UFC 246 Results
Did The Notorious return to winning ways or did Cowboy leave Las Vegas victorious?
After more than a year away from competition, Conor McGregor made his triumphant return to the UFC, completely destroying Donald Cerrone in a majestic showing of violence.
McGregor wasted no time in attacking Cerrone, locking him up in the clinch and landing crushing shoulder strikes that broke his nose. After breaking away from a clearly startled Cerrone, McGregor launched a vicious head kick that rocked his opponent. Cerrone tried to defend himself against the follow-up strikes, but it was only a matter of time before referee Herb Dean intervened and stopped the fight.
When asked who he wanted to face next, McGregor once again claimed that he was willing to fight anyone. He mentioned facing UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, top 170lb contender Jorge Masvidal and even UFC play-by-play commentator and top lightweight, Paul Felder.
Former UFC women's bantamweight champion, Holly Holm, took a unanimous decision victory over Raquel Pennington in what was quite a lacklustre fight. Despite having the striking advantage, Holm kept her opponent in the clinch for large portions of the fight, peppering her with strikes and controlling her against the cage. Pennington was unable to really get her game going as she was continuously stifled by Holm's clinch work
Heavyweight submission machine, Aleksei Oleinik, managed to record his 46th submission win by defeating giant kickboxer, Maurice Greene. It wasn't an easy match-up for the Russian fighter, as Greene landed some big shots throughout. However, Greene couldn't stop Oleinik's takedowns and the submission attacks that came after them.
Although Greene fought valiantly while on the ground, even trying to lock in a couple triangle chokes during scrambles, Oleinik's crafty grappling was too much for him and eventually he locked up a tight armbar that Greene was forced to tap too deep into the second round.
Main Card
Conor McGregor defeats Donald Cerrone via technical knockout (Round 1, 0:40)
Holly Holm defeats Raquel Pennington via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
Aleksei Oleinik defeats Maurice Greene via submission (Round 2, armbar, 4:38)
Brian Kelleher defeats Ode Osbourne via submission (Round 1, guillotine choke, 2:49)
Carlos Diego Ferreira defeats Anthony Pettis via submission (Round 2, neck crank,1:46)
ESPN Preliminary Card
Roxanne Modafferi defeats Maycee Barber via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Sodiq Yusuff defeats Andre Fili via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28,29-28)
Askar Askarov defeats Tim Elliot via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Drew Dober defeats Nasrat Haqparast via knockout (Round 1, 1:10)
Preliminary Card
Aleksa Camur defeats Justin Ledet via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Sabina Mazo defeats J.J Aldrich via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)