Donald Cerrone dazzled by Conor McGregor’s shoulder strikes: ‘I’d never seen anything like that’

With 50 fights heading into UFC 246, Donald Cerrone had seen everything.

Well, almost everything.

“Cowboy” was finished in just 40 seconds by Conor McGregor in Saturday’s main event, the end result of a dramatic sequence of striking techniques, all of which seemed to land clean on the 14-year veteran.

Immediately following the fight, Cerrone was interviewed in-cage by UFC commentator Joe Rogan and he tipped his hat to McGregor’s performance.

“Oh man, he got me with his elbows right away and distorted the s*it out of me and then head-kicked me. What a great game plan he had, man it was awesome,” Cerrone said before pausing to hug his grandmother.

Cerrone’s face was visibly bruised and bloodied and Rogan asked how much of the damage was done by McGregor’s unorthodox shoulder strikes in the clinch.

“100 percent, I’d never seen anything like that,” Cerrone said. “They threw me way off-guard, he busted my nose, it started bleeding, then he stepped back and head-kicked me. I was like, ‘Oh man, this is happening this fast? I got my ass whipped early.’

“I love this sport, I’m a keep fighting. I don’t care, it’s just what I love, man. I got my family right here, I’m okay. Thank you everyone for supporting me over the years, I love it, I don’t know what else to say.”