4 reasons why Conor McGregor will beat Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone at UFC 246

2. Cerrone’s chin may be cracked

After his KO loss to Justin Gaethje, is Cerrone's chin cracked?

It’s true that McGregor may well come into this fight with plenty of cage rust, as he hasn’t appeared inside the Octagon since his October 2018 loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov. But it’s also possible that the layoff has helped him, in a sense that he certainly hasn’t taken the amount of damage in his career that a more active fighter – like Cerrone – has done.

‘Cowboy’ has kept the most insane schedule of any UFC fighter in history, racking up a ridiculous 33 fights inside the promotion since joining it at the start of 2011. Throw in his 17 previous fights, and Cerrone has 50 overall, and due to the nature of his fighting style, he’s taken plenty of knocks along the way.

Worryingly for the Denver native, there’s plenty of evidence that fighters at the UFC level tend to become far less durable once they’ve spent a decade fighting the world’s best. Fighters like BJ Penn, Randy Couture, and Anderson Silva – all of whom were once known for their toughness – ended up becoming increasingly easy to knock out.

That could be the same for Cerrone – who has certainly looked more vulnerable in the last few years, and was most recently knocked out violently by Justin Gaethje. This could be a case of McGregor choosing to fight him at the perfect time – a trick perfected by the Irishman’s former boxing foe Floyd Mayweather – just as ‘Cowboy’ is reaching the end of his career at the top level.