Donald Cerrone had the biggest fight of his career on Saturday, taking on lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title, but unfortunately ‘Cowboy’ didn’t have much of a chance to show what he can do, with his eight fight unbeaten stretch coming to a screeching halt in just 66 seconds via TKO.
“Sometimes you just don’t show up to work, so you get your ass kicked,” Cerrone stated at the post-fight press conference. “Hat’s off to the son of a (expletive). He did what he had to do. … The knee is what started it. Then he put a great onslaught of punches on me. He did a great job overwhelming me, and he did what he had to do to remain champ. Sometimes you just don’t show up, and in our profession, that’s a bad day.”
It’s an unfortunate end to an impressive run for one of the UFC’s most popular fighters, but falling at the last hurdle has been something of a speciality for Cerrone over the years, particularly during his time in the WEC where he fought for the title three times, losing out by split decision to Jamie Varner and then twice to Ben Henderson.
The 32 year-old had also came close to a lightweight title shot in the UFC back in 2011 after two wins in the WEC were followed by a further four when he joined the UFC, but a decision loss to Nate Diaz foiled him on that occasion.
Cerrone is unlikely to be deterred by his latest disappointment though. Truth be told he just likes to fight regardless of whether there’s a belt on the line or not.
It remains to be seen if he’ll be able to rack up another four fights in 2016 as he did in the last two year though as Dos Anjos did rough him up pretty badly, handing him only the second defeat by strikes of his 36 fight professional career.
“I have no idea how that will work,” ‘Cowboy’ says of his chances of a quick return to action. “I don’t even know if (the UFC will) want to call me after that ass whipping. But that’s what I do is fight. Sometimes you just don’t show up. I don’t have an excuse – I just wasn’t there. He showed up and did what he had to do.”
