Cowboy won’t hang ’em up yet

DONALD CERRONE insists he won’t ride off into the sunset following his devastating loss to Conor McGregor. ‘Cowboy’ (left) suffered a brutal 40-second defeat to the Irishman on Sunday in Las Vegas. The future Hall of Famer was stopped by a vicious barrage of well-placed strikes after McGregor landed a picture-perfect head kick. Defeat to the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight champion was Cerrone’s third stoppage loss in a row. But the fan favourite doesn’t plan on bringing the curtain down on his 16-year career any time soon.

Cerrone said: “I love this sport. I’ll keep fighting. I don’t care, it’s just what I love.”

The 36-year-old appeared to suffer a broken nose and eye socket after absorbing a series of heavy shoulder strikes.

The unorthodox shots from ‘The Notorious’ stunned the American, who said: “I’d never seen anything like that. They threw me way off-guard. He busted my nose, it started bleeding, then he stepped back and head kicked me. I was like, ‘Oh man, this is happening this fast?’ I got my a** whipped early.”

Although Cerrone has no immediate plans to hang up his gloves, UFC president Dana White believes he needs to seriously consider his future in the sport.

“I’ll talk to him and see what he wants to do,” said White. “He’s like the lighter version of Chuck Liddell. This is what the kid does. It’s who he is.

“The not-so-fun part of the job is when you have to have these kind of conversations and ask him what he wants to do. I’d like to see him take a break.”

Should Cerrone come out of their conversation still hell-bent on fighting, White has no intention of giving him any easy match-ups.

He said: “That’s not what we do here. When the rankings come out, we’ll see where he ranks. That will determine what fights he would fight next.

“But if you feel like you should fight guys that aren’t ranked in the UFC, you probably shouldn’t be fighting in the UFC. Because there’s plenty of places where you can go and make a lot of money.”