Kamaru Usman makes pick for Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone

This weekend, in the main event of UFC 246, Conor McGregor will return to the Octagon for a welterweight scrap with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Kamaru Usman, the welterweight division’s current champion, will be watching this fight very closely.

Speaking during a live chat with his fans on social media, Usman weighed in on this McGregor vs. Cerrone fight. Like many members of the MMA community, he favors McGregor early and Cerrone if the fight goes into the later rounds, and based his prediction on that.

“Man, I think it’s a big fight,” Usman said (transcript via MMA News). “I think if McGregor can jump on Cerrone early those first two rounds, I think he might have a chance to get that fight over with. But the longer the fight goes, the more it favors Cerrone. Cerrone just has I think more ways to win and his leg kicks start to add up and it’s only a matter of time before he actually finds that head kick. So I’m gonna say under two McGregor, over two Cerrone. That’s my pick.”

While McGregor and Cerrone have most recently competed in the lightweight division, the winner of this fight will certainly be in the mix at welterweight. In fact, McGregor even expressed interest in fighting Usman down the road.

Usman, however, has been vocal in his belief that he’s a terrible matchup for the Irish superstar.

“It is a [mismatch],” Usman told MMA Fighting of a fight with McGregor. “More power to him, anything is possible. A fight is a fight, anything can happen. But just being real, that’s a tremendous mismatch. I think I would hurt him really, really bad.

“I mean we saw what Khabib [Nurmagomedov] did to him,” Usman added. “He had to take some time off after the Khabib fight,” Usman said. “Now imagine him fighting me. I don’t think we ever see him back in the sport.”

Who do you think will win when Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone fight at UFC 246? What do you think of this prediction from Kamaru Usman?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/13/2020.