Donald
Cerrone could see the finish line more than two years ago.
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Before he faced Conor
McGregor at UFC 246, “Cowboy” could feel his passion for the
sport waning, though he soldiered onward after falling to the Irish
star via first-round technical knockout in January 2020. The BMF
Ranch founder finally called it a career in the Octagon following a
submission loss to Jim Miller at
UFC
276 this past Saturday night.
Before I fought McGregor, I knew,” Cerrone said during a post-fight scrum
following UFC 276. “Then after the McGregor fight, I took another
fight and I was just going through the motions. I didn’t enjoy it,
didn’t love it. I knew the time was soon I just had to pick the
right time. So I took a lot of time off and then called my agent
and said let’s get a fight, and I just knew this was going to be
the last one.”
Cerrone kept going in part at the behest of his wife, who urged him
to soak it all in before walking away for good.
“My wife played soccer in college, and a lot of the things that
kept me going in the last fights of my life was, she was like, ‘I
wish I could go back and just play one more game. You have the
chance to do one more fight. Go experience it and love it,’” he
said. “And I was trying to love it, I was trying to find it, and I
was trying to experience it. I just was doing it for all the wrong
reasons. I was doing it for everybody else and on myself. But
retiring [Saturday], that was for me, and I f——king feel good about
it.”
The announcement came as a surprise to everyone — even Cerrone’s
inner circle. The Colorado native previously stated that his goal
was to reach 50 total fights combined in UFC and WEC competition,
but it turns out that was just a smokescreen.
“This sport is crazy. It’s the highest highs and the lowest lows,
and I feel, probably the best I’ve felt in my career at my lowest
right now if that makes any sense,” Cerrone said. “It was important
for me to go out with Joe [Rogan] and Bruce [Buffer] in the cage.
Just an iconic thing, here in Vegas. I knew back in January when we
started training for the first round, this was going to be my last
round, no matter what I told you guys. I remember telling the media
team you guys are not to ask me about retiring, and I said, ‘I’ll
do 50,’ but win or lose tonight, this was it, I was riding off.
“…I surprised the hell out of my team. They had no idea it was
coming. My wife didn’t know. No one knew. It was a good secret I
had.”
Cerrone fell on hard times in recent years, but he was known as one
of the promotion’s most active and reliable fighters, challenging
for lightweight gold in both the UFC and WEC while consistently
taking short-notice bouts. He’s also among the all-time leaders in
fights (38), wins (23), finsihes (16), knockdowns (20) and bonuses
(18).
“Now it’s off to the next chapter,” he said. “And I’ll be back.
I’ll come hang out, watch fights, talk to the young generation,
tell them all the things they should’ve, could’ve, would’ve done.
And maybe I’ll get an itch in two years, who knows? But anytime
soon, hell to the no.”