Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone with UFC Vegas 26 blowing the roof off UFC APEX last Sat., night (May 8, 2021) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Plenty of fighters were left licking their wounds including Michelle Waterson, who suffered a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Marina Rodriguez in the main event (see it here).
And Geoff Neal, who suffered his second straight loss after coming up short to longtime veteran, Neil Magny. But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Donald Cerrone.
Coming into his bout against Alex Morono, “Cowboy” was searching for his first victory in two years by stopping the bleeding of a cold streak that has seen him come up short in his last five fights. Unfortunately for Cerrone, things got worse by the time the dust settled 4:40 seconds into the fight.
Indeed, Morono clipped the longtime veteran, and then piled on a barrage of punches to prompt the referee on duty to put an and to the fight, giving Cerrone his sixth straight defeat. It’s a mind-boggling losing streak no one ever expected to happen to one of the best strikers the Lightweight division has ever seen.
Or perhaps it’s just too hard to accept given the fact that “Cowboy” has been a longtime favorite of, well, just about everyone.
But Father Time eventually catches up to everyone. It did to Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell and several others before it crept up on “Cowboy.” While everyone is quick to call for Cerrone to hang up his gloves and ride off into the sunset, going out on a loss simply won’t do for this gunslinger.
“I dunno, man. I don’t know what to answer you on, ‘Is it that time?’ I don’t feel like it,” he said after the fight. “But how I feel and how I perform are two different things. It sucks. I wanted to go back to 155 pounds. These boys at 170 hit hard, they’re big boys. But no excuses, man. That kid came in, he was ready. We did everything on our end and he got the luck,” he added before saying walking away just isn’t in the cards.
“No, absolutely not,” he said. “No way. I’ll never go out like this — 100 percent I’ll know and I’ll come in whippin’ ass right off. There’s no way I’d end like this. Couldn’t let my legacy end like this. Buy yeah, [I’ll] call the boss and say, ‘Hey it’s been a rough couple of years, but when it’s time let me bow out right.’”
That’s to be a expected from Cerrone, or most fighters, for that matter.
The only problem is whether or not Dana White and Co. are going to allow “Cowboy” to take part in at least one more fight inside the Octagon, which many would hope would be his swan song. One would hope the promotion would do Cerrone that solid — for better or worse — since that’s all he’s ever done for them.