UFC 246 Live Results

After over a year away from the Octagon and multiple out-of-competition troubles throughout 2019, Conor McGregor, the biggest star in the history of MMA, returns to take on Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, the winningest fighter in UFC history, in the welterweight main event of UFC 246 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s a battle of two highly-successful and highly-popular UFC stars, and a fight that has been at least a few years in the making, stretching back to their back-and-forth during a UFC 205 press conference. The two also had failed negotiations last year, as original plans for a McGregor-Cerrone fight fell through last winter after the UFC wanted the bout to serve as a co-main event — with McGregor demanding equity for such a thing and briefly announcing retirement on social media again.

McGregor last fought at UFC 229 in October 2018, getting submitted by rival Khabib Nurmagomedov in the lightweight championship main event. The post-fight melee earned McGregor a six-month suspension. Since then, McGregor has faced troubles ranging from allegations of two sexual assaults in Ireland, getting arrest in a Miami fan phone-smashing incident and punching an elderly man in a Dublin pub.

This fight will mark the start of a 2020 that McGregor intends to mark a full-time return to the Octagon — and a return to the success he had back in 2016, when he became the UFC’s first champ-champ before going on to pursue a boxing fight with Floyd Mayweather.

McGregor’s two previous welterweight fights — his pair of fights with Nate Diaz — also came in 2016.

Meanwhile, this fight also marks the first pay-per-view main event for Cerrone, a 43-fight UFC/WEC veteran who holds multiple UFC records. Cerrone returned to the lightweight division for the first time since 2015 last year, defeating Alexander Hernandez at UFC Brooklyn and Al Iaquinta at UFC Ottawa. But he comes into this contest off back-to-back stoppage losses to Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje.

Cerrone competed at welterweight between 2016 and 2018, starting his time in the division off with four straight wins over Alex Oliveira, Patrick Cote, Rick Story and Matt Brown before dropping four of his last six fights at 170, losing to the likes of Jorge Masvidal, Robbie Lawler, Darren Till and Leon Edwards.

FIGHT SPORTS brings you live coverage of UFC 246!

Main Card (ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET)

Conor McGregor def. Donald Cerrone via TKO (Rd. 1, 0:40)

Holly Holm def. Raquel Pennington via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Aleksei Oleinik def. Maurice Greene via submission (armbar) (Rd. 2, 4:38)

Brian Kelleher def. Ode Osbourne via submission (guillotine choke) (Rd. 1, 2:49)

Carlos Diego Ferreira def. Anthony Pettis via submission (rear-naked choke) (Rd. 2, 1:46)

Preliminary card (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)

Roxanne Modafferi def. Maycee Barber via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)

Sodiq Yusuff def. Andre Fili via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Askar Askarov def. Tim Elliott via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Drew Dober def. Nasrat Haqparast via TKO (Rd. 1, 1:10)

Preliminary card (UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)

Aleksa Camur def. Justin Ledet via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Sabina Mazo def. JJ Aldrich via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone:

Round 1: McGregor swings right away and Cerrone clinches up. Cerrone already busted open. A couple of shoulder stirkes by McGregor. A couple of punches by McGregor. McGregor tags Cerrone with a high kick and swarms him! With Cerrone’s back to the wall, McGregor rains down several punches until referee Herb Dean steps in! McGregor wins in less than a minute!