The Irish fighter Conor McGregor returned through the big door to Mixed Martial Arts with a victory by knockout in just 40 seconds against the American veteran Donald Cerrone.
When the fans filling the stands at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas had barely taken their seats, McGregor landed a left-leg kick to Cerrone’s chin in the opening seconds of the main event.
The stakes were incredibly high for both fighters. For McGregor it was an opportunity to make amends after a loss to Russia’s Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018 (his last fight).
During 2019 he lived away from the Octagon due to legal problems, after pleading guilty to beating a man in a Dublin bar, in addition the New York Times revealed that he was being investigated for sexual assault in his native Ireland.
“I already anticipated that I was coming to the fight better prepared than ever, focused and with a speed that nobody could touch me and that was what happened in the cage,” said McGregor at the end of the fight and leaving his mark at 22-4-0 .
Cerrone, 36, had a chance to shed the stigma that has plagued him throughout his career of never being able to beat him, but again in an ideal setting like Las Vegas he didn’t even have a chance to offer resistance to McGregor.
The veteran American fighter who starred in his 50th fight, placed his mark at 36-14, but could not achieve the triumph he wanted so much.
Cerrone entered the duel with the most wins (23), finals (16) and knockouts (20) in UFC history, among other records.
McGregor, who had promised to stay active in 2020, fighting up to three times or more, already met the first and did it with tuition.
Nothing is known about his next rival, but against Cerrone he left no doubts that everything he had said about his seriousness when preparing for the fight since he showed it inside the cage, where he was again more “The Notorious” than ever EFE