Conor McGregor became the first UFC fighter with KO wins at featherweight, lightweight and welterweight with a savage annihilation of Donald Cerrone.
The Mac is back.
Conor McGregor promised to do something spectacular. His coach said he’d be better than ever. His training partner said he actually feared for Donald Cerrone.
They were all right.
McGregor made the perfect return from a 15-month absence from the UFC plagued by legal issues by finishing Cerrone via technical knockout in 40 seconds.
The action was spectacular. McGregor ducked Cerrone’s opening shot before clinching and smashing his shoulder into his opponent’s face to blacken his eye and bust his nose.
Cerrone broke free and attempted a head kick which McGregor comfortably blocked.
He then returned the favor and nearly took Cerrone’s head off with a perfectly aimed left boot to the jaw.
A follow-up flying knee put the American down and after a few more punches it was over.
"I'M BACK BABY," McGregor proclaimed after the fight.
"I'm very proud of tonight. My team has been phenomenal, the fans have been phenomenal. Thank you all for the support."
Attention quickly turned to who the man will now touch gloves with next and he didn't hold back by reeling off several challengers.
"I've still got work to do to get back to where I was, so I'm going to celebrate tonight and then get back in the gym and train.
"And anyone of these little mouthy fools can get it, even that little fool at the desk (staring at Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman)."
McGregor becomes the first UFC fighter with knockout wins at featherweight, lightweight and welterweight and the fight world is now his to reign over again.
Cerrone has now lost three straight and wasn’t an elite level opponent but the manner of victory will leave fans fighting for a seat in the McGregor bandwagon again.
"He got me with and I was like ‘oh man, he got me this fast, I got my a** whipped early’. But hey man, I love this sport, I’m going to keep fighting. I don’t care, I’ve got my family here, I’m okay,” Cerrone said after the fight.
“Best version ever,” McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh said as he passed press row.
Best version. So far.
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) January 19, 2020
See how the entire UFC 246 event played out with our updates from throughout the day below:
The demolition of Donald Cerrone at the hands of Conor McGregor has ended with the 'Cowboy' being transported to hospital.
Cerrone's nose was broken in the very early stages of the fight by the left shoulder of McGregor.
The trip to hospital will see Cerrone unable to attend the post-fight press conference.
Both men are in the ring, sadly no billi strut from McGregor, Bruce Buffer has done his intros and the gloves have been touched. It's time!
Round 1: 40 seconds is all it took for Conor McGregor to announce his name back into the UFC.
McGregor exploded as soon as the bell rang, running across the ring and dropping shots onto Cerrone immediately.
Shoulder charges broke the nose of Cerrone before a McGregor left high kick landed flush on the chin of his opponent and dropped him to the canvas.
McGregor immediately went to work and began raining shots down before referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the onslaught.
Preliminary card (in order of appearance)
Sabina Mazo def JJ Aldrich via split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
Aleksa Camur def Justin Ledet via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Drew Dober def Nasrat Haqparast via TKO (Round 1, 3:50)
Askar Askarov def Tim Elliott via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27 x2)
Sodiq Yusuff def Andre Fili via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
Roxanne Modafferi def Maycee Barber via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27 x2).
Main card
Carlos Diego Ferreira def Anthony Pettis via submission (rear naked choke – Round 2, 1:46)
Brian Kelleher def Ode' Osbourne via submission (guillotine choke – Round 1, 2:49)
Aleksei Oleinik def Maurice Greene via submission (armbar – Round 2, 4:38)
Holly Holm def Raquel Pennington via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Conor McGregor def Donald Cerrone via TKO (Round 1, 0:40)
The return of Conor McGregor has brought out a host of superstar names from the sporting world to the big screen.
After each celebrity was shown on the screens, the reactions varied from wild frenzy to mild applause.
Here's how they reacted to the different faces in attendance.
1. Tom Brady
2. McGregor’s entrance
3. Jorge Masvidal
4. Tommy Chong
5. Matt McConaughey
Last place: Kamaru Usman, Nick Carter (tie)
Rising female star Maycee Barber suffered a stunning loss to veteran Roxanne Modafferi, despite a brave attempt to fight through a knee injury.
Barber, 21, entered the bout against the 37-year-old Modafferi undefeated with designs on becoming the UFC’s youngest champion.
But she was outpointed in stand-up and spent the majority of the fight on her back, covered in blood after an elbow opened a gash on her forehead in the second round.
Barber's loss was made worse by a buckling left knee that was inspected by the doctor who somehow gave it his tick of approval despite saying: "She's got a partially torn ACL … she's fine".
The loss for Barber only adds to the disastrous plans for the UFC on the night with several rising stars littered throughout the card in the hopes of showing fans the faces of the organisation going forward.
Sodiq Yusuff escaped with a tough victory, but loses to Barber, Ode' Osbourne (submission) and Nasrat Haqparast (KO) left the UFC's plans in tatters.
Holly lands back on winners list
Holly Holm was desperate and did what she had to do to get back on the winners list.
Holm’s unanimous points win against Racquel Pennington was a snoozer and drew boos from the crowd but the Preachers Daughter clinched her way to a second win against Pennington and proved she has something left at age 38.
"It feels really good to have a win. I always want more, I always want perfection, I know that I have more that I could show," Holm said.
"I’m very happy to have the win and start the year off right. She’s scrappy everywhere, she’s got so much experience and can fight everywhere, so I didn’t want to look into the first fight too much.
"I definitely wanted to be more clear and dominant, and I feel like I did that. I feel like I dominated, but I just didn’t do enough damage, that’s what I want to do – damage.
"I never want to make any excuses, a lot happened this camp, but my coaches are so amazing and always worked with me when I was available and we made it happen. I have a lot of people around me that are really loving and really supportive, plus everyone has something going on in their lives, this was a lot, but nothing I couldn’t handle.
"I think I need to show more of my abilities to get that title shot again, I always want to have big knockouts, but I’m still learning and improving as a martial artist, so we’ll see where it goes."
Fighter makes UFC history
Aleksei Oleinik secured the staggering 58th win of his MMA career and his 45th submission by forcing Maurice Greene to tap to an armbar.
The veteran heavyweight took Greene down in both rounds and after coming perilously to close to choking him out in the first he got the job done in the second to bounce back from defeats to Walt Harris and Alistair Overeem.
Kelleher hits UFC hard
Brian Kelleher ended a two-fight losing streak and ruined Ode Osbourne’s plans to be the breakout star of UFC 246 with a polished performance.
Kelleher took Osbourne down after his opponent’s early attempt to land a highlight reel shot before winning via guillotine.
"Any win is good, especially in the position that I was in, but he definitely had hype and was a big prospect coming off Contender Series," Kelleher said.
"I know they were looking at it like, ok where is Kelleher at, does he still deserve to be here, so I had to show them that I belong here."
Ferreira submits Pettis
Anthony Pettis’ career is at a crossroads after he was submitted by streaking Brazilian Diego Ferreira in the second round of a one-sided fight.
Pettis was never in it and has now lost three of his past four fights after sandwiching a KO of Stephen Thompson with defeats to Tony Ferguson and Nate Diaz.
Ferreira, who finished the fight via a neck crank, has now won six straight and is looking for another run at a title after his early UFC career was stalled by Dustin Poirier.
Ref called out for late stoppage
A referee was awfully slow to step in and call an end to Drew Dober’s first round destruction of Nasrat Haqparast.
Dober stood in the pocket and put the Kelvin Gastelum lookalike on his back late in the first with an overhand left.
He followed up with a heavy elbow to the head before raining down four more heavy blows before the ref had finally seen enough.
Fans watching on weren't happy with the extra damage handed out and questioned why the stoppage came so late.
Even UFC commentator Joe Rogan stated "it was stopped a little too late".
Super Sodiq stays unbeaten
Nigerian powerhouse Sodiq Yusuf edged an entertaining bout with Andre Fili to move his UFC record to a perfect 4-0.
Fili used all of his guile to hang with Yusuf and did have some good moments but in the end the Dana White Contender Series graduate was just too strong.
“Andre Fili’s a dog man,” Yusuf said. “He’s been in the UFC since before I started fighting. I used to watch him on TV and have a lot of respect for him.”
Askarov wins gruelling war
Tim Elliott survived a heavy shot to go the distance with Askar Askarov but despite his theatrics was soundly beaten.
Askarov landed a telling right hand in the opening round appearing to turn Elliott's lights off for a split second.
Elliott bounced back and continued to press the pace, but it was the precise punching of Askarov that saw him claim the victory on the judges' scorecards.
Bloody war opens fight night
Sabina Mazo survived a bloody opener against JJ Aldrich to win by split decision. Aldrich busted Mazo open with some nice straight lefts before the Colombian began to takeover by using her jab, leg kicks and clinch to land some heavy knees to the face.
“Feels great to start the year with a win, it’s the way I wanted to start and also opening this card, I wanted to put on a show for fans and get the energy going, so hopefully people enjoyed it,” Mazo said.
In the second UFC Fight Pass prelim, Aleksa Camur was too much for Justin Ledet, winning by unanimous decision.
It's been a fun week in Sin City. Here's some behind-the-scenes tidbits you may not have seen in the build-up to today's fight.
The two staredowns between McGregor and Cerrone have felt intense, although there was no trash talk exchanged while they were nose to nose at the press conference and weigh-in. The only words came from Cerrone. As he approached McGregor and looked down on him, he said: "I'm an inch higher in these boots."
McGregor got a nice pop from the crowd at the weigh-in. How it compares to other UFC fights I can't tell you because this is my first time watching McGregor in the Octagon. But the Irish invasion is nothing like it was for his boxing bout against Floyd Mayweather when they almost took over the city.
McGregor likes the Reebok T-shirts that prompted such a negative reaction online. Released ahead of a new commercial which features McGregor transforming into an action figure, the print on the shirt wasn't overly popular. "It was like 'oh, that's the worst T-shirt ever'," McGregor said. "All of them jumped the gun and started saying 'get rid of that'. I'm like 'wait, hold on, I actually love that T-shirt'."
With two young children it appears action heroes are McGregor's thing these days. He joked about making his walk to the cage dressed as Buzz Lightyear because Conor Jr loves the film and Cerrone is a natural Woody the Cowboy.
Cerrone has shone under the biggest spotlight of his career. This is a man at peace with himself and he's been brilliant in front of the camera all week. He brought his Harley with him to Vegas and rode it to the media day.
Dana White has built himself a small kingdom just outside the city. The UFC headquarters are impressive and were the site of Thursday's media day. McGregor was so impressed with the arena built to host fights in Dana White's Contender Series he wanted to have a scrap in there himself. The walls of the UFC Apex building are lined with framed singlets from the Ultimate Fighter Series, including Team McGregor vs Team Faber in late 2015.
UFC megastar Alex Pereira proved once again he’s a different beast as he dominated his latest rival, leaving him unrecognisable.
A murdered father who managed Boyz II Men, drug bans and fast food addictions – nothing has been conventional about Khalil Rountree Jr’s path to UFC 307.
A UFC star has shown off his insane body transformation that has seen him go from being overweight to having a Hulk-like figure.