UFC veteran Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone announced his retirement in the Octagon at UFC 276. He couldn’t be happier with the decision, revealing at the post-fight press conference that he was ready to retire long ago, even before he faced Conor McGregor.
“Before I fought McGregor, I knew. 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 Was Ready to Retire BEFORE McGregor
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.’ 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 tonight, that was for me, and I f****** feel good about it. I’m gonna go home tonight and crack me a nice cold Budweiser and f****** chug it all the way down and be like, ‘Ahh. Good career, Cowboy.’”
Cowboy Cerrone retires with a good career indeed. He’s virtually a guarantee for the UFC Hall of Fame, having conceded the most wins in UFC history to his opponent, Jim Miller, on the night. “This is it right here tonight.
Everyone got really emotional. Like I said, I had both my boys in there, Bruce and Joe sent me off, and I’ll hang my hat on that all day long. One hell of a career. And why not? The guy tied with the most wins takes the wins and keep going. Hell yeah! Good job, Jim. F****** run with it, baby. I’m going to step down and it’s all good. So if I had a moment that I look back on, this is it. I’ve dreamt of this moment for a long time, of finally being OK in my heart saying it’s time to walk away, and this was it.”
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