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How Conor McGregor Beat Donald Cerrone at U.F.C. 246

Conor McGregor, the U.F.C.’s biggest star, stopped Donald Cerrone with a quick, explosive flurry of strikes.

Conor McGregor celebrates after beating Donald Cerrone in less than 1 minute in U.F.C. 246 on Saturday night.Credit...John Locher/Associated Press

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LAS VEGAS — The first punch Conor McGregor landed bloodied Donald Cerrone’s nose. The former two-division champion, in his first bout since October 2018, landed a sharp right jab that sneaked between Cerrone’s gloves.

Seconds later came the left-footed kick to the jaw that sent Cerrone, a fearless 36-year-old veteran, reeling.

And then the punches rained down from McGregor as Cerrone sagged to the canvas, the bleeding speeding up. The throttling didn’t stop until the referee, Herb Dean, stepped in to save Cerrone, halting the main event of U.F.C. 246 after just 40 seconds on Saturday night.

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McGregor, left, landed a hard, high kick quickly in the fight after a flurry of shoulder strikes.Credit...Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

So, if you were wondering whether 15 months on the sidelines robbed McGregor of his signature punching power and panache, they’re all still intact. The 31-year-old predicted an emphatic win, and delivered.

McGregor, a former world champion at 145 and 155 pounds, pointed out after the fight that his win makes him the first U.F.C. fighter with knockout victories in three weight classes.

“I’m very proud of my accomplishment,” McGregor said in the octagon after the fight. “Etched my name in history one more time.”

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Credit...Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

The win pushed McGregor’s mixed martial arts record to 22-4 (he also lost to Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match), and sets up several intriguing options for his next bout. Earlier this week, he discussed the potential for a 2020 rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov, who defeated McGregor in October 2018, and boxing matches with Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. If McGregor stays at 170 pounds, he could also fight Jorge Masvidal or the division’s champion, Kamaru Usman.

McGregor’s performance energized the heavily partisan crowd at the T-Mobile Arena, where organizers expected a sellout. It also stunned Cerrone, who entered the octagon with a size advantage, standing 6 feet tall to McGregor’s 5-foot-9. Cerrone also had more experience fighting as a welterweight. Cerrone was previously 6-4 in bouts at 170 pounds, compared with 1-1 for McGregor.

But when the fight started, McGregor, as he predicted, overwhelmed Cerrone with speed and precision.

“This happened this fast,” Cerrone said after the fight.

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Credit...John Locher/Associated Press

Conor McGregor bloodied Donald Cerrone’s nose with the first punch he landed.

He landed several more after that, flush and powerful, and several shoulder strikes. A left kick from McGregor wobbled Cerrone, and a barrage of punches sent the fighter known as Cowboy to the canvas, where McGregor continued pounding him.

Referee Herb Dean stopped it after just 40 seconds.

Conor McGregor, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s biggest star, is finally back in the octagon after a 15-month absence.

More than three years after losing to the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a highly popular crossover bout, and after tapping out against Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018, McGregor is scheduled to headline U.F.C. 246 on Saturday night. The 31-year-old former champion in two weight classes will face Donald Cerrone, a kickboxing specialist from Albuquerque who is known professionally as Cowboy.

Leading up to the fight, McGregor has presented himself as mature and focused, still capable of spectacular violence in the octagon, but also promising that the numerous legal problems that derailed his 2019 are behind him.

McGregor, despite his absence, is the promotion’s best-known fighter. McGregor’s fans packed smaller events in Las Vegas leading up to the fight, and this week Reebok announced the release of a new shoe endorsed by McGregor. That a fighter who hasn’t won a bout since 2016 can generate this much attention from fans and sponsors highlights McGregor’s flair for self-promotion.

But he still has to fight.

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Holly Holm beat Raquel Pennington with a unanimous decision.Credit...Mike Blake/Reuters

The former bantamweight champion Holly Holm earned a unanimous decision win over Raquel Pennington in a tight, tactical rematch of their 2015 bout. Holm, 38, is a former world champion in boxing and kickboxing, but instead of high-impact strikes, she followed a game plan heavy on clinches and body locks.

It wasn’t exciting — the fans booed several times and Holm said after the fight that she could have showcased her skills better — but it worked. The judges scored the bout 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.

Holm is perhaps best known for being the first fighter to defeat Ronda Rousey, who was a huge star at the time. But she went just 2-5 in seven U.F.C. bouts after that signature win before Saturday night. Her professional mixed martial arts record is now 13-5.

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Aleksei Oleinik won at U.F.C. 246 by using an arm bar, and spent much of his fight grappling with Maurice Greene.Credit...Steve Marcus/Getty Images

Russia’s Aleksei Oleinik defeated Minnesota’s Maurice Greene by second-round submission, giving the 42-year-old an astonishing 58 wins as a professional mixed martial artist.

The two heavyweights spent a lot of time on the canvas, where Oleinik, nicknamed The Boa Constrictor, preferred to fight.

By midway through Round 2, both men looked exhausted, and wound up pretzeled together near the fence before Oleinik trapped Greene in an arm bar.

The victory ends a two-fight losing streak for Oleinik, while Greene has now lost two straight.

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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady attended U.F.C. 246 along with several other celebrity athletes.Credit...Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

A series of celebrity sightings at U.F.C. 246 turned up one fairly unusual spectator for this time of year: N.F.L. quarterback Tom Brady, on the eve of football’s conference championship games.

Brady, who has won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, lost in the wild-card round of the playoffs to the Tennessee Titans, so he didn’t have to prepare for the A.F.C. championship game on Sunday (where the Titans will play the Kansas City Chiefs).

Before this year, Brady had played in the last eight A.F.C. championship games.

Brady was shown along with several football personalities, including Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey, Browns players Myles Garrett and Baker Mayfield, and Raiders owner Mark Davis, who is moving the team from Oakland, Calif., to Las Vegas.

The most unusual U.F.C. spectator in recent memory, however: President Trump, who watched Jorge Masvidal beat Nate Diaz in November at Madison Square Garden.

Ode Osbourne’s U.F.C. debut started with such promise. The 28-year-old from Milwaukee scooted on all fours to the center of the octagon, then leapt to smash opponent Brian Kelleher with a flying right hand. But the rest of the bout belonged to Kelleher, who promptly dumped Osbourne on his back, and maneuvered him into a guillotine choke, forcing Osbourne to submit.

“This is all I know, man,” Kelleher told commentator Joe Rogan immediately after the fight. “I know fighting and nothing else. It was my time to keep my job.”

The win was Kelleher’s first since February 2018.

Anthony Pettis would have preferred a fight that fit his nickname of Showtime — high-action and high-impact. But his opponent Diego Ferreira didn’t care for Pettis’s preferences.

Ferreira, a 35-year-old Brazilian, stalked Pettis and when he caught up, clung to him like a wet suit. He dragged Pettis to the canvas more than once and, early in Round 2, trapped the former lightweight champion in a rear naked choke, forcing Pettis to submit. The stoppage came at 1:46 of the second round.

Pettis’s $155,000 guarantee was the highest for any fighter on the card outside of the main event. Ferreira earned a $50,000 guarantee and another $50,000 for the win.

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Roxanne Modafferi was the biggest betting underdog going into U.F.C. 246, but had a dominant performance in her win over Maycee Barber. Barber injured her left knee during the fight.Credit...Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

After two rounds of being mauled by the veteran fighter Roxanne Modafferi, flyweight prospect Maycee Barber summoned a ringside doctor to examine her wobbly left knee and determine whether she could continue.

Diagnosis: Ambiguity.

“She’s got a small partial A.C.L. tear. She’s fine,” the doctor told the referee before the start of the third round, referring to her anterior cruciate ligament.

The fight continued and so did Modafferi’s dominance. According to sports books, Modafferi, a 37-year-old Las Vegas resident, was the biggest underdog on the card — as much as 6 to 1 in some casinos. But she used well-timed punches and savvy grappling to earn her 24th professional win.

Barber left the octagon with a bloody gash near her hairline, and her first loss in nine pro bouts. The scores from the judges were 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26.

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Sodiq Yusuff won a unanimous decision against Andre Fili.Credit...Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

After the opening bell, Andre Fili of Sacramento, Calif., greeted his opponent, Sodiq Yusuff, with a raised hand, looking for a sportsmanlike touching of gloves. Yusuff, a rising contender from Camp Spring, Md., responded with a front kick that missed Fili’s face by what looked like an inch.

From there, the two featherweights spent three rounds trading punches — Yusuff landed more powerful ones — and takedowns. Fili brought Yusuff to the canvas more often, but Yusuff’s takedowns were more authoritative.

The bout ended in a workmanlike win for the 26-year-old Yusuff, with all three judges scoring it 29-28 (two rounds to one).

Russian flyweight Askar Askarov remained undefeated as a pro, with a unanimous decision win over an aggressive Tim Elliott.

Askarov dropped Elliott with a crisp left hand in the first round, but spent much of the second on his back thanks to judo-style hip tosses from Elliott, a 33-year-old from Lees Summit, Mo. Askarov retreated for much of round three but landed enough punches to win the fight.

The judges’ scores were: 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27.

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Drew Dober defeated Nasrat Haqparast in about 70 seconds.Credit...Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

That didn’t take long.

Nasrat Haqparast saw an opening for a leg kick, so he threw one. But Drew Dober, a densely-muscled southpaw, saw a bigger opening — for an overhand left. Their blows landed simultaneously, but Dober’s did damage.

Haqparast hit the mat and Dober pummeled him with punches and elbows until the referee stopped the bout. It took 70 seconds and was, according to betting odds, an upset.

“I will knock anyone out in the division, I promise,” Dober said in the ring afterward.

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