After a long wait, and a decent amount of pre-match hype, Conor McGregor returned to action at UFC 246.

It was a case of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ because McGregor disposed of his opponent, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, in 40 seconds flat.

Conor would have been pretty stoked to make such light work of Cerrone, although he’ll need a few wins under his belt before he can forget about his defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov 15 months ago.

Here’s Al Jazeera with a short description of the bout, before we go to the video:

The former two-division champion left Cerrone bloodied just seconds into Saturday’s welterweight fight by ramming his shoulders into his face from the clinch. When they broke, McGregor landed a head kick that set the American wobbling and scrambling back to the cage.

The 31-year-old Irishman closed in and rained down strikes as Cerrone, 36, covered up, prompting referee Herb Dean to stop the fight after just 40 seconds, in a night that echoed McGregor’s greatest fights during his unparalleled rise.

A far better display than that time he punched an old bloke in the head in Dublin.

Here comes the boom:

Well, that didn’t last too long.

Here’s a different angle:

The Irishman was in good spirits following the bout:

“I feel really good, and I came out of here unscathed,” McGregor said in his post-fight interview. “I’m in shape. We’ve got work to do to get back to where I was.”

His opponent acknowledged that he was soundly beaten:

“I had never seen anything like that,” Cerrone said. “It threw me way off guard. He busted my nose and it started bleeding and then he stepped back and head-kicked me.”

McGregor has said that he plans to have three UFC fights during the year, so we should see him in action at least twice before 2020 wraps up.

Hopefully, his next opponent puts up a little more of a fight.

[source:aljazeera]