A week ago, Alex Morono was coaching his students but a short notice opportunity to face Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the UFC Vegas 26 co-main event was an opportunity too good to pass up.
Morono certainly made the most of it after blitzing Cerrone with a blistering series of punches in the opening round to earn the TKO stoppage victory.
The end came at just 4:40 in the first round as Morono moves to 5-2 in his past seven fights in the UFC.
“Short notice fights have always done me so well,” Morono said afterwards. “I’m so happy to win the fight. I got some mixed emotions right now. My goal this fight was to focus on my focus. What a week, what a sport. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
Known as a notoriously slow starter, Cerrone looked to buck that trend by firing out of his corner as soon as the action got started. Cerrone connected with a nice body kick early but Morono absorbed the shot and began using his footwork to stay away from any more of those.
As the first round continued, Morono was showing a ton of confidence in his hands as he began throwing combinations from the outside, which were tagging Cerrone at will.
While Cerrone was still staying in the exchanges, his lack of head movement resulted in Morono blasting him with a lot of punches from the outside.
Finally as Cerrone stepped forward into his own combination, Morono launched a huge overhand right that blasted “Cowboy” and put him on rubber legs. Realizing Cerrone was hurt, Morono surged ahead with a flurry of punches while also being wary of the potential counters coming from his always dangerous opponent.
With each shot landed, Cerrone was starting to wilt under the pressure and after Morono connected with several stiff shots in succession, referee Marc Goddard had no choice but to stop the contest.
After accepting the fight on less than one week’s notice, Morono has now picked up the biggest win of his career while taking out a legitimate UFC legend. Unfortunately that comes at the cost of Cerrone’s record, which drops to 0-5 with one no contest in his past six fights.
