VIDEO: Conor McGregor Destroys Donald Cerrone With First-Round Knockout Win

Conor McGregor knocked out Donald Cerrone quickly in his return to the octagon at UFC 246. McGregor came out firing quickly and absolutely obliterated Cerrone quickly, finishing the fight in just 40 seconds.

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"The Notorious" appeared to break Cerrone's nose with a shoulder strike in the clinch just seconds into the fight, then landed several strikes that sent Cowboy to the canvas, including a huge left high kick.

With Cerrone down, McGregor poured on the pressure and finished him off. Referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop proceedings just 40 seconds in to the first round. It officially goes down as a TKO victory, sending McGregor's record to 22-4 with 19 knockouts. Cerrone fell to 36-14 (one no contest).

Here's McGregor's celebration afterwards:

McGregor entered the night after a layoff of more than a year. His last fight came at UFC 229 on October 6, 2018. On that night he was submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the fourth round and failed to win back his UFC lightweight championship.

Saturday night's win was enormous for McGregor and his first in the UFC since November 12, 2016 at UFC 205. That night he became the UFC's first concurrent two-division champion, winning the lightweight belt off of Eddie Alvarez.

McGregor now has scored knockout wins at three weight classes, as Saturday night's bout was at welterweight, and he's won titles at both featherweight and lightweight.

The UFC now has a number of possibilities available for McGregor moving forward. The Irishman claims he wants to fight three times this year, though no one is quite sure if he'll be fighting at lightweight or welterweight. Any number of quality opponents are available to him, so it will be fascinating to see what's next.