UFC 246: McGregor vs. Cerrone | Event Profile, Full Results & Legacy
- Conor McBragger
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Introduction
UFC 246: McGregor vs. Cerrone took place on Saturday, January 18, 2020 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card drew 19,040 fans, generated a gate of $11.1 million — the third-highest in UFC history at the time — and a reported 1.35 million pay-per-view buys. It was the first numbered UFC event of 2020 and the most commercially anticipated welterweight headline since the Diaz rematch at UFC 202.
The headline was simple: the biggest star in combat sports returning from 15 months out — his longest layoff to that point — against one of the most respected and active veterans the lightweight and welterweight divisions had ever produced. Conor McGregor had not won a fight since November 2016 and had not stepped into the Octagon since his fourth-round submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229. His opponent, Donald Cerrone, arrived with the most Octagon appearances of any fighter on the roster and a freshly resumed welterweight campaign.
What followed lasted forty seconds. McGregor opened with shoulder strikes in the Thai clinch that broke Cerrone's nose, followed with a left high kick, and finished with punches on the canvas. It is among the fastest TKOs in a UFC pay-per-view main event in the modern era, and it briefly resurrected the McGregor era before his subsequent leg break against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 closed it again.
Contents
• FAQ
Quick Stats
📅 Date: Saturday, January 18, 2020
📍 Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
👥 Attendance: 19,040
💰 Gate: $11,108,894 (3rd-highest in UFC history at the time)
📺 PPV Buys: ~1,350,000
📡 Broadcast: Pay-per-view (ESPN+ in USA)
🏆 Main Event: Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone — Welterweight (170 lbs)
✅ Result: McGregor def. Cerrone via TKO (head kick & punches) — R1, 0:40
🥇 Title On The Line: None (non-title welterweight bout)
The Build-Up
McGregor had been gone a long time. His last appearance, the lightweight title challenge against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018, had ended in a fourth-round submission loss and a post-fight brawl that drew NSAC suspensions for both camps. In the 15 months that followed, the Irishman dealt with two separate criminal investigations — a March 2019 phone-smashing incident in Miami and the resolution of his 2018 Brooklyn bus attack — and persistent questions about whether his combat sports career was finished.
Cerrone came in on the opposite trajectory but with his own concerns. The 36-year-old veteran had fought 24 times in the Octagon — more than any active roster member — and had built one of the most beloved highlight reels in the sport. But he arrived at 1-2 in his previous three, with both losses coming by stoppage in the lightweight division. The McGregor fight was contested at welterweight at McGregor's request.
The promotional cycle was unusually muted by McGregor standards. There was no Conor-vs-Floyd-style international tour, no trash-talk avalanche. McGregor — who had spent years branding himself as the most dangerous mouth in MMA — was respectful of Cerrone throughout fight week. "Cowboy is a warrior," he told reporters at the pre-fight press conference. "This is a 50-50 fight in my book." Cerrone himself called the matchup the biggest of his career.
The betting line opened McGregor at around -350 and held there through fight week. Pay-per-view pre-sales were tracking comparably to UFC 229. Whatever happened in the cage, McGregor's commercial gravity had survived the layoff intact.
Main Event: McGregor vs. Cerrone
McGregor walked out first to a thunderous reception, draped in his familiar Irish tricolour. Cerrone followed in a black cowboy hat. The fight started with both men touching gloves. Within five seconds, they were in a Thai clinch.
From that clinch, McGregor delivered something most fans had never seen at the elite level: a sequence of upward shoulder strikes into Cerrone's face. The technique — legal under the Unified Rules but rarely deployed — opened a gash on Cerrone's nose and broke it within seconds. McGregor disengaged briefly and threw a left high kick. It landed flush on Cerrone's chin.
Cerrone dropped. McGregor followed him to the canvas with punches. Referee Herb Dean stepped in at 40 seconds of round one. The Octagon erupted.
It was the fastest finish in a McGregor main event since the 13-second knockout of José Aldo at UFC 194 in December 2015. For Cerrone, it was his second consecutive first-round stoppage loss and the start of a four-fight winless skid that effectively ended his run as a top contender. He retired in 2022 and was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame's Modern Wing in 2023.
In his post-fight interview, McGregor was emotional. "I want to dedicate this performance to my aunt Anne, who passed away from cancer two weeks ago," he said. "To all the families dealing with this disease — keep fighting." He then called out a list of potential next opponents: Jorge Masvidal, Nate Diaz for a trilogy, and a rematch with Khabib. None of those fights materialised before McGregor's eventual return against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 in January 2021.
Co-Main Event: Holm vs. Pennington
Holly Holm entered her first fight since the July 2019 head-kick KO loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 239, looking to re-establish herself in the women's bantamweight title picture. Raquel Pennington, a former title challenger herself, came in as a slight underdog with three straight losses on her record.
Over three rounds, Holm used her elite footwork and boxing range to outpoint Pennington from the outside. She landed 76 significant strikes to Pennington's 47, controlled the standup exchanges in every round, and was rarely threatened by Pennington's takedown attempts. All three judges scored it 29-28 in Holm's favour.
The win was Holm's 7th career UFC victory and kept her firmly in the top-five at 135 lbs. She would not get another title shot for several years, eventually losing to Ketlen Vieira in May 2022, but the win over Pennington was a much-needed bounce-back performance after the Nunes setback.
Full Results
Main Card (Pay-Per-View)
Conor McGregor def. Donald Cerrone — TKO (head kick & punches) — R1, 0:40 — Welterweight
Holly Holm def. Raquel Pennington — Unanimous Decision (29-28 ×3) — Women's Bantamweight
Aleksei Oleinik def. Maurice Greene — Submission (armbar) — R2, 1:36 — Heavyweight
Carlos Diego Ferreira def. Anthony Pettis — Submission (D'Arce choke) — R2, 1:46 — Lightweight
Roxanne Modafferi def. Maycee Barber — Unanimous Decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27) — Women's Flyweight
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Drew Dober def. Nasrat Haqparast — KO (punches) — R1, 1:10 — Lightweight
Andre Fili def. Sodiq Yusuff — Unanimous Decision (29-28 ×3) — Featherweight
Brian Kelleher def. Ode Osbourne — Submission (guillotine) — R1, 3:55 — Bantamweight
Tim Elliott def. Askar Askarov — Split Decision — Flyweight
Sabina Mazo def. JJ Aldrich — Split Decision — Women's Flyweight
Grant Dawson def. Chas Skelly — TKO (corner stoppage) — R3, 5:00 — Featherweight
Aleksa Camur def. Justin Ledet — Unanimous Decision (30-27 ×3) — Light Heavyweight
Bonuses & Awards
🥇 Performance of the Night: Conor McGregor — $50,000 for the 40-second TKO of Cerrone.
🥇 Performance of the Night: Aleksei Oleinik — $50,000 for the second-round armbar of Maurice Greene.
🥊 Fight of the Night: Not awarded — no fight on the card was deemed competitive enough by the UFC brass to warrant the bonus.
Records & Milestones
• McGregor's first welterweight UFC fight since UFC 202 vs. Nate Diaz in August 2016 — a 41-month gap between 170 lb appearances.
• One of the fastest TKO finishes in a UFC PPV main event in the modern era (post-2010): 40 seconds.
• Cerrone's 8th career stoppage loss and 2nd consecutive first-round finish, beginning a four-fight winless streak.
• $11.1 million gate — at the time the third-highest in UFC history, behind only UFC 205 (NYC debut) and UFC 229.
• Holm's first three-round win since UFC 208 vs. Germaine de Randamie in February 2017.
• UFC 246 popularised 'shoulder strikes from the clinch' in mainstream MMA discourse — a technique that would inspire rule-clarification debates for years afterward.
Legacy & Impact
UFC 246 is remembered for two things above all else: the 40-second finish, and the brief illusion of a McGregor comeback that never quite materialised. In the months immediately afterward, McGregor expressed a desire to fight three times in 2020 — "the season," he called it. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic, contract disputes, and McGregor's own erratic post-fight conduct meant he would not return to the Octagon for another full year, by which point his trajectory had shifted again.
For Cerrone, the loss began the inevitable end of his championship-relevant career. He went 0-5-1 across his next six fights and retired in 2022. The shoulder-strike technique itself prompted analysis from coaches and commissions — most concluded it was legal, if uncommon — and it became a cultural touchstone of the McGregor brand: the moment he reminded the world he could end a top-15 veteran in less than a minute.
Commercially, UFC 246 confirmed that McGregor's draw was undimmed by losses or layoffs. The 1.35 million PPV buys made it the second-biggest non-Khabib McGregor pay-per-view to that point. For the UFC's strategy heading into 2020, it was a critical data point: McGregor remained the single most bankable star in combat sports.
FAQ
How long did the McGregor vs. Cerrone fight last?
Forty seconds of the first round. McGregor finished Cerrone via TKO at 0:40 of round one with shoulder strikes from the clinch, a left high kick, and follow-up punches on the canvas. Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight.
Were Conor McGregor's shoulder strikes legal?
Yes. Shoulder strikes from the Thai clinch are legal under the Unified Rules of MMA — permitted whenever both fighters are in a clinch position and the striking surface is the shoulder rather than the elbow or forearm. The technique is uncommon at the elite level because of how difficult it is to land cleanly, but it has never been a banned strike. The Nevada State Athletic Commission confirmed the legality of the technique post-fight.
Why was UFC 246 contested at welterweight?
At McGregor's request. He wanted to avoid a weight cut after a 15-month layoff and felt the matchup with Cerrone was a more natural physical fit at 170 lbs. Cerrone, who had competed at welterweight earlier in his career, accepted the terms.
How much did Conor McGregor earn at UFC 246?
McGregor's disclosed purse was $3 million, but his actual earnings — counting PPV revenue share, sponsorship, and his Reserve Whiskey promotional integration — were estimated at $50–80 million for the night by ESPN and other outlets. He was the highest-paid fighter on the card by an enormous margin.
Was UFC 246 a title fight?
No. The main event was a non-title welterweight bout. The reigning UFC Welterweight Champion at the time was Kamaru Usman, who had defended his title against Colby Covington at UFC 245 five weeks earlier. McGregor said he wanted to chase the lightweight title rematch with Khabib rather than the 170 lb belt.
What happened to Donald Cerrone after UFC 246?
Cerrone went 0-5-1 across his next six UFC appearances and retired in July 2022 following a submission loss to Jim Miller at UFC 276. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame's Modern Wing in 2023 in recognition of his 38 Octagon appearances and 18 post-fight bonuses — the second-highest bonus count in promotion history at the time of his retirement.
Did Holly Holm get a title shot after UFC 246?
Not immediately. Holm remained in the bantamweight title picture and eventually won a #1 contender's bout against Irene Aldana at UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Aldana in October 2020. She would not receive another title shot until losing to Ketlen Vieira in 2022.
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