One of the biggest fights in recent UFC history will take place on Saturday night, as T-Mobile Arena, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, prepares to host UFC 246. The headliner is a welterweight bout between Conor McGregor, a former UFC Lightweight and Featherweight Champion, and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, a former lightweight title challenger. The co-main event is also of note, as Holly Holm will face Raquel Pennington in a women’s bantamweight rematch. You can catch the main card on pay per view, while the preliminary fights will appear on ESPN and the early preliminary card will be broadcast on UFC Fight Pass. We have the full UFC 246 card as well as UFC betting thoughts on some of the key bouts.
UFC 246 Odds, McGregor vs Cowboy Preview & Predictions
Event Info
- When: Saturday, 10 PM ET (main card)
- Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
- TV: PPV
- Live Stream: UFC Fight Pass
Main Card (Pay Per View)
- Conor McGregor vs Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (Welterweight)
- Holly Holm vs Raquel Pennington (Women’s Bantamweight)
- Aleksei Oleinik vs Maurice Greene (Heavyweight)
- Claudia Gadelha vs Alexa Grasso (Women’s Strawweight)
- Anthony Pettis vs Carlos Diego Ferreira (Lightweight)
Preliminary Card (ESPN)
- Roxanne Modafferi vs Maycee Barber (Women’s Flyweight)
- Andre Fili vs Sodiq Yusuff (Featherweight)
- Tim Elliott vs Askar Askarov (Flyweight)
- Drew Dober vs Nasrat Haqparast (Lightweight)
Early Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
- Aleksa Camur vs Justin Ledet (Light Heavyweight)
- Brian Kelleher vs Ode Osbourne (Bantamweight)
- Sabina Mazo vs J.J. Aldrich (Women’s Flyweight)
Conor McGregor (21-4, -300) vs Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (36-13, +250)
He is getting a lot of hype, but if you look at the moneylines, it seems fairly clear that UFC is setting him up for a soft entry. Since 2015, McGregor’s appearances have either been for a title or yet another tilt with Nate Diaz. In recent fights, though, it seems clear that McGregor is on the back side of his career. After losing that ballyhooed boxing match to Floyd Mayweather, he has only fought once in the MMA cage, losing handily to Khabib Nurmagomedov. There has been a lot more scandal than substance to his fights as of late — but he is still the clear favorite.
If we look at Cerrone, his move to welterweight has provided a mixed bag. It allowed him to get away from that rivalry with Rafael dos Anjos, and it has shown a greater diversity in his approach with striking. However, once he got shots against the best welterweights, he started getting beaten. So now he’s right on the edge of contender status. He beat Alexander Hernandez and Al Iaquinta, showing that he can make lesser opponents crack, but the elite in the division can dismantle him. McGregor should be able to bring enough pressure to make Cerrone crack, although Cerrone was able to deal with Iaquinta’s pressure and get that win. Can Cerrone get through the first couple of rounds? Then McGregor might slow down, through a combination of the added weight he put on to get to 170 and his lack of recent ring experience. However, I don’t see him getting that far.
Final Prediction: McGregor wins via knockout
Holly Holm (12-5, -135) vs Raquel Pennington (10-7, +115)
This should be a much more even fight than the main event. This is a rematch of the 2015 bout that Holm won via split decision, in order to get her fight against Ronda Rousey, which remains one of the most memorable upsets in the MMA cage. That fight seems to have been an outlier for Holm, though, because she does not have a particularly entertaining style and has only won two of her last seven bouts. Most of her losses have been by decision, although Amanda Nunes knocked her out in the first round in her last fight.
Pennington saw her trajectory go upward after that loss to Holm, developing a style that does everything well while doing nothing spectacularly. After losing to Holm she won four in a row, including a victory over Miesha Tate. However, after that, she had to take 18 months off after an accident almost cost her a leg. In recent fights, she has shown some promise, but Holm has the stronger clinch tactics, so I see her winning this fight one point at a time.
Final Prediction: Holm wins via decision
