It’s been a big weekend for Alex Morono. First, he defeats Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone via a first-round technical knockout. Especially since he took the fight on one week notice, replacing Diego Sanchez, who was released by the UFC. Following the win, he verbally goes after Sanchez’s coach, Joshua Fabia.
Showed up on short notice 💪
Who's next for @AlexMoronoMMA? 🤔 #UFCVegas26 pic.twitter.com/YO7adybiWS
— UFC (@ufc) May 9, 2021
From suffering a loss to Anthony “Showtime” Pettis via unanimous decision in December of 2020 to defeating the former Jackson-Wink product, one would have to feel good about that sort of redemption, right? Wrong.
Morono was actually looking forward to seeing the Cerrone-Sanchez matchup like many others were. He was also disappointed about the release of Sanchez due to what could have been an attempt to file a lawsuit with the UFC by Fabia, according to former Ultimate Fighter Season 2 winner, Rashad Evans on Instagram.
“You messed around and let that con artist Josh Fabia use you to try and get a lawsuit against the UFC,” Evans wrote. “They sensed it because it was obvious that your manager/coach was about to get litigious. I wish you the best my friend but you must get this guy out of your life. He is a parasite.” (MMAMania)
As for Morono, he had this to say about the whole situation:
“So I’ve asked for the Diego fight for a while, but I’m not trying to fight these old vets. I just like that Diego runs to the front and throws down. I just thought that’d be cool. Diego looked fine, he beat Mickey Gall and looked awesome. That would have been a great fight to go out on. He even fought that Michel Peirera and that dude is an explosive beast and he did all right. Even Jake Matthews, a young hungry dude. Granted he lost the fight but he didn’t like get crushed … I think Diego and Cerrone could have fought and had a safe, fun fight. And it would have been cool.”
“I was a big Diego Sanchez fan for a while, when he fought Clay Guida I was a big fan. When he fought BJ Penn, that didn’t go so smooth for him. But it was cool to replace him, I was happy to get this fight, but it just sucks and it makes me just really feel for Diego. It really does in my heart.”
“I’ll go into gyms in the area and ask about the coach, read the literature. And they see my ears and a lot of guys know I fight around town. And a lot of people don’t like that I do that, but you gotta keep the quality good and you can’t show – if some kid is getting bullied and they try to fight with it and get beat up. That’s just bad news all around. Legitimacy in coaching in martial arts is very attainable today. It’s important that people are finding the right coaches.”
(MMAMania)
Morono is a teacher at the local Gracie Barra dojo in Woodlands, TX, which is a job he takes very seriously.
