At least for Saturday night at UFC 246, Conor McGregor was the Conor McGregor of old, easily beating Donald Cerrone by TKO at 40 seconds of the first round.
McGregor charged in and missed a big punch, but landed four left shoulder strikes to the face of “Cowboy”, busting up his nose and eye. He followed that up with a left kick to Cerrone’s head that was the beginning of the end. After a few power shots to the grounded Cerrone, Herb Dean wisely called the fight.
Following the fight, McGregor (22-4) took joy in saying he was the first fighter in UFC history to get knockout finishes in three separate weight classes. He didn’t call anyone out specifically, but made veiled references to Jorge Masvidal and Paul Felder. Masvidal was at cageside with his BMF title and has been angling for a big money McGregor fight while Felder was calling the action on the broadcast team. He is scheduled to face Dan Hooker in late-February. Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman was also shown on the screen while McGregor was talking.
This is McGregor’s first UFC victory since November 2016 when he defeated Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in Madison Square Garden.
Cerrone (36-14-0-1) said after the fight that he wasn’t prepared for the shoulder strikes. The 36-year-old said he plans to keep fighting because that’s what he does. He is riding a three-fight losing streak for the first time since 2017.
In other notable main card action, Holly Holm returned to the winner’s circle with a unanimous decision win over Raquel Pennington in a rematch while Anthony Pettis was upset by Carlos Diego Ferreira by second round submission to open up the PPV main card.
However, the biggest upset of the night was in the final fight of the prelims as Roxanne Modafferi defeated Maycee Barber by unanimous decision. Modafferi was the biggest underdog of the night and was unrelenting in her attack on Barber, cutting her open and taking advantage of what could be a partial MCL tear Barber suffered during the fight.
Be sure to check out the full results from all the action.