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Main event - Conor McGregor v 'Cowboy' Cerrone - McGregor wins via first-round TKO
Round one - McGregor leaps forward with a straight right that catches Cerrone to start, he's already bloodied. Huge leg kick followed by a monster straight right! Cerrone is wobbled and crumples to the mat, McGregor swooops with huge shots from above...referee gives him every chance to respond but he has to step in. This is over! Wow.
Check out a full wrap here.
6:27pm - Surprisingly muted reception for McGregor during his intro. Let's get this started...
6:25pm - The inimitable Bruce Buffer takes the centre of the Octagon for the fighter intros. There was definitely a bit of extra sauce on that "it's time!".
6:21pm - The lights turn green and orange and that can only mean one thing - the 'Notorious' one enters the fray to his trademark Sinead O'Connor x Notorious BIG mash-up. Irish flag draped across his shoulders, the man looks focused.
6:20pm - Here we go, the strains of Kid Rock's awful 'Cowboy' rings through T-Mobile Arena as Cerrone makes his way to the middle.
6:15pm - Next up, a chat with former WWE star Bautista. He's picking his mate Cowboy by submission, in case you cared.
6:11pm - First we'll get a McGregor 'billionaire strut' compilation. Surely it was Vince McMahon's first, but okay.
6:08pm - Hold tight, the walk-outs are almost upon us.
6:05pm - We're finally there, fight fans. The headline act is incoming.
Co-main event - Holly Holm v Raquel Pennington - Holm wins via unanimous decision
Round three - Pennington likely needs a finish to win this one. She fights her way out of another clinch attempt, lunges with a couple of shots but Holm catches her with a counter jab. Pennington presses with the grappling, that's not going to get it done. Holm reverses and takes control against the fence. Referee steps in to split them up, an odd call given the amount of action going on. Pennington lands and again looks to clinch. Bizarre. That will do us, ugly but effective for Holm, who should take a comfortable unanimous decision.
Round two - Pennington forcing the issue early. Again, Holm shoots to clinch and presses Pennington to the fence. Underhook in, Holm lands a smattering of shots with her right. She's looking to keep this fight dirty. Finally they separate, Holm unleashes a couple of kicks... but it's straight back to the clinch. Pennington really needs to find answer here, can sense her frustration growing. Pennington lands a knee, then bizarrely intiates a cinch herself. that's probably two in the bag for Holm.
Round one - Holm looking to make it 2-0 against Pennington. Tentative start for both fighters, trying to establish their range. Holm blitzes, clinches with Pennington and forces her to the fence. One underhook in, Pennington defending well. A good two minutes-plus of that ensues to close a rather uneventful round.
5:22pm - One more bout before the big show, people. The 'Rousey Killer' Holm looks to move back into title contention at bantamweight with a win over the hard-nosed Pennington.
Aleksei Oleinik v Maurice Greene - Oleinik wins via second-round submission
Round two - That submission attempt may have taken its toll on Oleinik's gas tank, and Greene opens with a couple of one-twos. Throws up a head kick, grazes its target. Huge knee lands flush, and Oleinik has seen enough of the stand-up, shoots for the takedown. To the mat they go, and straight into half guard. Oleinik working for the ezekiel choke, switches to the arm bar. Greene holding on for dear life...but not for long, and he's forced to tap. Oleinik wraps up our third-straight submission win.
Round one - Nasty low kick from Greene sweeps Oleinik's leg out from underneath him. Oleinik shoots for the takedown, they hit the mat and the Russian passes into side control. Danger signs for Greene, this is a terrible place to be against a submission artist like Oleinik. Greene explodes out of danger briefly but Oleinik is right back into Greene's guard. Greene stays busy defensively, throwing up a couple of triangle attempts that miss their mark. Oleinik passes into full mount, this is scary. Oleinik moves to the side and locks up a head and arm choke, but Greene is somehow hanging in there, and makes it to the buzzer.
5pm - The heavyweights are up to the plate, Russian submission ace Oleinik against the towering American kickboxer Greene. As is typically the case in this division, anything could happen.
Brian Kelleher v Ode Osbourne - Kelleher wins via first-round submission.
Round one - Osbourne opens with the 'Bones' Jones crawl and explodes into a knee. That caught Kelleher's attention. Kelleher secures the takedown but he's in full guard, Osbourne getting off some offense from the bottom position with his elbows. Kelleher working for a standing guillotine....and he's got it! Fantastic pefromance from the underdog, whose experience really shone through there.
4:37pm - Intrigued to see how the Jamiacan Osbourne fares here against the veteran Kelleher, big step up for the prospect from Dana White's Contender Series.
Anthony Pettis v Carlos Diego Ferreira - Ferreira wins via second round submission
Round two - Ferreira quickly takes Pettis' back to open the round, Pettis escapes but Ferreira passes and moves into half guard. Kid is a leech on the mat. Almost has the body lock, transitions to a side mount and puts the squeeze on Pettis neck and the American swiftly taps. Brilliant performance from Ferreira. He barely had the choke sunk, that was mostly pure crank and squeeze. Elite BJJ.
Round one - Ferreira fighting smart, staying outside of Pettis' kicking range and conducting the Octagon. Takes Pettis' back but BJJ black belt Pettis is up to the task defensively and works his way back to his feet. Pettis almost lands a flush right head kick, the crowd gasps as Ferreira partially deflects the shot. Pettis finishes the round on his back, couple of shots from the top to clinch Ferreira the round.
4:12pm - 'Showtime' will get us underway against the highly touted Brazilian momentarily.
Much prefer Pettis at lightweight and, love or hate him, the man lives up to his moniker.
4pm - We're into the main card pay-per-view protion of proceedings now, fight fans. Buckle up, the Cowboy is in the building.
3:57pm - Roxanne Modafferi puts the red light on the Maycee Barbar train with an upset unanimous decision win, albeit with Barbar comprtmised by what the doctor called a partial ACL tear prior to the final round. Kudos to Barbar for battling through, but she was never in the contest.
3:23pm - Andre Fili and Sodiq Yusuff delivers on the hype, the Nigerian taking out a unanimous decision win. Bizarre that this one wasn't bumped up to the main card.
2:51pm - Another fast-paced, fun flyweight affair between Tim Elliott and Askar Askarov. The Russian takes the unanimous decision win to maintain his flawless pro record, moving to 11-0.
2:20pm - Drew Dober kicks off the (televised) preliminary bouts with a bang, putting highly favoured Nasrat Haqparast away with a heavy counter-left and plenty of follow up shots to secure a TKO in the first round. Promising start to festivities.
Kia ora and welcome to live coverage from T-Mobile Arena as Irish superstar Conor McGregor makes his long-awaited return to the Octagon against 'Cowboy' Cerrone in the main event of UFC 246.
Fight-by-fight coverage of the main card will start from 4pm (NZT), with the main event expected to take place around 6pm.
Main card betting odds/Results
Anthony Pettis ($2.85) v Carlos Diego Ferreira ($1.38)
Brian Kelleher ($2.10) v Ode Osbourne ($1.68)
Aleksei Oleinik ($1.92) v Maurice Greene ($1.79)
Holly Holm ($1.72) v Raquel Pennington ($2.03)
Conor McGregor ($1.33) v Donald Cerrone ($3.10)
Pre-match banter
I'm doing it for the love of the game - McGregor
Conor McGregor has drawn a line under his past accomplishments, insisting there can be many more memorable nights if he gets past Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 in Las Vegas.
McGregor is one of only a handful of fighters to have won UFC belts in more than one weight class, while he became the first in the company to hold two titles simultaneously when he added the lightweight strap to his featherweight crown in November 2016.
Fame and fortune have followed since a crossover bout against boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather but his star inside the octagon dimmed after losing to bitter rival Khabib Nurmagomedov 15 months ago.
A number of legal issues away from the mixed martial arts world have dogged McGregor since then, but the Irishman remains the UFC's biggest draw and claims he has learned from his mistakes and is fresher than ever.
"I broke the game before I was even 30. But that's the past. I'm focused on the present, focused on creating many more magical moments inside the octagon," McGregor told UFC's official website.
"Everyone always says 'when are we getting the old Conor back? We want to get the 2016 Conor back'. I'd smoke that guy. I'm in a great fighting state of mind.
"I've had many iconic moments and many great moments and that came through commitment and consistency and constant hard work."
The defeat to Nurmagomedov on an acrimonious night in Sin City has been McGregor's only MMA bout in more than three years, but he wants to show his comeback against Cerrone is no one-off.
"I was fighting for a better life, now I'm fighting for the love," he added.
"Activity is what I plan this year."
Should he get past his veteran American opponent in their welterweight encounter at the T-Mobile Arena, McGregor is planning to fight at least twice more this year.
