Too Much Pressure for Mystic Mac or Will he Lay Cowboy Flat?

By: Cameron Jones

Saturday night is fast approaching, and all eyes are going to be on the T-Mobile arena for the return of The "Notorious" Conor McGregor.

After taking a year off, it will be McGregor's first time back in the cage since his fateful submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov on the 7th September 2018. Many believed that he would not return, but here we are over a year later getting ready for perhaps McGregor's biggest and most crucial fight yet, his return and rejuvenation inside the Octagon.

You are probably wondering how I can say that this is perhaps the biggest fight of McGregor's career, when he fought Eddie Alverez for the lightweight strap while still holding the featherweight title. Well that was a challenge for Conor. He was challenging to hold two belts simultaneously, something never done before in the UFC.

Now the situation is completely different; this isn't a fight for a belt and he isn't a champion. It is the fight for his career. He knows that if he does not win then it cannot be drawn up to "well, he was fighting the champion in the division above", or "he only had 10 days to prepare for this opponent". It will be "he's lost it, he had it all and then lost it all". Conor has said that he does not want to be one of those combat athletes like Tyson, he wants to carry on the high of winning and being the best. If he can not beat Cerrone, what draw would that have for anyone to fight him other than the name "McGregor"?

Conor has been completely different in the lead up to this fight, perhaps he does not want to disrespect Donald the way he has done to all of his other opponents. He seems to be cautious, like he doesn't want to be embarrassed on Saturday night, and that is completely out of character for a man who is so well known for being the biggest talker the UFC has ever seen.

Maybe he will let his patterned left hand do the talking, or maybe he's all out of gas. One thing's for sure, he is going to need a win in order to cement himself as a still relevant fighter in 2020, and to kick off his quote unquote "season" to the only conceivable start he could hope for.

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CLICK HERE for a peak inside Cowboy's mind leading up to this fight!

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