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While Saturday’s majority draw with Niko Price
was a disappointing result — one that Donald
Cerrone actually regards as his fifth consecutive defeat — the
popular veteran is nowhere near hanging up his four-ounce
gloves.
“No. Don’t stretch that by any means,” Cerrone said following UFC
Fight Night 178.
“I just need to figure out something that I’m doing wrong,” he
added. “I don’t know where it is along the line, but I need to
figure out what’s causing me to be—let’s just rewind it. Last fight
with Pettis I felt great. That was the best I ever felt. The fight
before with Conor [McGregor], with the biggest lights, the biggest
stage, the biggest chance of my entire life — I didn’t want to be
there at all. I did not want to be in that cage… That’s not me.
That’s not who I am.”
Cerrone hasn’t tasted victory since a five-round verdict over
Al
Iaquinta in the UFC Fight Night 151 main event in May 2019.
“Cowboy” has competed against the sport’s best during his recent
slump, falling to the likes of Tony
Ferguson, Justin
Gaethje, McGregor and Pettis.
Still, UFC president Dana White believes the time has come to have
a serious discussion with Cerrone regarding his future.
“For him tonight, the win for him tonight, he was on his way out in
the first 30 seconds of the first round,” White said. “He fought
back, he’s tough, he’s durable. I love ‘Cowboy,’ and I know this is
going to f—ing crush him and break his heart, but it’s time to have
a conversation with him.”
Without talking to Cerrone, White already has a pretty good idea of
how the talk might go.
“I’ve got to have this conversation and see what he says,” White
said. “I know what he’s going to say – I don’t want to stop. But
we’ve got to have the conversation.”
It sounds as though Cerrone just wants to take a brief hiatus
before returning to the Octagon.
“There’s no way I’m looking or talking of retirement,” Cerrone
said. “I’m just talking taking a few months off to f—-ing regroup
and figure some s–t out, that’s all.”
