Despite his many years in the fight game, Donald Cerrone made an error of judgement on Saturday night when he tried to clear his apparently broken nose inbetween the second and third round of his fight with Tony Ferguson at UFC 238.
Within seconds of him doing so he experienced exactly why fighters are always warned not to blow their nose after damage like that, when his right eye suddenly swelled completely shut, which would lead to the fight ending with a TKO victory for Ferguson due to a doctor’s stoppage.
In such cases the end result is a broken orbital bone that can take a long time to heal, but according to his latest update, ‘Cowboy’ appears to have gotten off lightly.
“I’m in Good Health,” Cerrone wrote on Instagram. “Thanks for all the message and concerns. Only air was in my eye. No broken bones nor cracked or broken orbital. Sitting and waiting for the Rematch or next fight [🤠].”
While it was an unfortunate ending to a great fight, the sense was that Ferguson was very much in the driving seat by the end of the second round, and given that he’s now on a 12-fight winning streak in the ultra-competitive lightweight division, it seems unlikely that he’ll be in a hurry to run this fight back, and will likely instead attempt to secure a well-earned title shot instead.
Whether he gets that or not remains a big question mark, particularly with Conor McGregor known to be eager to get another shot at the title too.
