Diego Sanchez says he won’t be the only legendary welterweight retiring after his fight against Donald Cerrone on May 8.
‘The Nightmare’ has been very vocal about his upcoming fight against ‘Cowboy’ being the last of his storied MMA career.
During a recent appearance on the “Real Quick with Mike Swick” podcast, Sanchez revealed his plan to drag Cerrone into retirement with him.
“I’m going to move in there so smooth. We’ll make this sh*t look easy,” Sanchez said. ‘Cowboy,’ he might be planning on finishing out those five fights he signed when he signed the Conor McGregor deal, but as I’m ready for retirement, ‘Cowboy’s ass better get ready for retirement too. He don’t know, but this is probably going to be his retirement fight, too.”
The former training partners famously fell out in 2018. Cerrone left Jackson-Wink MMA and Sanchez put ‘Cowboy’ on blast for doing so. The season one Ultimate Fighter winner also left the Albuquerque gym one year later.
‘Cowboy’ clearly hasn’t dropped his beef with Sanchez when this fight was announced. The veteran revealed he is very much looking forward to adding ‘The Nightmare’ to his highlight-reel. Sanchez didn’t take those comments too well.
“With ‘Cowboy’ talking all this mess that I’m not the legend, and I’m just going to be another highlight on his highlight reel, yeah, it added extra motivation for me to be like, ‘All right, you want to take me lightly, take me lightly,’ because I’m the wrong guy to do that (with),” Sanchz said. “This is the wrong time to do this in my career because honestly, I’m feeling better than I ever have. It’s been three hard, long years working with Joshua Fabia on revamping my whole entire style, to learn how to defend myself and to strike properly.
“So I’m super excited for this ‘Cowboy’ fight, and I’m motivated as hell. I want to go out there and kick his ass,” Sanchez added. “I want to take it to him, I want to bring the fight to him. When you’re training for your retirement fight, you just take sh*t more seriously because you know this is going be your last time that you make the walk.” (Transcribed by MMA Junkie)
Who do you think will win on May 8? Diego Sanchez or Donald Cerrone?