"Cowboy" Cerrone loses again, is it time to retire?

Donald Cerrone has given us a lot of years of great fights and as of right now, he has the most wins of any UFC fighter in all of the promotion's history. Yet lately, he hasn't looked so great as he has gone from the "guy to beat" to the "guy who used to win but always gets beat" in just a couple of years. His recent record of 0-5 is not impressive and if he were just about anyone else Dana White would have already sent him out to pasture. Yet there is still something about the guy that keeps him around and I have a theory on why that is.

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This past weekend, "Cowboy" went into his fight vs. Alex Morono as a heavy favorite to win yet he was on the receiving end of a TKO stoppage that shocked the MMA world.... but honestly, should it have? The fact that he is ranked in the top 15 despite not having a "W" in his record since mid 2019 shows just how much favoritism the UFC plays in a fighter's career and how much playing to the crowd and formulating a good in-ring persona is of paramount importance in the UFC, much more so than other MMA promotions.

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_{You don't really recover from one of these... I speak from experience}

When Cowboy got finished the the first round of a fight that he was (on paper) meant to easily win, it kind of shocked the MMA world. For me, despite knowing very little about Alex Morono, I had a reaction of "well of course Cowboy was going to lose!"

As strange as it may sound to say this about the legend that is "Cowboy" I think that this last push on the part of UFC to bring him to the forefront of the Welterweight division that began back in late 2018 following a mere 3-fight win streak was his undoing. Cerrone isn't, and perhaps never was, the type of caliber of fighter that is ever going to be top-notch. When they billed him to be the person who was going to face McGregor during his "comeback" I thought that the fight was intentionally rigged in order to give Conor a push. The knew that "Cowboy" didn't stand a chance in this fight and it ended in 40 seconds with Cowboy getting exactly zero offense in before being sent to "shadow-time."

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The above image speaks volumes for why Cerrone is still in the promotion: Dana White and him have a great relationship. I have no reason to believe this other than the fact that any time either of them is asked about the other, they have nothing but good things to say, even when Donald loses. Also, and this is the part that is what I don't like about UFC, Cerrone is able to maintain excellent public relations and social media presence and still manages to be a big draw even for fights that he is almost certainly going to lose.

If any other aging fighter had lost ALL of their last 5 fights, White would have sent them packing 2 or 3 losses ago. But somehow Cerrone is a major draw for viewers in every fight that he is involved in and I think this is because his attitude is so much different than other fighters - he seems to be a genuinely nice guy and doesn't do a lot of trash talking. He is a gracious fighter and has been around for a long time. Furthermore, his "Cowboy" persona appeals to a particular demographic in the same way that Roy Nelson's "fat guy who can knock you out" approach appealed to many fans, including me.

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It appears as though the Dana White force-field for Cerrone is wearing thin though and Dana recently stated in an interview that he is going to give "Cowboy" one... last.... chance... but it will be in a "do or die" situation.

That guy (White) is an absolute master of promotion and because he has said this, you can be guaranteed that once again, Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone is going to be a major draw at his next, and perhaps final fight. At 38 years of age, he is one of the oldest fighters in the UFC and has had many a concussion over the years.

I think it is really generous for White to offer this to the man but since this last fight most likely takes him out of the top 15 ranking, is Dana going to stack the deck and put an inferior opponent against him? Or will he really test the man to see if he really has what it takes to stick around? My money is on the former because if there is one thing that White likes more than MMA, it is money, and Cerrone is still making money for him.

If he does lose again, which I think is very likely, it will be interesting to see if the other promotions are interested in him because there is no denying his crowd appeal and unfortunately, that is a very big part of this sport.