By Rick Wright
Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque-based MMA fighter Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s honesty can be as brutal as the sport in which he competes.
In a recent interview, while fielding questions about his fight Saturday night against K.J. Noons on UFC 160, Cerrone was asked about his loss to Anthony Pettis by first-round knockout in his most recent outing — a defeat that dropped him out of contention for a shot at the UFC lightweight (155-pound) title.
Without prompting, Cerrone noted that the Pettis fight was not the first time he’d come up short in a fight that might have put him in the title picture.
In December 2011, the Jackson-Winkeljohn fighter lost by decision to Nate Diaz. It thus was Diaz, not Cerrone, who got a shot (he lost) against lightweight champion Benson Henderson.
Now, it’s Pettis, having dropped to 145 pounds, who’s getting a shot at UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo in August.
“It sucks. It really sucks,” Cerrone (19-5) said of the damage to his career done by the Pettis defeat — in which, after a barrage of mutual trash talk, “Cowboy” was felled by a kick to the liver just 2 minutes, 35 seconds into the fight. “That’s my second time being up there for the contendership and losing and coming back to the pile. I don’t know if it’s the camera or the pressure, (but) I’ve got to figure that out, whatever it is that makes me fight hard to get there and (then) it seems like I fold under the pressure.
“I’ve got a new sports psychologist, trying to work those kinks out.”
In the person of Noons, it appears Cerrone is being given a chance to begin rebuilding his resume — as he did after the Diaz fight with victories over Jeremy Stephens and Melvin Guillard.
Noons (11-6), of San Diego, is a former Strikeforce fighter who’s making his UFC debut. He has lost four of his last five fights.
Now is not the time, Cerrone said, to take anyone lightly — not that there ever is such a time for a 30-year-old MMA fighter.
“I know (Noons) doesn’t want to come in (to the UFC) with a loss,” he said. “He’s training hard, training strong. I think it’s gonna be a good matchup.”
Among Cerrone’s 19 victories, 13 have come via submission. None of his last five victories, however, has come by that route.
Against Noons, who has eight wins by knockout or TKO and none by submission, Cerrone wants to get back to the basics of his game.
“I need to fight my fight, man, for once, instead of going out there and trying to show everyone that I’m the best striker,” he said. “… Just believe in my jiujitsu and my wrestling and take him down and take it to him.”
(c)2013 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.)
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