out to that ring? For one, it's the coolest feeling in the whole world. It's got to be what a musician feels like where he's rock in a concert, you know, and the place goes absolutely bananas when they call your name, you walk out. And yeah, you're scared to death, but you're faking it until you make it.

You're letting everyone think you got this, you're cool, no problem. So you fake it until you make it, until you make it, until you get out there in the first couple of punches. Once they ring the bell, go down. But there's also been times I'm like, yeah, let's go. Ring that bell. Like I couldn't wait to get into the cage. Sometimes I just was like, man, it's the longest walk in history to that cage because

you don't want to be there. So it's such a weird dynamic. Some days you're 100% in. You'll fight anybody. And some days you're like, man, why am I doing this? So trying to find the days that you're 100% are far and firm between. So you always prepared to beat someone on your worst, you know, and that's, that was, that was the, the secret success for me with trying to figure out how I could perform the best at my worst and go out there and just get it done. So you have, you have, you have, you have, you have that, you have that, you have that, you have that, you have that, you have that, and I think that that, that changes things.

And when, when, when you're, we were fighting at the, at the end of your career, you know, to see those. moments with you and and those things that happened with your wife and kids and everything towards the end of the year were made me, made me pretty proud to know you, knowing how much they mean to you. But I think for me, one of the, one of the coolest moments that everybody planned that you didn't know about was when they announced your induction into the Hall of Fame and everybody came out that night. What was that feeling like when you saw them? and I think I know your answer, but I want to hear what you have to say.

Yeah, the weird thing is that everyone playing secret and keeping them away from me, like Ozzy called me like, hey, let's go get lunch right over here. I was like, all right, you want to go have lunch and drink beer right before we go to a fight?

Shit, I'm down, you know? But it was weird because they were sneaking them in. And then I had my buddy there, Uncle Laser, crazy little comedian guy. And we were sitting there and they, right when it came on, I was like, oh, this is happening. And then I look over and see the wife and kids like, oh, unreal. This is, this is cool. You guys got me.

You got me. So it was, yeah, it got me. So are we fighting or racing? Which are we, are we just going to do both? Because a lot of times when you're racing, you're fighting anyway. So you think that they're, what does danger seem to be interested? I know, I know he's the oldest. They're racing. They love racing. Love, love, love it. Yeah, they love it. He has two race cars right now. So he goes out and drives every single day. The first thing he does, we get somewhere school, like, can we go drive the Can Iams? Like, sure you can. Let's go. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of people don't give the kids enough credit for the things that they can actually do. And when they're exposed to just being able to go out there and figure stuff out, heck, when they're three, four, five, six, seven, eight years old, they're, they're learning.

at a pretty rapid pace. So you're thinking that you're going to put him in like off-road vehicles or are you looking at a golf? He likes off-road. So he's already, he won last year when he was four years old, he won the mid-400. It's pretty cool. He was racing against eight, 12-year-old. So he was four years old and went out there. And the parents, of course, afterwards, you had to hear all the dads.

Oh, is that car fair? Is that thing? and I said, listen, I play by the rules. My cars are all fair, but you need to be worried about my 40-year-old just drug your 12-year-old. So that's what you need to be over there. Don't be busy to me, be bitching at him.

Oh, man. It sounds like, it sounds like off-road racing is exactly like the rest of racing. Oh, yeah. I mean, everyone wants to cheat until they get caught cheating and then they want to point the finger at you, but I play by the rules every time. I don't, they can, like my truck right now, they are just pulled the whole motor appointment,

because I thought we have an illegal motor. Like, go ahead. It cost you $10,000 and you got to put a motor back together. I don't care. Rip it apart. It's on you. I don't cheat. I play by rules. Just like fighting. I never cheated ever. I always made weight. I never took any drugs. I always played by the rules. So I never was ever worried about anything. Same thing off road.

I'm going to race as far as I can legally. And, yeah, people know me out there. so they don't want to bump me, push me, because there's no law. I'll whip your ass and leave you for dead in the middle of the desert, so it'll be all right. Have you had any tussles at the off-road races yet? Or does nobody, no, everybody knows they don't need to mess with you.

Baja 1,000? Baja 1,000, I did. Yeah, I was driving another guy's car, and he would pull out and he'd hit us. It's called nerping when you need it. Like, someone doesn't move out of the way, so you make a move. Well, he had a class one buggy, which is a thousand, horse car or buggy. We were in a K&M, so way fast enough. He pulled out and he slammed into the back

of our car. I let him by. Then he pulled over about a mile at the road, did it again. Pulled over a mile of the road, did it again. So we were probably 10 miles on finish by. When we got to the finish line, I unboggled by seatbelt ran back to his car because we finished before him. And I said, hey man, you got a problem? Like there's something going on. Like, I don't understand. He's like, oh, no, no, no, no. Our power steering pump was out. Our fuel pump kept shutting off. We had to keep pulling over. So I was like, all right. So that was the closest I ever been to whipping someone's ass out at the desert.

But so. You crack me up, man. I love every minute to talking to you. I think it's, racing is one of the most intense things. And people who haven't been in racing just have no idea the intensity that comes with driving a vehicle, building a vehicle,

going with your friends and competing for, in your race for 1,000 miles. And to know, to know how you carry those emotions through is something that you can't explain unless you have somebody else that's done it. As you go through these last several months and with everything, you've got the racing bug. You're off doing all the racing stuff that you do right now.

Do you ever have the itch to walk back down out towards that octagon and fight again? Or is it just you're doing what you want to do at this particular point and just having fun? I had a company Well, the bare-knuckle guys offered me a fight And I said you'd have to come up with such a number That would get me entice me to just get off the couch I'm making money

Through all the stuff doing with Dana right now And all the sponsors I have that stuck around on me So I'm not dying for money This truck is costing a lot So I might have to just go take a fight Just to keep the truck alive now I don't have any interest though next month I going and filming two movies one in Atlanta, Georgia, the other one Idaho.

So hopefully the movie star thing takes off and I'll start working like the Rock. You start making 20 million movies. Then I'll just buy a brand new race car every single weekend. I'll have a new car. So that's what I'll do with all my money. How in the world did the movie thing start? What was the first movie you did? Stunts.

I started doing stunts. And it just kind of took off from there. You know, I had a good on-camera presence, I guess, and I wasn't ever scared to, I don't know, throw a fake punch or take a fake hit or roll a car or jump off a bridge. So stunts took off, and then they figured out I could say a couple lines and then die. So I did a bunch of movies where I'd say a couple lines and then get beat up or I'd die. and then the several lines took to more and more and more,

and now I've slowly gravitated away from stunts and more into the acting side of it. So the acting side of it, did you have to go take like acting lessons or do you just go out there and be yourself? They just, you just take direction well? Yeah, not only direction well, but the cool thing is a lot of roles I play

are kind of like tough guyy, macho role. So I just already lived out. body so I don't have to pretend to be that guy. All I got to do is do the lines. Yeah. Yeah, well, you are, you are one brave soul, but I think when you look at the fighting, the acting, and the racing, is there anything that you would go back and change as you went along the way that you would have said, this moment I should have done like that, and it would have led to something different? Because I always tell people, look, I made a lot of mistakes. I screwed a lot of things up, but I'd never be here where I'm sitting today if I hadn't

screwed all that up. So is that, do you know, you wouldn't, you wouldn't change nothing. That's what I mean? It'd be hard to back up. If you change this, if you change something along your career, you wouldn't be living in Ricky Bobby's mansion, you know what I'm saying? So I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, well, maybe we'll maybe we'll recreate the scene of, in, in the living room of the, of the, of the Ricky Bobby movie once, if we ever, if we ever get the thing done. We'll invite Will Ferrell over to see if we can, see if we can figure it all out. But, um, The impact that you had on UFC fighting, the impact that you've had on everybody's lives,

the fans, I mean, I look at your Instagram, you've got over like four and a half million followers on Instagram. The things that you did for the fans and the impact that you had on fans just skyrocketed the last five years of your career. And it was a pretty amazing ride that you had. And I think, do you understand, understand the magnitude of everything that you did or has it, has it ever been a show?

Because I always tell people with some of my stuff, it's like, hey, I'm here to put on a show. I have to do the things that I have to do. And when I'm sucking, I got to be more dynamic than everybody else. Was there a lot of thought that went into it or were you just you? Just me. Yeah, no thought at all. I never cared much about the fans. I mean, it's went out there and live my life and never held back on what I'd say or what values I thought were right.

and they're just just me, me being me. I love it. And you know what? That's what we always appreciated about everything that you did. And like I said in the beginning, you are the reason that we started the management company and we became friends and watched you become the dad that you are. And I think that is the most impressive thing to me

to see how you started and from where we met to where you are today. Proud to call you a friend, man. And I appreciate you taking the time coming on with us today. And I'm going to let you get back to work. All right. Yeah, my dog, my dog's not having it. You guys are taking me away from her, huh? Thanks for taking the time, man.

I appreciate, of course, man. I appreciate all the years of support. And, man, it's been a fun ride. All right. Make sure you buckle your helmet. Always. No more, never again. Never again.

No more half-ass helmet. buckles. Now just get Josh. Show me the money, baby. I love it. Have a good day. Thanks, man. Yes, sir.

I want to thank Donald Seroni for coming on the show today. And thank you guys for listening to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR on Fox. You can follow us anywhere on social media at Harvick Happy Pod or give us a follow on YouTube. And we'll see you next Tuesday. Thanks for listening.