Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone will kick off the 2020 UFC pay-per-view schedule Jan. 18 when they headline UFC 246 in Las Vegas. The fight serves as McGregor’s highly anticipated return to the octagon after 14 months, while Cerrone receives the biggest opportunity of his nearly 14-year career. As part of an occasional series ahead of the matchup, let’s flash back to a memorable press conference which marked the day “red panty night” forever became part of the MMA lexicon.
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Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone has been years in the making.
The two fighters, who will headline UFC 246 on Jan. 18, have gone after each other not only long before they were booked to fight, but even before they competed in the same weight class.
Back in September 2015 at the UFC “Go Big” press conference, both McGregor (21-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) and Cerrone (36-13 MMA, 23-10 UFC) got into tense exchanges ahead of their respective title fights – McGregor, then the interim featherweight champion facing returning champ Jose Aldo in a unification bout, and Cerrone challenging then-lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos. It was also the birth of one of McGregor’s most memorable lines.
“I can make you rich,” McGregor said to dos Anjos when the Brazilian expressed interest in fighting him. “I change your bum life; you fight, it’s a celebration. When you sign to fight me, it’s a celebration. You ring back home, you ring your wife, ‘Baby, we’ve done it. We’re rich, baby. Conor McGregor made us rich, break out the red panties. We’re rich, baby.’
“So don’t say you would not take that fight, because you would take that fight like everyone else up here would take the fight against me if it was offered regardless of belt or any of that (explicit). I’m the money fight in the male (explicit), at all weight divisions, so (explicit) everybody else.
“It’s red panty night when you sign to fight me, yeah, back at home with your wife. It’s a celebration.”
And that was when Cerrone dropped his two cents on a potential move to 155 pounds for the Irishman.
“Conor has no right to come up to 155, there’s no way,” Cerrone said. “He’s not going to stand a chance. We’re too big for him, we’re too strong, so you can take your little English ass and get on.”
It was Cerrone’s response that triggered the first heated back-and-forth between the UFC 246 headliners as seen in the video above.
Cerrone went on to lose to dos Anjos at UFC on FOX 17 and McGregor unified the UFC featherweight titles, knocking out Aldo at UFC 194 in just 13 seconds.
Now, a little over four years later, McGregor and Cerrone meet at 170 pounds in the main event of the first UFC pay-per-view of 2020. This bout marks McGregor’s first fight since losing to UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in 2018.
To relive the moments which paved the way for the Jan. 18 fight, watch the video above.
Also see:
UFC 246 Fighter Flashback: Conor McGregor’s bold message after first Cage Warriors win
UFC 246 Fighter Flashback: Conor McGregor arrives in Brazil, rips up Jose Aldo poster in Rio bar
UFC 246 Fighter Flashback: Donald Cerrone on his ‘scariest, most intense, fun’ pre-fight nerves
UFC 246 Fighter Flashback: Conor McGregor introduces 'red panty night' into MMA lexicon
