Connor McGregor is back. And you all know what that means, trash talk, controversies, fights, and above all, a good show. He will clash with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 246 this Saturday, and try to have a victorious start of his new title quest. On the other side, this is one of the last, if not the final, chance for Cerrone to do something big.
Preview
McGregor (21-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) was away for quite some time. His last fight was against Khabib Nurmagomedov at the infamous UFC 229, which ended with a massive brawl. The Notorious was swiped in that bout, and his legacy was pretty hurt with Khabib’s dominant win. But, the Irishman is determined to come back and to have another shot at the title. He already started agitating for the rematch with Khabib, but the Russian isn’t willing to give him that opportunity before he earns it.
McGregor’s fight against Cerrone is labeled as one step towards the title shot, but having in mind that he didn’t fight for 15 months, Connor is on very tricky ground here. We’ll see if he has some rust, but for sure, he needs to be very cautious. As one of the best counter-punchers ever, that shouldn’t be an issue for him, but nevertheless, there are some doubts. What might be the problem is the fact that the Notorious already talks about Khabib, which might be counter-productive on his performance in this clash.
Cerrone (36-13 MMA, 23-10 UFC) is on decline. The speculations of him taking this match only for money, knowing that he is going to lose overwhelmed the media headlines recently. Yet, Cowboy strongly denied all of them saying that he still has a lot to show, and that he is going to prove that against McGregor.
When looking at his recent two fights, that claim is a bit unrealistic, because both Justin Gaethje and Tony Ferguson trashed Cerrone pretty badly. That especially goes for the match with Gaethje, who knocked him out cold after some 42 seconds. Although Cowboy holds numerous records and is a living legend of the UFC, he is definitely way past his peak. During the interviews before UFC 246, the American stated that his physical condition was never better, but then again, the doubt after two confident losses still stays.
Prediction
There isn’t much to say here, and the bookmakers didn’t make Connor the absolute favorite for no reason. First of all, since his last fight, Cerrone had five. Now, that is in some 15 months, which makes the American pretty worn out, wouldn’t you say? For a guy who is 36 years old, and had 49 fights in his career, it is quite a lot, and nobody can deny that.
The only chance he has against Connor is to defeat him via submission, but the way Cowboy moves now, catching the pacey Irishman would be very, very hard. Even though McGregor didn’t fight for a long time, in this case, it isn’t going to be too big of a handicap. It might sound rude, but of all the opponents, Connor picked Cerrone because he knew that the veteran is the least dangerous. He had an offer from Gaethje, but decided to avoid it, which tells us that he wanted to go safe. And so are we. The odds at BetXChange for McGregor’s win are at 0.30, and we are going for this offer.
