Former UFC welterweight Donald Cerrone was ready to hang it up long before he actually did.

‘Cowboy’ faced off against Jim Miller in a rematch at UFC 276 last Saturday night in Las Vegas. The second encounter would go much differently despite Cerrone winning their first bout by a knockout in 2014.

After a back and forth first round, Miller submitted Cerrone in the second frame. The loss was the sixth in the last seven contests. Following the submission defeat, the 39-year-old decided to announce his retirement.

At the UFC 276 press conference, Donald Cerrone discussed his retirement. The fan favorite revealed that he wanted to hang up the gloves for a long time. Cerrone admitted that he was even ready to retire prior to his showdown with Conor McGregor.

The Irishman faced off with Donald Cerrone in January 2020 at UFC 246. In arguably the biggest fight of his career, ‘Cowboy’ suffered a first-round knockout. Now in retirement, Cerrone has looked back on the loss.

“Before I fought [Conor] McGregor, I knew. Then after the McGregor fight, I took another fight and I was just going through the motions. I didn’t enjoy it, didn’t love it. I knew the time was soon I just had to pick the right time. So I took a lot of time off and then called my agent and said let’s get a fight, and I just knew this was going to be the last one.” (h/t MMAFighting)

Donald Cerrone continued, “My wife played soccer in college, and a lot of the things that kept me going in the last fights of my life was, she was like, ‘I wish I could go back and just play one more game. ‘You have the chance to do one more fight. Go experience it and love it.’ And I was trying to love it, I was trying to find it, and I was trying to experience it.”

“I just was doing it for all the wrong reasons. I was doing it for everybody else and on myself. But retiring tonight, that was for me, and I f****** feel good about it. I’m gonna go home tonight and crack me a nice cold Budweiser and f****** chug it all the way down and be like, ‘Ahh. Good career, Cowboy.’”

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