By Damon Knight, Tribune Correspondent
2020 is finally here, and we are just weeks away from one of the biggest fights of the year in UFC 246.
Conor ‘Notorious’ McGregor will square off against Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone for the UFC’s welterweight title.
McGregor, 31, stands 5 ft 9 in tall, he weighs 170 lbs, his reach is 74 in and he has a record of 22 wins, 4 losses, and no ties. 18 of those wins were knockouts.
Cerrone, 36, stands 6 ft 1 in tall, he weighs 170 Ibs, his reach is 73 in and he has a record of 36 wins, 13 losses, 0 ties, and (1 NC).
The fight will take place Saturday, January 18th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. For McGregor, this will be his first fight back since losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight championship in UFC 229. He would then get into a post-fight brawl that ended with a six-month suspension and a brief retirement stint.
In November, McGregor made a comeback when he accepted to fight Cerrone in a Twitter post on Thanksgiving day by saying, “Thank me, belatedly.” McGregor said, followed by an American flag emoji, a reference to Thanksgiving. McGregor’s motive for this fight is to get back quickly to the lightweight division and challenge Khabib for the championship.
Unfortunately, he has to go through Cerrone first. UFC President Dana White said, “Conor is going to fight at 170 for this fight,” White said, “mainly because he doesn’t want to have to cut the weight to 155. Him and Cerrone have both fought at 170.”
“He’s hoping that he beats Cerrone and can turn right around and fight Khabib as quick as possible,” White said. “So he didn’t want to make the cut twice.”
