Conor McGregor is in the final stages of preparation for his UFC 246 headliner against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, January 18 in the UFC’s first pay-per-view event of the year. McGregor is favored to earn the victory in his highly-anticipated comeback fight and now his team is making predictions on how he will get the job done.
In a recent interview with MacLife.com, longtime McGregor head coach John Kavanagh predicted that the former two-division champion will earn the finish.
However, unlike some of the quick finishes we have seen from McGregor in his UFC career, Kavanagh believes this finish will come in the later rounds of the main event fight.
“I think it’s going to be late,” Kavanagh said. “I think it’s going to be late. I could see it being in the championship rounds. That’s the mindset that I personally have and be ready for that. Now, he could go and spark him in seconds but I think there’s a bit extra weight involved, so I think later, in the later rounds.”
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.
Cerrone, meanwhile, will be looking to bounce back after a two-fight losing streak. “Cowboy” went 2-2 in 2019 with wins over Al Iaquinta and Alexander Hernandez, while suffering losses to top lightweight contenders Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje. Three of Cerrone’s last four fights earned him $50,000 bonuses for Fight of the Night.
According to BetMGM.com, McGregor 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.
The UFC 246 main card will officially kickoff at 10:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 18 exclusively on pay-per-view.