Donald Cerrone recently revealed that he was not in his best form in his fixture with Connor McGregor at UFC 246. The fight, which took place back in January, saw McGregor finishing Cerrone in just 40 seconds after the opening bell, in one of the fastest finishes ever.
Cerrone ended the fight with a bruised nose. That was McGregor’s first fight since he came out of retirement last November.
The match was over as soon as it started after McGregor dealt a series of punches and blows, using his fists and shoulders. Even as they were separated by a referee, McGregor shot a kick that ended things. After the match, Cerrone said it was the shoulder jabs that did the real damage, weakening him. Not everyone believed him.
Chief among those was Steven Smith, ESPN sports analyst, who said “it looked like he gave up” in regards to how the match ended. For Steven, Cerrone quit the match on purpose, putting in no effort at all saying, “that was not a guy that was prepared to fight tonight.” The veteran analyst received serious backlash due to his comment, especially from McGregor.
Now, as if to vindicate Steven, Cerrone, in an interview with ESPN, said even though he was there in person, he was not in his best of spirits. Cerrone refers to his “Cowboy” nickname as if it’s another person, the real fighter in him.
He said, “Donald showed up, Cowboy wasn’t there. The wrong guy showed up, couldn’t get going, couldn’t get excited, couldn’t get fired up, didn’t want to be there.”
There has always been speculations, before a Cerrone fight, on whether “Cowboy” would show up or not. Cerrone expressed his frustration on having to deal with the whole thing, “sometimes I show up there and I’m ready, I’m fired up, and I’m ready to go, sometimes I get there and I’m like ‘I don’t even want to be here.’” He also said that two days before UFC246, he did not feel like going ahead with the fight. Steven has applauded Cerrone for his admission.
Cerrone would appear next in the rescheduled UFC249, holding on the 9th of May.
Written by: Leon Osamor
