While Donald Cerrone received props and well-wishes after his UFC 246 loss to Conor McGregor, his performance also garnered a lot of criticism. ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith even went as far as lambasting “Cowboy” for not being prepared enough and just “giving up.”
Cerrone’s showing on fight night continues to be nitpicked by observers. Long-time MMA coach Ray Longo also chimed in his thoughts during a recent episode of the Anik & Florian podcast.
“Man I gotta say, I have no idea besides the fact that what I saw is just a guy that looked like he froze up,” Longo said (transcript by MMA News). “I mean he slips the left hand. I would’ve thought just instinctively, that guy ends up on his back. I mean he almost went over him.
“And then he got hit with a couple of shoulder bumps, which is definitely nothing new. Instead of kneeing or elbowing, I don’t know what he did. You’d have to ask him what was going on. It looked like he just froze up to me.”
For Longo, Cerrone lacked a significant factor every fighter must have.
“Fight IQ, obviously. I think, Kenny, there was no fight IQ,” he said. “I don’t know what he did.”
Cerrone lost to McGregor inside 40 seconds of action, after eating a few shoulder strikes to the face that left him a broken nose and orbital bone. He is now facing a possible six-month suspension for the said injuries.