Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone is not ready to ride off into the sunset just yet.
Donald Cerrone has now gone winless in his last six fights in the UFC, the longest such streak of his storied career. Aside from a no-contest against Niko Price, Cerrone has lost five in a row, with four of the five losses coming by way of KO/TKO.
The most recent of those losses occurred at UFC Vegas 26 last night against Alex Morono. Cerrone tried to withstand Morono’s early onslaught in the first round, and he nearly did, but with 20 seconds remaining, Morono was able to put a stop to the fight with a final flurry of punches.
Cowboy spoke with ESPN about the raw emotions he was feeling in the immediate aftermath of the fight (transcribed by Damon Martin of MMA Fighting).
“Heartbroken for sure,” Cerrone said. “I don’t know. Don’t know what to answer you on is it that time. I don’t know. I don’t feel like it but how I feel and how I perform are two different things. It sucks. Who knows. I wanted to go back to 55, those boys at 70 hit hard, they’re big boys, but like I said, no excuses. That kid came in, he was ready.
“It’s definitely hard to break a streak, isn’t it? I need to break the damn streak cause it’s brutal. I wish I had the answers but I don’t.”
Cowboy Wants To Retire On His Own Terms When It’s Time
The biggest storyline coming into this fight, of course, was the speculation that this could very well be Donald Cerrone’s last fight. Given that Cerrone is approaching 40, is battle-worn with the most fights in UFC/WEC history, and is on a long losing streak consisting almost entirely of knockouts, the blood seemed to be on the wall for the legendary gunslinger.
Even after his fight with Niko Price was originally ruled a majority draw, Dana White stated he would need to talk to Cerrone about possibly hanging it up, remarks that Cowboy admitted hurt him. Now that Cerrone has now been knocked out once again without a win in over two years, that talk now seems inevitable, but Cerrone hopes that he will be allowed to dictate the conversation.
“Absolutely not [my last fight],” Cerrone said. “No way. I’ll never go out like this. I will, 100 percent I’ll know [it’s the last fight] and I’ll come in and sh*t hopefully I go in whipping ass right off. There’s no way I’d end like this. I couldn’t let my legacy end like this.
“But I’ll call the boss man and say ‘Hey, man, I know it’s been a rough couple years but when it’s time, let me bow out right.’”
If you were Dana White, what would you tell Donald Cerrone after Cerrone made the request to bow out the right way?
