It appears that Donald Cerrone was already beaten before he stepped into the octagon against Conor McGregor.
The “Cowboy” has struggled a bit during his last few fights inside of the octagon, with Cerrone suffering losses to Tony Ferguson (via TKO at UFC 238) and Justin Gaethje (via TKO at UFC Fight Night 158) before his match-up against Conor McGregor.
Despite the devastating defeats, the 37-year-old is known for always putting on an exciting show and many fans were expecting an incredible back-and-forth contest between Cerrone and the former two-division champion at UFC 246; however, the welterweight fight was over before it began as McGregor dropped the Colorado native in 40 seconds.
Now, Cerrone is looking to bounce back from that crushing defeat back in January when he meets former UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis at UFC 249, and speaking with ESPN before his return to the octagon, The “Cowboy” admits that he wasn’t mentally there during his fight against Conor McGregor:
“Donald showed up, ‘Cowboy’ wasn’t there,” Cerrone told ESPN. “Wrong guy showed up. Couldn’t get going, couldn’t get excited, couldn’t get fired up. Didn’t want to be there. Biggest fight, all the attention, my time to shine, I didn’t want to be there. It was crazy, man. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, I don’t know how to change that but it sucks, man. Sometimes I’m ready, I’m fired up, I’m ready to go, sometimes I get there I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t want to be there,’ so don’t know, no idea.”
Cerrone doesn’t know exactly why he wasn’t excited for the biggest fight of his career and when it came time to squaring off against the former two-division champion, he had no time to react to McGregor’s explosiveness:
“When he came at me and threw that big shot and I shot in, I hit his hip bone,” Cerrone said. “That’s what started the whole (thing). Then I grabbed a hold of him, to get my bearings back, and he like did the jumping shoulder slam which compounded the fog in my brain, and then I let go and he head kicked me so it was just like, there was no time to re-group. So it was from the first second of the fight, to when he ended it that I couldn’t even get my bearings back.”