Donald Cerrone has a new opponent this Saturday at UFC Vegas 26, Alex “The Great White” Morono.
Marcell Dorff of MMA DNA broke the news of the replacement on Monday, shortly after Giga Chikadze volunteered to replace Sanchez to fight Cerrone in the main event. As of this writing, there still is no official main event for the UFC Vegas 26 card, as the targeted bout between Marina Rodriguez and Michelle Waterson is currently experiencing some logistical obstacles. Cerrone was originally intended to fight Diego Sanchez in what was going to be the farewell bout for Sanchez, but Sanchez was abruptly released after a falling out between UFC management and Sanchez’s team.
Cerrone won’t have an easy replacement in Morono, who is the winner of four of his last six fights. Morono is a five-year veteran of the UFC and has an overall promotional record of 7-4. A hard-nosed competitor like Cerrone, Morono has only been finished twice in his professional career and only once in the UFC. In his most recent bout, Morono faced another veteran of the game, Anthony Pettis, in what was Pettis’ final UFC bout. He will look for a better result against Cerrone to bounce back from his decision loss to Pettis last December.
Donald Cerrone has not fought since September 2020, which by his standards is an extremely long layoff. In his most recent bout, Cerrone was in a no-contest against Niko Price. Prior to that, he had lost four consecutive fights. After losing to Price, White expressed uncertainty about Cerrone’s future in the UFC. At 38 years old, Cowboy can’t afford to make it a sixth straight fight without a victory; otherwise, this could be the final fight of his remarkably durable Zuffa run that dates back to 2007 under the WEC umbrella.
With the addition of this welterweight scrap, the updated lineup for UFC Vegas 26 includes the following bouts:
Neil Magny vs. Geoff Neal
Diego Ferreira vs. Gregor Gillespie
Donald Cerrone vs. Alex Morono
Angela Hill vs. Amanda Ribas
Philipe Lins vs. Ben Rothwell
Maurice Greene vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Ryan Benoit vs. Zarrukh Adashev
Damir Hadzovic vs. Nikolas Motta
Christian Aguilera vs. Carlston Harris
Francisco Figueredo vs. Jimmy Flick
Roxanne Modafferi vs. Taila Santos
Tafon Nchukwi vs. Jun Yong Park
Who do you think wins this short-notice fight between Donald Cerrone and Alex Morono?
