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The MMA community has been sent abuzz with the announcement of the return of former 'Champ-Champ' Conor McGregor against Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone in the headliner of UFC 246. Speculations have been rife about what the fight means for both fighters and where they will go from here because the last time both men competed, it was in the lightweight division, but this fight has been scheduled as a welterweight bout.
What surprised most people is that when McGregor announced his imminent return to the Octagon in a press conference in Moscow, he made it clear that his ultimate aim is to face the current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in a rematch of their fight at UFC 229. Taking that into consideration, the fact that the Irishman will take on Cowboy in a welterweight clash has baffled many people.
However, Joe Rogan claims to have the answer to all such questions. On his podcast, Rogan said that the fight is taking place at welterweight because McGregor does not want to go through the rigors of a grueling weight cut anymore.
“Conor doesn’t want to lose any weight. I think that guy tortured himself to get down to 145 so hard - and when you look at what he looked like when he was on the scale, when he was flexing, he looked like a god damn zombie. It was horrible. So I think, whether he complains or not about that, nobody rides for free. You do that to your body for a couple of years, you do some damage and it makes it harder to lose the weight afterwards."
A lot is riding on this fight for McGregor. His credibility as a man who walks the talk, his legacy as one of the greatest fighters to have ever stepped foot inside the cage, chances of a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov and probably, his MMA career will be at stake when he takes on Cerrone. Rogan believes this is why the match-up is a smart one for McGregor to pick in order to re-establish himself once again.
“He’s fighting a guy who, I think in his eyes is not really a welterweight. I think he thinks of Cowboy as a guy who will fight at 170 but he’s really a 55er. I think Conor’s calculated in his comeback. I think this is a smart fight for him because he’s not fighting someone who is too big, where I feel like that was the argument about Nate even though Nate did fight at 155 for a long time.”
Rogan also shared his views on how the fight will pan out.
“If Conor can catch him early, it could be very interesting... [But] if Cowboy can use his distance - and he’s very good at doing it - and he can avoid that straight left because Conor’s got a piston of a left hand.”
