Donald Cerrone was not all that pleased with how his fight went down and he wanted to let Myles Jury know how he felt.
So, with Jury on the ground in the closing seconds of the bout, an enraged Cerrone let loose. He wound up and kicked Jury to the legs and butt several times just about as hard as he could.
“The f*ck you kicks?” Cerrone said in the post-fight press conference. “Yeah. That’s what that was. I was either trying to kick and break my leg or his. I was very upset.”
Cerrone came away with a unanimous decision victory over Jury at UFC 182 on Saturday night in Las Vegas. The win gets him a step closer to a lightweight title shot and cemented his status as one of the very elite fighters on the planet at 155 pounds.
But “Cowboy” was not happy at all about how the fight went. When he steps into the Octagon, his foremost goal is to entertain and he felt like Jury didn’t let him do that. Cerrone controlled the entire fight, but it wasn’t one of his usual knock-down, drag-out brawls. Or a finish, either.
“I’m a guy, I don’t like hearing boos,” Cerrone said. “My legacy is I want to be fighting my ass off every time, so I don’t consider that a win. I’m not happy with my performance and I’m gonna go watch the tape and figure out what I need to do to capitalize if that happens again.”
Cerrone (26-6, 1 NC) was irked that Jury talked a bit before the fight and didn’t back it up with action. He was hoping for a war and ended up getting a plodding bout with little action. The only thing “Cowboy” could think of at the end was to punish Jury by, well, literally kicking his butt.
“At that point I was just tunnel vision, thinking murder,” Cerrone said. “That’s all I could think, just kick as hard as I could. That’s all I thought. I wasn’t [trying to please] fans. It was just f*ck you. That’s all I could think.”
Cerrone, who said he would love to come back and fight at UFC Fight Night on Feb. 14 in his home state of Colorado, had a unique warmup before his bout Saturday night. He brought in former UFC and current Titan FC fighter Pat Healy and the two sparred for three rounds before Cerrone’s went out. The hope was that it would improve Cerrone’s slow starts and it worked. Cerrone dominated the first round with precise ground work.
“We did about three rounds during the [Nate] Marquardt fight and pretty much fought and got ready,” Cerrone said. “So I was coming out round four ready to go. Trying to figure out what I can do to come out guns blazing. I felt solid. I had a great sweat, ready to go. I didn’t know someone was going to wear their Nikes and run the whole fight, so I was definitely upset.”
UFC president Dana White disagreed with Cerrone’s assessment of the fight. He felt that “Cowboy” was able to shut down a young and talented fighter in Jury. White said he believes Cerrone’s jiu-jitsu “blew Jury’s mind” in the first round and the rest of the fight he was tentative.
Cerrone wasn’t buying it.
“I apologize to everyone who was watching,” he said.