Donald Cerrone won’t retire after seeing his winless skid stretched to six fights at UFC on ESPN 24.
Cerrone (36-16 MMA, 23-13 UFC), the UFC’s all-time wins leader, is in the midst of the worst rough patch of his career. The latest result came on Saturday, when he suffered a first-round TKO loss to short-notice opponent Alex Morono (19-7 MMA, 8-4 UFC) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
At 38, questions are already bubbling up about whether “Cowboy” should go on in his career. He said, as of now, quitting is not an option for him.
“I’m sure now there will be a lot of talk of, ‘Maybe he’ll retire. Maybe this is the right time.’ But that isn’t anywhere in my train of thought,” Cerrone said on the UFC on ESPN 24 post-fight show. “I have to figure something out. I feel like I came out, started hard. Who knows? We’ll have to watch it, assess it, see what’s going on. I’m in good spirits. I’ll go home and see my two boys, hang out with my family. Shitty night at the office but hopefully UFC isn’t sending me off anywhere and you guys will see me again.
In a separate interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Cerrone opened up a little bit more on where he stands. He emphasized that he feels healthy and is training to the standard required to fight at the highest level, but it just hasn’t come together for him in the octagon.
“I don’t know what to answer to you on, ‘Is it that time?’ I don’t know. I don’t feel like it,” Cerrone said. “But how I feel and how I perform are two different things. It sucks. Who knows? I want to go back to ’55. No excuses. That kid came in and was ready.”
Cerrone gave Morono his full props for landing a good shot early and capitalizing. He said he now plans to return home and spend time with his two sons, and then he’ll speak to UFC president Dana White about his next move.
It must be noted that out of his current slump, Morono is the first fighter who wasn’t a former undisputed or interim UFC champion that Cerrone has lost to. Perhaps that’s a worrisome sign, but for Cerrone it doesn’t mean the end.
“I’ll never go out like this,” Cerrone said. “There’s no way I’ll end like this. I couldn’t let my legacy end like this.”
