UFC 246: McGregor v Cowboy - fight preview, best bets and free tips

Fight preview, best bets and free tips for Conor McGregor v Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone at UFC 246 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Where to watch

BT Sport Box Office, Prelims start 1am, Main Card starts 3am Saturday night

Best bets

Conor McGregor to win in round one
1pt 15-8 Boylesports, Coral, Ladbrokes

Conor McGregor to win in round two
1pt 9-2 Betfred, SkyBet

Calm and respectful Conor McGregor looks like he means business

Conor McGregor is back in action for the first time in more than a year and the change in his demeanor is startling. Gone is the booze-peddling ego-manic seen in the build up to his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov and in its place is a relaxed and together Irishman who looks ready to get back into UFC title contention.

Whether this new, mature version will be as successful in the cage remains to be seen, but he badly needed to reinvent his character.

McGregor has had a turbulent few years since his last UFC victory over Eddie Alvarez in November 2016. That second round KO made him the UFC's first 'Champ Champ' and led to a mega-money boxing match with Floyd Mayweather.

Untold riches flooded into his bank account but, as often seems to happen, trouble followed it. He was stopped by Mayweather in the ring, submitted by Khabib on his return to the octagon and a series of misdemeanors outside the sporting arena led to many fans losing respect for him.

• UFC 246: McGregor v Cerrone fact pack

But McGregor's biggest strength has always been his unwavering self-confidence and iron will, and both of those characteristics look to be intact after he took last year out to draw a line underneath his erratic behaviour and get back to being an elite combat athlete.

McGregor has stated that this fight with Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone will be the first of three or four fights this year and there are some mouthwatering match-ups in the pipeline with BMF champion Jorge Masvidal and welterweight king Kamaru Usman serious options at 170lbs, while Tony Ferguson old foe Khabib - who are set to fight for the lightweight belt in April - are also on his radar.

But all those potential mega-fights will go down the drain if McGregor can't beat Cowboy and while he is a big 1-3 favourite, Cerrone is certainly capable of upsetting the applecart.

What does Cowboy Cerrone bring to the table?

Nobody on the UFC roster can claim to have more experience than Cowboy, who has set plenty of records across a 50-fight MMA career including the most wins in UFC history (23), most finishes in UFC history (16) and the most knockdowns in UFC history (20).

Cowboy is revered for fighting anyone, anywhere at any time, but there is no doubt that his career is in it's winding-up phase and McGregor has hand-picked him as the perfect comeback opponent.

Cowboy has been stopped in his last two fights - against Justin Gaethje (round one) and Ferguson (round two) and has lost six of his last ten, although it should be noted that all those defeats came against elite-level opponents.

Pundits have been claiming Cowboy's best chance of causing an upset is to wrestle McGregor in the early stages and look to take him to the mat, but Cerrone has said that he will meet him in the centre of the octagon and duke it out in a stand-up war.

If that happens it could play into McGregor's notoriously lethal hands. Cowboy was outgunned by Gaethje and Ferguson when he used similar tactics, and if Conor has retained his striking accuracy, power and timing he will not waste time inflicting plenty of damage.

A lot has been made of the fight being at welterweight (170lbs) rather than lightweight (155lbs), but while Cerrone is a few inches taller all it really means is that neither man will have to endure a torturous weight cut. Fellow UFC fighter Kelvin Gastelum put it best when he said that this isn't a welterweight fight; they are both just hydrated lightweights.

McGregor is a fast starter and the longer Cowboy survives the more dangerous he could become. But Conor seems to be fully prepared and focused on the task in hand, and it will be a surprise if he doesn't have his hand raised within a couple of rounds.

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