Conor McGregor is now back in form and ready for another UFC match this year.
(Photo : Reuters)

Conor McGregor announced his big come back by defeating Donald Cerrone within 40 seconds in their UFC match on Saturday night. McGregor showed his strength by giving a strong head kick and a barrage of punches within 40 seconds which was enough to defeat Cerrone. It was the first victory of McGregor since 2016. 

McGregor is a former two-time division champion who left the UFC for three years and was involved in different troubles that kept him in the headlines. After three years of echoing outside-the-cage troubles, he is now back and seemingly dominate.

The McGregor-Cerrone UFC match was watched by more than 19,000 people at the T-Mobile Arena. After being brought into the clinch McGregor surprised Cerrone with an array of shoulder strikes bloodying his nose then floored him after a perfectly placed a head kick. 

After the fight, McGregor said: "I feel really good, and I came out of here unscathed and I'm in shape. We've got work to do to get back to where I was."

This is the first big come back and the first victoryfor McGregor since 2016 after he decided to leave the UFC cage. His last victory was in November 2016 when he defeated and stopped lightweight Eddie Alvarez to become the first fighter in UFC to hold two championship belts simultaneously. 

He then decided to box, mainly viewed as a PR stunt, he only had one match and it was with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017, he lost. Then in late 2018 he decided to return to the UFC, but was defeated by lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. The also had a very unexpected ending as Nurmagomedov leaped the cage walls and attacked McGregor's entourage in the stands.

The former two-time division champion is now back in form and vowed to fight multiple times this year. His victory over Cerrone is emblematic that he is ready for another fight.

Meanwhile, two of the most well-known UFC fighters watched the first fight of McGregor this year. These were welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and veteran brawler Jorge Masvidal. There are speculations that either one of them could be the next opponent of McGregor.

Due to his dramatic victory, he yelled on the microphone during Joe Rogan's post-match interview saying "Any one of these mouthy fools can get it and every single one of them can get it. It does not matter. I'm back and I'm ready."

McGregor's victory over Cerrone is indeed huge, mainly because of his opponent's UFC fight record. Cerrone has 23 victories that slowly manifest his durability and strength. He also held the record in UFC for 16 stoppage wins and had fought 11 times since the last fight of McGregor. Meanwhile, he was in his 15th cage fight when he lost his only UFC title shot back in December 2015. 

After their match, Cerrone said in an interview, "I'd never seen anything like that and he busted my nose, it started bleeding, and he stepped back and head-kicked me. Oh, man. This happened this fast?"

McGregor showed an unusual respect for Cerrone as he walked to the cage with the Irish flag wrapped around his shoulders and the fighters touched gloves beforehand which is not common in McGregor's bouts.