Conor McGregor is considered one of the greatest athletes in UFC history. The Irishman is certainly one of the best strikers, who can knock the opponent down in the blink of an eye.
The southpaw was last seen in the octagon against Khabib Nurmagomedov in UFC 229 in October 2018. McGregor submitted to Nurmagomedov’s rear-naked choke followed by a few moments of heat with Nurmagomedov’s teammates after the match.
There was a hiatus in McGregor’s octagon return. After 14 months, Conor McGregor will be seen facing Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the upcoming UFC 246. Here is the list of three strategies McGregor will look to employ in the upcoming match.
Cardio
McGregor was seen struggling with his cardiac endurance during his boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather in 2017 as well as in the UFC match against Khabib Nurmagomedov. His exhaustion was quite evident on the face. He went for a couple more rounds after that. Also, McGregor says has put on five to seven pounds of weight in recent times. In any case, McGregor will have an eye on his fitness and cardio along with his MMA training.
(Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Fighting a grappler
We have witnessed McGregor’s amazing knockout ability during his career but his lack of focus on his grappling skills was quite well observed by his opponents. Khabib Nurmagomedov in the UFC 229 press meet talked about McGregor’s grappling skill.
“Your wrestling is zero. Your grappling is zero. I’m gonna maul you,” Nurmagomedov said.
McGregor will have a watch on his grappling tactics against Cerrone, who is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and 17 of his 36 wins have come from submission. Apart from being well versed with grappling, Cerrone is also a good striker, which has earned him ten wins through knockouts.
Striking
McGregor’s striking ability cannot be matched. This area of strength will be explored by McGregor in his return match where he will be attempting to knockout Cerrone.
Recently, McGregor released a three-minute video of his training where he was seen working on his striking power and balance. He was seen landing accurate punches with proper footwork and balance. McGregor will look forward to striking Cerrone.
Avinash avi
Roar Rookie
Not only in the boxing match but also in the MMA match against Khabib, it was so obvious that Conor was exhausted in the 2nd round itself. Seeing Conor tired gave Khabib a confidence boost for sure which is an added advantage. To the second point, I agree that Cerrone is not that level of a grappler like Khabib but what's mentioned in the article is that he definitely needs to improve his grappling for sure at least in the perspective of his future matches. And yeah, Conor has won the match with Cerrone.
astro
Roar Rookie
Yep agreed on Conor's next fight...He shouldn't get a title shot, although one suspects he might, given how Dana and the UFC let him operate under his own rules. Like, if Khabib wins, I can see them giving Conor a shot in Russia, as the money and hype around a re-match would be massive. And agree on Conor's cardio...Was more making the point in the context of this fight (as did the article) where I don't think Conor's cardio will be an issue.
Davico
Roar Pro
In those fights that went 5 rounds he looked gassed in the 3rd round. And in the second Diaz fight he just ran away for the last round and a half so, yeah I think it is OK to question his cardio! I too think that he will make pretty short work of a hyper active 36 year old who has suffered 2 pretty bad TKO's in his last 2 fights. He may not KO him but I think he will land enough clean punches to get an early stoppage. Even then, I don't see how he deserves another shot at the lightweight title no matter how good he looks against Cowboy. It is clear from his fights against Gaethje and Ferguson that Cowboy is not near the top at LW, so how does Conor beating him at WW mean he deserves a shot. Poirier is vastly improved than the fighter who lost to CM in 2014 and did no worse against Khabib than Mcgregor did. If CM wins then let him fight Poirier or the loser of Khabib and Ferguson to prove that he deserves another shot. I know that is not how the UFC works, but am getting a bit sick of him being handed whatever he wants on a platter. The guy never even defended his belts!
astro
Roar Rookie
Seems a bit silly to question Conor's cardio based on his fight with Mayweather. It was a) a boxing match and not MMA and b) in 2017! Fact is, we've seen Conor go 5 rounds in the UFC before, so not sure if flagging cardio as an issue is fair. Same with grappling. Firstly, Cerrone is not a grappler and not anything like Khabib...Of Cerrone's last 15 fights, only 2 have ended with a submission win. You also don't mentioned Conor's take down defense, which is definitely good enough to keep Cerrone on his feet. Bottom line, Conor should handle Cerrone easily enough. Donald is 36yr old and 4-6 in his last 10 fights. One clean strike should do it for Conor. He just needs to watch Cerrone's kicks, but I'd expect a 2nd round KO for McGregor.
Davico
Roar Pro
Adding the bulk that he has is only going to be detrimental to his cardio. He will be looking to get Cerrone out of there quickly as the longer it goes the worse it is going to be for Conor. I just hope that if he wins he does not get another title shot. Beating a guy at Welterweight who is coming off back to back losses is not worthy of a shot at the Lightweight title when he got mauled by Khabib.