Conor McGregor vs. Cowboy Cerrone video: The verbal throwdown that started it all

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The highly anticipated showdown between Conor McGregor and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone may have come together rather quickly when the fight finally got made, but the bout has been lurking in the background for more than four years.

There isn’t the same vitriol between McGregor and Cerrone as there is between the Irishman and UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but there is a fighter’s pride at stake that is a bit on the personal side as well.

The rift between McGregor and Cerrone dates back to a UFC press conference in 2015 that featured several of the organization’s heavy hitters. Fighters like Ronda Rousey, Daniel Cormier, Robbie Lawler, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Rafael Dos Anjos, Alexander Gustafsson, Carlos Condit, Luke Rockhold, Dan Henderson, Holly Holm and Vitor Belfort were among those on the stage that day fielding questions.

As often happens when he’s involved though, McGregor took center stage, particularly when he and Cerrone got into a fiery verbal exchange, and when he and then-champion Jose Aldo nearly came to blows when they were staged for a face-off.

McGregor got the better of Aldo in the end, knocking him out in just 13 seconds to unify his interim featherweight title with Aldo’s featherweight belt. But will he get the better of Cerrone? The two meet in a five-round welterweight non-title fight in the UFC 246 main event on Jan. 18 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com

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