Conor McGregor vows to ‘hurt’ Donald Cerrone on his UFC return as he warns ‘boy am I hitting hard’
CONOR McGREGOR has vowed to “hurt” Donald Cerrone on his UFC return as he warned “boy am I hitting hard”.
The Notorious will step foot inside the octagon for the first time since losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018 as the Irishman faces ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone on Saturday.
McGregor is already plotting a second crack at Nurmagomedov and the lightweight belt, but is making his UFC comeback at welterweight.
Despite insisting he is under the 170lbs limit, the Irish southpaw teased his power is at an all time high as he vowed to knockout American veteran Cerrone, 36.
McGregor said on the : “Everyone always says ‘I want to get the old Conor back’ – but that’s the past. Focus on the present.
“Boy am I hitting hard, I am sitting down on shots. And I’m going to hurt Donald.
“Right now I’m in a phenomenal place and I’m going to go in and put him away.”
McGregor has released intense training footage and pictures as he touched down in Las Vegas with his team.
The 31-year-old has added Irish amateur boxing legend Phil Sutcliffe to his team, the man who first nurtured The Notorious.
When McGregor was 12-years-old he walked into his first gym – the Crumlin Amateur Boxing Club, headed up by Sutcliffe.
But he dropped the boxing gloves at 16 to take up MMA, despite winning youth amateur championships.
Sutcliffe told since his arrival in McGregor’s camp, the former two-weight champion looks revived and focused in his work in the gym.
He explained: “I’ve never seen him before any fight, I’ve seen him on the TV, but speaking to him on a regular basis now his persona, his attitude has gone through the roof.
“He’s so confident, he’s so happy, the camp has been great. One of the lads said it’s the best camp they’ve been on.
“So the little bit of boxing that’s been brought in hopefully it’s given it that little bit of culture, a little bit of razzmatazz, showbusiness – which it is, right?
“We can go into the showbusiness, I’m used to it when it’s boxing but there’s very little difference in the build up to a big boxing fight and this fight.
“Everyone is calm, it’s cool, everything is going great for Conor, he has a great bunch of guys there, two fantastic coaches, his coaching team between all the boys that’s there we’re all gelling together.”
