“The Death Punch Did Not Work”

Donald Cerrone is in a bit of a tough spot in his UFC career. He’s coming into his UFC Vegas 26 fight on May 8th going 0-4-1 in his last five and many people are writing him off as over the hill. As if that pressure wasn’t enough, he accepted a last minute opponent switch after his original dancing partner Diego Sanchez was released due to some suspicious behavior involving his coach and ‘guru’ Joshua Fabia.

Now Cerrone is facing Alex Morono, a younger, hungrier fighter at least one or two generations younger than Sanchez was. That must be frustrating, but Cerrone sounded somewhat sympathetic towards Sanchez, if in a brash bigoted kind of way.

“It’s hard to be mad at him now because I don’t know if it’s him guiding the horse,” Cerrone said at the UFC Vegas 26 media day. “I think he’s just running blind in this other Jumoke, his new lover is like showing him down the path. So I don’t know … I can’t really be mad at the kid you know? Or the old man I should say but really. It’s his cult leader and lover that took over his life and I feel bad for you. Diego.”

With Cerrone and Sanchez operating in the same circles of New Mexico, the question was asked: had “Cowboy” ever run into Joshua Fabia before?

“I never have, never ever have,” he said. “I do know the guy that whipped his ass at the bar. I used to train with the guy and that kid was talking about his ‘death punch’ and how he was gonna kill the dude and my buddy dog walked his motherf—king ass all over the bar. So… the death punch did not work. It was unsuccessful. And this guy no longer fights, no longer trains, and just said ‘Man, I’ll beat your ass,’ and he did. The MMA community in New Mexico had a chuckle over it.”

Cerrone and Morono will be fighting three rounds at 170 pounds … not the weight class (or the number of rounds) Cerrone was hoping for, but thems the breaks. To read more about “Cowboy’s” decision to accept the Morono bout last minute fight, click here.