Conor McGregor announces return to octagon

Conor McGregor will return to the octagon on January 18 at UFC 246 to fight Donald Cowboy Cerrone at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas.

It will be McGregor's first fight since losing to UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October of last year.

McGregor has admitted he found it difficult to motivate himself to train at the same intensity he used to train at. An intensity level that led him to becoming the UFCs first two-weight world champion.

McGregor's camp has stated that the lack of motivation is no longer an issue and the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion is now firing on all cylinders and is fully committed to three fights in 2020.

Many people think this is a tune up fight for McGregor to get him back in the win column, but this will be no easy task. Cerrone is a top 5 ranked fighter and boasts the most wins in UFC history with 21 wins to his name.

Although the fight with Cowboy Cerrone was only officially announced today McGregor has been deep into his training camp for several weeks now. While continuing his training at SBG Dublin he is now also frequently training at Crumlin boxing club where he first started training at 12 years of age.

What's most surprising about this fight is that it will take place at welterweight and not McGregor's usual weight of lightweight. McGregor has fought at welterweight twice in the past with both fights coming against Nate Diaz.

Diaz recently lost out to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244, with that win along with wins over Darren Till and Ben Askren all within nine months has catapulted Masvidal into one of the sport’s biggest stars and with a win over Cerrone at welterweight he may very well be next on McGregor's list.