Donald Cerrone addresses criticisms of Stephen A. Smith

Shortly after Donald Cerrone was defeated by Conor McGregor back in January, he was lambasted by ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith.

Speaking to MMA Fighting ahead of his UFC 249 rematch with Anthony Pettis, Cerrone addressed the comments Smith made about him. He says its always his intention to avoid drama of this kind.

“It doesn’t define me.” Cerrone said “I look myself in the mirror, I don’t give a sh*t what the people at home say. I don’t pay attention. I don’t read nothing, I don’t watch nothing. I don’t get on social media and see what people have to say.

“I think I’m really good at staying the hell away from that,” Cerrone added. “I got my ranch that I live on. I’ve got so much life going on that I don’t have any idea what the people that don’t have life going on have to say.”

Smith’s main criticism of Cerrone suggested the fighter didn’t show up on fight night.

Interestingly, Cerrone ultimately admitted that he wasn’t in the right headspace for his fight with McGregor, leading many fans to concede that Smith was right all along—despite the controversy his comments generated.

“I didn’t want to be there,” Cerrone recently told ESPN of his McGregor loss. “Biggest fight, all of the attention, my time to shine, and I didn’t want to be there. It was crazy. I don’t know why. I don’t know how. I don’t know how to change it.”

When these comments from Cerrone came out, Smith issued a brief response on Twitter.

“So all you MMA folks — who I profoundly respect — am I off my rocker now?” Smith wrote. “When you’ve covered sports intimately as a reporter for a quarter-century, you see things sometimes. I respect the hell out of @Cowboycerrone, but he just wasn’t there that night.”

What are your thoughts on the comments Stephen A. Smith made about Donald Cerrone?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 5/8/2020.