Donald Cerrone suffered a fifth loss in his past six fights. After his initial opponent Diego Sanchez was pulled from UFC Vegas 26 and released by UFC, Alex Morono replaced Sanchez. ‘Cowboy’ suffered a Round 1 TKO in the co-main event on Saturday.
While talking to ESPN, he said, “It’s just a rough day. This game can get changed, all it takes is one big shot. He hit me with a good one, set me back. Hit me with another one. I could hear my coaches say grab a hold of him and it’s like I don’t know if I can take three of them.”
He further continued, “The kid came hungry, ready, no excuses on my end. I was ready. We warmed up great, came out started early, who knows.”
Both fighters started scoring pretty early into the fight, but it was Morono who was landing the harder blows. Cerrone did display some commendable head movement along the way, but made a mistake during an exchange in the centre of the Octagon.
In the meantime, Morono ducked an attack and landed a right hand. It stunned Cerrone and Morono rushed in for heavy combinations along the cage and the eventual finish.
“I should have been kicking more for sure,” Cerrone said about his performance. “Should have been a little bit more busy with my jab but I knew he had big overhand monsters. I was trying to not get tagged by one of those and it didn’t work.”
His recent loss could take a toll on his career as UFC Dana White hinted that he might have a talk with Cerrone about this future at UFC.
“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,” Cerrone said.
However, Cerrone said that this was not his last fight.
He said, “Absolutely not [my last fight]. 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,” Cerrone said.
Read more: Alex Morono earns notable victory against Donald Cerrone at UFC on ESPN 24