Conor McGregor Returning to UFC 246, Opponent Revealed

Last month, former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor announced that his return to UFC would take place on January 18th, but he didn't mention who would be facing in the octagon. That changed on Thanksgiving, however, as UFC President Dana White opened up about January's UFC 246 event, McGregor's return to the sport, and who the popular fighter would be taking on in his first match back. ESPN's Brett Okamoto confirmed Thursday that McGregor will fight Donald "The Cowboy" Cerrone in the new year.

McGregor and Cerrone will face one another at UFC 246 on January 18th, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. White told ESPN, "Conor has signed, and Cowboy is ready to go." The fight will be a non-title welterweight bout.

This event will mark McGregor's first fight in more than a year, the last one being remembered for all the wrong reasons. Following his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018, a brawl broke out inside the ring and spilled out into the crowd. Tensions were already high heading into the fight and things kept going well past the final bell. McGregor was ultimately handed a six month suspension for the brawl.

Now that he's returning, McGregor is getting to take on the opponent he's been hoping to fight for some time. After Cerrone defeated Alexander Hernandez at UFC Fight Night 143 in January, McGregor tweeted that he was ready to fight Cerrone in the octagon, despite being suspended at the time.

"For a fight like that Donald, I'll fight you," McGregor wrote in a tweet at the time. "Congratulations."

Now that the suspension is over and the Khabib brawl is a thing of the past, McGregor seems eager to get back in the ring as soon as possible. Fortunately for both him in the fans, he doesn't have much longer to wait.