Conor McGregor is set to return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in January 2020. The brash Irishman will be making his highly-anticipated return at the UFC 246 pay-per-view on Saturday, January 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada against fellow fan-favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.
ESPN.com was first to report the news.
“Conor has signed, and Cowboy is ready to go,” UFC president Dana White told ESPN.
The fight had been in the works for weeks and heavy rumors were swirling, but now that the UFC has announced it has come to fruition the oddsmakers in Las Vegas are sharing their early thoughts on who will come away with the win.
While Cowboy has been the more active fighter, McGregor opened as a heavy favorite.
According to BetMGM.com, McGregor has opened as nearly a 3-to-1 favorite. The moneyline currently has the former two-division champion as a -278 favorite for the welterweight bout while Cowboy sits at +200. That means a $100 wager on Cerrone would net you $200 in wins, while you would have to bet $278 on McGregor to win $100.
McGregor last appeared inside of the Octagon in October 2018 when he suffered a submission loss to lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Prior to his loss to Nurmagomedov, McGregor was on a two-fight winning streak with a welterweight bout victory over Nate Diaz and a Performance of the Night against Eddie Alvarez to claim the 155-pound title on November 12, 2016. However, McGregor was later stripped of the title due to inactivity — he was previously stripped of the featherweight belt after winning the lightweight crown.
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