Connor McGregor Beats the Breaks Off of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in a 40-Second Fight at UFC 246

On Saturday night, mixed martial arts fans across the globe watched Conor McGregor return to the octagon after a 15-month hiatus from the ring. His opponent was Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, and despite not fighting in over a year, McGregor seemed to not have missed a step.

As soon as the bell rang, McGregor took the offensive, using his shoulder to repeatedly hit Cerrone in the face, leaving him bloodied. This was followed by a kick to the face and then multiple blows to the head, which ended the fight in only 40 seconds.

This win improves McGregor’s record to 22-4 with 19 KO’s. This was McGregor’s second quickest knockout behind his 13-second knock out against Jose Aldo in 2015.

This is McGregor’s first fight since his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October of 2018. McGregor had revealed that he had been drinking leading up to his match which had left him unfocused and unprepared. In March of 2019, the Irishman tweeted that he was planning on retiring from the sport, and then hinted at a future UFC fight that next week.

The post-fight altercation between the two’s camps back in 2018 had resulted in a 6-month suspension for McGregor and a 9-month suspension for the Russian. Despite the time off, McGregor is the fourth-ranked lightweight in the UFC and 13th for pound for pound rankings.

Shortly after the fight, in a trolling fashion, Floyd Mayweather took to Instagram to hint at the possibility of a rematch between him and McGregor.