Conor McGregor’s return impressed a lot of people over the weekend. Including UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
McGregor headlined UFC 246 on pay-per-view (PPV) against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at welterweight from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the Irishman’s first fight inside the Octagon since October of 2018 where he was submitted by lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in the fourth round of their UFC 229 main event.
“Notorious” took out Cerrone in just 40 seconds after some nasty shoulder strikes, a head-kick, and relentless ground-and-pound. The victory marked McGregor’s first in combat sports competition since 2016. UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was watching the bout, along with the rest of the mixed martial arts (MMA) community, and was very impressed by the former two-division champ’s performance, as he explained to ESPN.
“It was great, I loved it. I appreciated the way he played the game. I loved the shoulder strikes, that was gangster. I liked the head kick, that was sick, it was real slick. I’m a big fan,” Adesanya said.
Adesanya and McGregor are both represented by Paradigm Sports Management. It’s for that reason that “The Last Stylebender” says that, a win for McGregor is a win for himself as well.
“Obviously his management team is my management team, so it’s good. It’s a good win for us because when he wins, I win. When I win, he wins. It’s good for us because we get to claim a lot of the chips on the table,” Adesanya said.
McGregor will now sit back and await his next opponent, as he is expected to return to action before next summer. The Irishman has said several times that he wants to be extremely active in 2020, fighting three to four times before the year is up. With potential opponents such as Jorge Masvidal, Khabib Nurmagomeodv, Tony Ferguson, and more, it will certainly be an entertaining year for McGregor, to say the least.
As for Adesanya, he was recently booked for his first-ever title defense against Yoel Romero. The pair will collide in the main event of UFC 248 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada this March. Romero lost his last fight to Paulo Costa, who was initially expected to challenge Adesanya. However, after an injury to Costa, Romero has emerged as the new contender for the strap after “Stylebender” called the Cuban powerhouse out.
What do you think about Adesanya’s comments on McGregor’s performance over Cerrone?
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