Very, very few of us would dare take on Conor McGregor in a staring contest, let alone have the guts to go head-to-head with him in the cage.
For Donald Cerrone, nicknamed ‘The Cowboy’, that’s nothing.
Forever pushing himself to the limits and having even cheated death, grappling with McGregor at UFC 246 is just another day in the life of this adrenaline junkie.
Surviving a 40ft fall while rock climbing and a motocross crash, he’s even escaped drowning in a pitch-black cave.
None of it puts him off and he keeps on going back for more and pushes himself closer to the brink with each daring pursuit
Fourteen years ago, he suffered horrendous injuries after landing on the handlebars of his ATV bike.
His stomach cut open, he had to be revived three times, was in a coma for two weeks and had to have a large part of his intestines removed.
“I was racing some motocross and I wrecked real bad and just kind of spilled my guts out. They had to take a bunch of my intestines and part of my stomach,” he said, as reported by MailOnline.
In 2012, just weeks before he was set to take on Jeremy Stephens, disaster struck again as the crash caused him more problems.
“What happened this time is, my stomach basically rolled around the intestine. Man, talk about pain. It was like someone was stabbing me. Oh, it was so brutal.
“I had to go to the ER, and basically they had to empty all of my intestines out and then rush water down my stomach and try to get it to unspin, kind of like a garden hose.”
Excruciating to read, it’s incredible he still has the might and gall to keep putting his body at risk from the pounding blows suffered in UFC combat. It’s even more crazy to see this thrillseeker still divulging in extreme activity during his downtime.
While UFC prohibits fighters from ‘dangerous activities’, it clearly doesn’t stop Cerrone. The 36-year-old just isn’t fazed and keeps going.
In 2013, he arrived for his bout with Anthony Pettis unscathed despite falling 40 feet while rock climbing and even had time to tweet about his drop.
Having fractured his hip and foot, he added: “I guess you need to dance with death..Just so you know how precious life is.”
On another occasion, he survived a scary cave-diving incident that sends chills just hearing about it.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan podcast, he explained: “In cave diving it's a rule that you only worry about yourself coming home. This guy tried to tie off, his buoyancy aid flew off and hit the roof of the cave, now all of a sudden this line that was supposed to be tied off, which is our f**king lifeline is now wrapped around him.
“He starts to panic, and panic kills everybody involved. He starts freaking out, hitting the roof, spinning, silt flying everywhere. You're in basically a little tiny room and there's so much sediment at the bottom of these caves so if you kick hard everything comes up, dark dust, mud.
“I broke the rule and went to get him. As soon as I went into the silt I lost my way, where I am, up or down. Now I'm panicking, freaking out and then hit my head on the f**king ceiling. Then I tell myself: ‘calm the f**k down, calm the f**k down. To this day it gives me nightmares. Cloudy, dark, I can't see anything. I felt around and had no idea.
“I've been in there 38 minutes already. I start trying to find my way out, I can't. Then again, I can't. I inflated a buoyancy aid and rose to the ceiling, had to turn around to face it and crawl to feel. I've switched to my last tank of air. I have a notepad in my pocket to draw and write on. I start thinking what my letter to my family is going to be.
“Then I was like: ‘What are you doing? You're going to write a letter to your f**king kid.’ This is the conversation I was having with myself.
“There's a huge crack along the top of the cave I remembered. And I just thought that crack has to lead to the surface and give me something. I'm crawling along the ceiling looking for this f**king crack and goddammit I found it.
“Then I found some green water and a little hole, but my tanks are in the way and I'm too big to fit through it. I'm hyperventilating but try to calm myself down and keep going along the crack. Then all of a sudden I'm out, made it.”
Extraordinary.
No matter what happens against McGregor at the T-Mobile Arena, we’re certain Cerrone will be sat with his feet up soon after.
Chilled and laid-back, nothing is too daunting, no problem too great. That’s just him.
