Ex-opponent Alex Hernandez says Donald Cerrone ‘quit’ against Conor McGregor | Bloody Elbow

Top-fifteen UFC lightweight Alexander Hernandez knows first hand the power of Donald Cerrone, which is why the 27-year-old was massively disappointed with ‘Cowboy’s’ performance against Conor McGregor at UFC 246, where Cerrone was stopped with ground-and-pound just 40 seconds into the opening round.

Hernandez suffered a second-round TKO loss to Cerrone at UFC Fight Night 143 and was hoping to secure a rematch with the MMA veteran but, after watching his latest performance at UFC 246, ‘The Great’ would rather he avoided Cerrone altogether.

Speaking to MMA Junkie in a recent interview, Hernandez accused Cerrone of quitting and said the 36-year-old is too inconsistent to be considered an elite-level fighter.

“That performance made me flaccid. I had this hard on and this vindictive mind that I was going to come and conquer and slaughter ‘Cowboy’ and get my revenge. It was all out of respect because he is who he is and he beat me, so for me I had this vendetta and I had to go get it.

“The erection that I woke up with every morning with this (expletive) vengeance in mind just fizzled in air and now I don’t want anything to do with that fight. You can call it whatever you want, I don’t need to say anything else about it, I already rambled enough.

“It’s just I watched that fight, and yeah, McGregor did something special, but he quit. You’re going to give me that (expletive) and you’re going to (expletive) quit, like you’re going to give me that performance and you’re going to give McGregor whatever the (expletive) that was? That’s the thing about ‘Cowboy,’ sometimes he shows up, sometimes he doesn’t. I definitely lost the lust for that fight after that performance.”

Hernandez rebounded from his loss to Cerrone with a unanimous decision win over Francisco Trinaldo and is currently #15 in the UFC lightweight rankings.