Donald Cerrone has lived up to his Cowboy moniker by stepping in on short notice often, but now it’s Alex Morono stepping up and Cowboy is ready to make a statement.
Taking place inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Donald Cerrone has been through a crazy few weeks. Last week, it was discovered that the UFC parted ways with Cowboy’s scheduled opponent, Diego Sanchez. In a rare sequence of events, the company needed someone to step up and fight Cerrone on short notice. Then, welterweight Alex Morono did just that and is excited at the opportunity to face the legend despite the short-notice hang-up.
While Cowboy admits he’s getting older, he believes his recent grappling performance against former UFC champion Rafael dos Anjos relit a fire inside the promotional staple.
“We took a little slower approach this year,” Cowboy said at the virtual media day event. “I am getting old. I am. I need to slow my fighting down a bit. Let my head heal. But s—t, we’re ready. Doing that grappling tournament with Rafael dos Anjos was the best thing I ever did. It got me really excited into jiu-jitsu again. Got me excited into training and fired up. I hate that term, ‘Oh I had a real re-igniting of the fire!’ But I really fell back in love with jiu jitsu, and am excited to go out there and participate.”
Despite it being a jiu jitsu tournament, the competition definitely impacted Cerrone’s thought process moving ahead. With indifferences to the Sanchez situation, Donald Cerrone insists that he’s angry and ready to take that out on Morono come fight night.
“I still have malicious intent on hurting a motherf—ker, I’ve got the Diego fire still,” he concluded. “So I plan every punch and kick to be lethal and I don’t want this kid making it out of the first round. So when he watches this: know I’m coming, motherf—ker. So when you come hard and fast, I’ll be ready.”
Since there has been much speculation that Cowboy starts slow, the long-time UFC fighter believes that Morono’s coaches are likely telling him to come out of the gate early and fast to try to catch the veteran off guard. Despite losing his initial opponent, Cerrone seems fired up to perform this weekend.
Do you think Donald Cerrone can turn back the clock and score another highlight-reel finish? Or will the short notice challenger Alex Morono take home the win? Let us know below!