Conor McGregor has hailed his mother Margaret as 'the strongest woman I know' after she couldn't make it to his win over Donald Cerrone.
The Notorious was embraced by his family and friends in the octagon after taking just 40 seconds to defeat Cerrone in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Notable in her absence though was Margaret McGregor and speaking in the dressing room after the fight, an emotional Conor said she was unable to travel with the rest of the family.
He said: "My mother is the strongest woman I know and I love her dearly.
"She stayed at home, she couldn't make the fight this time. I love my mother dearly, the strongest woman I know."
Donald Cerrone's grandmother took the headlines away from Conor McGregor at UFC 246 - and the American fighter has paid tribute to her.
Irishman McGregor needed just 40 seconds to KO Cerrone in Las Vegas on Saturday night and made it a successful return to the Octagon after 15 months.
Despite the one-sided nature of the fight, there was no bad blood between the Notorious and the Cowboy and that was best demonstrated by Cerrone's gran Jerry.
The 82-year-old, a huge MMA fan, made a bee-line for McGregor after his victory before giving him a warm embrace - in a touching moment at the T-Mobile Arena.
And Cerrone took to his social media to praise the woman who put him on the straight and narrow.
The American posted on Instagram , alongside a picture of Jerry and McGregor: "Grandma Cerrone!!! The lady who taught me how to be a Good Man.
"She told me it’s easy to walk Tall in the Day light. Now you need to walk Tall in the moonlight."
McGregor seemed to have been taken in by the beguiling nature of the octogenarian as he had some kind words to say after his win.
McGregor said: "She's an amazing woman. She was here for the first fight of the night.
"What a woman, [who] has raised such a phenomenal fighter that's etched in the annals of this game.
"So, much respect to the Cerrones and to their family."
McGregor later added: "She's a phenomenal women, that lady.
"She's there from the first fight of the night to the final fight of the night.
She showed me respect and I showed her respect and it was great to finally meet her. What a lady, and what a man she's raised."
Despite the loss, Cerrone said that he has no plans to retire yet, while McGregor also outlined his plans for the future.
"I like this [welter]weight division," McGregor said, "I feel really good. It's good going up and down [weight divisions].
"God willing I came out of here unscathed. I'm in shape. I don't believe I'm there yet, though. I still have work to do to get back to where I was.
"So I'm going to party tonight, celebrate, spend time with my family and then get back in the gym and train.
"And anyone of these little mouthy fools can get it, all of them."
At an after party, McGregor was joined by his partner Dee Devlin as they celebrated his victory at Encore Beach Club on the Las Vegas strip.
But he stressed that he would soon be back in the gym with greater challenges ahead for the 31-year-old.
He said after the fight: "I am going to celebrate tonight with my family and then back to training.
"There is a load of them (possible opponents). I am just building myself and there is still work to be done. I heaped some amount of workload on top of me in this camp and at times I had to take a back step for a couple of days to recover.
"So now that I have built that foundation again, I can sustain the workload and continue."
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