UFC 246 Predictions

Now that the holidays are over and a new year has begun, we can finally get back into some mixed martial arts action. The UFC return with a gigantic pay-per-view featuring two of the sport's biggest stars, Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone, in the maint event.

It's been a long time coming, but we're finally going to see McGregor compete inside the Octagon again, and it's safe to say that his return is highly anticipated. The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion has been away from the sport for over a year, following a crushing loss to current 155lb champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, back at UFC 229 in October 2018. He's welcomed back to comeptition by fan-favourite, Cowboy Cerrone.

Other than an actual UFC title, Cowboy owns a plethora of impressive UFC records, proving that he's an exceptionally dangerous opponent for the Irishman. However, will he be able to beat the odds and defeat Mystic Mac?

Former UFC women's bantamweight champion, Holly Holm, will be hoping to force her way back into the title picture at 135lb, following a loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 239. However, she'll have an extremely tough task in front of her though as she rematches gritty grinder, Raquel Pennington, in the co-main event.

Before we get into the other quality fights on the main card, let's pick out the top match-ups on the prelims.

Although Conor McGregor cards are usually top heavy affairs, the UFC has stacked out the undercard for this event with some interesting fights. There will be plenty of eyes on this card, so it feels like the promotion have made sure to put some future talent front and centre.

Other than a flyweight match-up between Tim Elliot and Askar Askarov, nothing on the UFC Fight Pass prelminary card really stands out. However, when the fights head over to the TV prelims, things get really interesting. Keep an eye out on these names; Maycee Barber, Sodiq Yusuff, Nasrat Haqparast and Grant Dawson.

These four fighters are all fighting on this card and have been put in some decent scraps to try and showcase their talent. Yusuff certainly has the hardest fight out of the bunch, as he takes on the extremely talented Andre Fili in what should be an explosive featherweight match-up.

However, Haqparast, Dawson and Barber are all in bouts where they should rightly be considered the favourite. If you want to jump on a bandwagon early, one of these four fighters could be the next train out of the station in 2020.