U.F.C. 246 Live Updates: McGregor vs. Cowboy
Drew Dober starts off the ESPN preliminary bouts with a win in 70 seconds.
That didn’t take long.
Nasrat Haqparast saw an opening for a leg kick, so he threw one. But Drew Dober, a densely-muscled southpaw, saw a bigger opening — for an overhand left. Their blows landed simultaneously, but Dober’s did damage.
Haqparast hit the mat and Dober pummeled him with punches and elbows until the referee stopped the bout. It took 70 seconds and was, according to betting odds, an upset.
“I will knock anyone out in the division, I promise,” Dober said in the ring afterward.
There are four fights on the ESPN preliminary card, then five bouts on the main pay-per-view card.
Here is a list of the bouts in chronological order. The five-round main event will likely happen after midnight Eastern. The rest of the fights before then are scheduled for three rounds each.
Preliminary Card
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Drew Dober vs Nasrat Haqparast (lightweight)
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Tim Elliott vs Askar Askarov (flyweight)
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Andre Fili vs Sodiq Yusuff (featherweight)
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Roxanne Modafferi vs Maycee Barber (flyweight)
Main Card
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Anthony Pettis vs Diego Ferreira (lightweight)
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Brian Kelleher vs Ode’ Osborne (bantamweight)
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Aleksei Oleinik vs Maurice Greene (heavyweight)
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Holly Holm vs Raquel Pennington (bantamweight co-main event)
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Conor McGregor vs Donald Cerrone (welterweight main event)
The layoff from mixed martial arts is the second longest of McGregor’s career.
The 15-month span between McGregor’s loss to Nurmagomedov and Saturday night’s fight with Cerrone is the second-longest layoff of McGregor’s mixed martial arts career, and it’s not clear how the time off might affect his skills in the octagon.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/sports/cowboy-vs-mcgregor.html?emc=rss&partner=rss