ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith has taken to social media to react to Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone’s admission he didn’t want to fight at UFC 246.
Smith was a part of the broadcast team for UFC 246 and made some pretty harsh comments about Cerrone after his loss to Conor McGregor.
“I’m quite disgusted,” Smith said. “Let me be very, very clear: I’m honored to be up here with you guys. I’m a spectator watching the sport. I expected to see more than 40 seconds. I predicted McGregor was going to win this fight inside of two rounds. I thought he would take him out.
“Here’s the deal: 15 seconds in, ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone was done. He got hit with those shoulders in the clinch, and he was done. It look like he gave up. It was just an atrocious performance on his part.”
Smith received mass backlash from the MMA community, with Joe Rogan and Conor McGregor leading the charge against him. Three months on and it seems the veteran sports broadcaster called it right on the money as Cerrone admitted yesterday he didn’t want to fight at UFC 246.
“Donald showed up, Cowboy wasn’t there,” he told ESPN. “The wrong guy showed up, couldn’t get going, couldn’t get excited, couldn’t get fired up, didn’t want to be there. Biggest fight, all the attention, my time to shine, I didn’t want to be there. (Expletive) it was crazy man. I don’t know why, I don’t how, I don’t know how to change that, but it sucks man.”
Smith has now taken to Twitter to address his MMA community and react to Cerrone’s comments, he wrote.
“so all you MMA folks — who I profoundly respect — am I off my rocker now??? When you’ve covered sports intimately as a reporter for a quarter-century, you see things sometimes. I respect the hell out of @Cowboycerrone, but he just wasn’t there that night.”
Does the MMA community owe Stephen A Smith an apology?