Conor McGregor v Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone - all you need to know

Conor McGregor will make his much-anticipated return to the octagon when he fights Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone at UFC 246 in Las Vegas this weekend.

It is the first time the Irishman has fought professionally since his controversial fourth-round defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018.

Despite the welterweight bout being a non-title fight, it is set to break pay-per-view figures, with 31-year-old McGregor saying he will earn a record £80m.

But what has McGregor been up to since his last bout? What do we know about his American opponent? And how can you follow the fight on the BBC?

Here’s everything you need to know about the blockbuster bout.

McGregor might have spent more than a year away from the UFC, but he has never been far from the headlines.

Five months after his defeat by Nurmagomedov, McGregor announced on social media that he had retired from the sport – but that turned out to be premature.

The Irishman also made news for two other unsavoury incidents.

In one, he was accused of smashing a fan’s phone – although the charges were subsequently dropped following his arrest – and in another, he punched a man in a Dublin pub and was convicted of assault.

Away from these incidents, McGregor has been heavily promoting his own brand of whiskey, which he says generated more than $1bn (£770m) in its first year.

A busy 15 months then…

McGregor has headlined the top five highest-selling pay-per-view fights in UFC history, with his defeat by Nurmagomedov holding the record at 2.4 million buys.

He recently told MMA journalist Ariel Helwani that he will make £80m from the Cerrone fight alone, adding: “They think I’m toast, but I’m still the bread.”

Since McGregor last fought, UFC 232 has been the promotion’s highest-selling event, where 700,000 people paid to watch the rematch between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson.

McGregor’s fights alone have outsold that on six separate occasions during his career.

Quite simply, nobody in the UFC has McGregor’s pulling power.

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/