When Tony Ferguson pulled out of the UFC on FOX 19 main event fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, it surely looked like Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone would be stepping in to fight Nurmagomedov on short notice despite having a fight with Patrick Cote booked in June.

The UFC surprised everyone when they announced that Nurmagomedov would welcome reigning CFCC lightweight champion Darrell Horcher to the Octagon in his UFC debut.

When Cerrone’s JacksonWink MMA teammate BJ Penn got on the phone to talk with Ariel Helwani on Monday’s MMA Hour, Cerrone jumped on the call to say hello. Helwani took the opportunity to ask “Cowboy” about if he signed the contract to fight Nurmagomedov at UFC on FOX 19.

Cerrone made it clear in a quick talk with Helwani that it wasn’t his decision to not fight Nurmagomedov.

“Of course I signed the contract Ariel, who are you talking to,” said Cerrone. “The UFC called me back and said they don’t want the fight to happen, that they want me on the Ottawa card, they don’t want, can’t have me sign the two contracts at one time. They said something about I could get hurt, I could get cut, I could get blah blah blah blah blah. They said no. Khabib comes at me all crazy, but that’s all I’m giving you. Here’s BJ.”

Penn backed up his training partner as he got back on the phone and said, “of course ‘Cowboy’ signed the contract. What kind of question is that Ariel?” Penn added that the two teammates at JacksonWink MMA are ready for the world saying, “Me, Cowboy, Albuquerque versus anybody!”