Conor McGregor fights Donald Cerrone on Saturday

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Dante Palermo

Mixed martial arts (MMA) fans will be watching Saturday as Conor “Mystic Mac” McGregor, the only Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter to be champion in two weight divisions, faces veteran fighter Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who has the most wins and finishes in UFC history. The non-title welterweight fight will happen in Las Vegas and is available on pay-per-view.

Carroll seniors Juliano Mastrocola and Ronan Loftus said McGregor will come out on top in the contest.

“I believe McGregor will win,” Mastrocola said.

Loftus was more specific.

“McGregor will knock Cerrone out in the third round,” he said.

Saturday’s fight will be a comeback for McGregor, who took a year off from the UFC after facing legal problems, losing a fight, and weathering a suspension. 

McGregor’s legal trouble stemmed from an episode on April 5, 2018, when McGregor threw a metal dolly through the window of a bus carrying lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, according to ESPN. McGregor pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct in connection with the episode and was sentenced to community service, according to a January 2019 story in The Washington Post by Cindy Boren. In October 2018, McGregor lost his fight against Nurmagomedov in the early minutes of Round 4. The two were involved in a brawl after that fight, for which both were suspended and fined by the UFC, according to the Boren story.

McGregor announced his retirement from fighting in March 2019, but rescinded that within a month.

Before becoming a fighter, McGregor, who is Irish, was a plumber. He had to get up at 3 AM, catch two buses, and walk three miles to get to work every day. Eventually he chased his dream of being a fighter.

A year after he quit plumbing he made his amateur MMA debut and won by TKO. After that fight he was signed to Irish Ring of Truth Promotion and started training under John Kavanaugh at Straight Blast Gym in Dublin. He made his professional MMA debut in 2008 fighting in the Cage Warriors, which was based in London. He started off 2-2 and then went on an eight-fight win streak.

Once McGregor made noise in the fight industry, he was signed to the most popular fighting league: the UFC. He became the first fighter in the UFC to be champion of two weight divisions at the same time.