Dana White has announced this evening that Conor McGregor will be returning to the UFC Octagon in January 2020 to take on Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone in Las Vegas, at UFC 246. It’s a fight fans have been clamouring for since January this year, following an exchange between the two, and a fight that I personally didn’t expect to see.
McGregor hasn’t been seen in the Octagon since his defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018, while Cerrone will be coming in on the back of a two fight losing streak, dropping fights against Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje.
McGregor is back
The return of The Notorious is sure to spark a frenzy amongst casual UFC fans, there have been a number of fighters calling out the former Champ Champ in recent weeks, with both Dustin Poirier and Jorge Masvidal clamouring for the fight. Either man would have made one hell of an opponent for McGregor, but both fighters are in the form of their careers and would’ve likely been looked at as favourites to beat the Irishman. Poirier recently stated that he doesn’t feel Cerrone deserves the bout against McGregor.
Coming up against Cerrone will still be an interesting challenge and should produce an amazing fight for fans, however it is a fight that McGregor should win – has to win – if he wants to make a long term comeback. I wouldn’t be surprised to set this fight lead into a rematch between McGregor and Diaz, with the winner taking a shot at the ‘Baddest Motherfucker’ title. Or we can just throw caution to the wind and lump the three of them into the Octagon at the same time. Last man standing takes the title.
Coming back to the present, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when McGregor and Cerrone face off in January, it’ll also be interesting to see where it falls on the card, and who takes the main event spot.
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