Connor's Coach's Take on Prepping for Khabib

There are a lot of very good wrestlers and sambists from former cis countries that a fighter or coach in Europe running a camp could avail himself on. Granted there is less of a focus on riding or matwork as you might get from a folkstyle wrestler, but the talent is very certainly there.

It's understandable (if not excusable) for a fighter from a place like Britain or France working in the bush leagues to be clueless in hornswaggling, since an 'organic' environment surrounding him with wrestling focused talent would not be there to benefit from. If you are a world class fighter fighting on a world stage though, the only word you could use to describe it is, negligence.
 
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Correct. And as I alluded to in my previous post, I felt Conor did quite well in the first. Compared to a lot of people getting up after the first round vs Khabib, he looked rather fresh.

The big right hand in the second changed everything and as you said, from where on in, panic set in.

He has the skills to get out of bottom, but does he have them against a opponent the quality of Khabib. No one's cracked that yet.
I felt Connor did well early on as well. And that big right hand was absolutely a game changer. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it was a big part of the game plan to drain Connor in rd 1 with wrestling and then eventually sting him good with a big right.

"No one's cracked that yet"

This is the essence of what I love about MMA. Connor DOES have the skills in his toolbox to beat Khabib. His relative size and strength at 155, his kicks to the body, and of course his left hand. He just couldn't put it all together on that night. MMA is just one big game of rock, paper, scissor. As far as cracking Khabib's game, I always felt the best package we have seen to deal with a guy like Khabib would've been prime Jose Aldo. He had the striking to hurt him and do damage, the low kicks to make his wrestling much less effective, the BJJ skills and overall affinity for grappling (including wrestling/cinch skills), AND he was big and strong enough to put some serious horsepower behind it all as opposed to an Edson Barboza type who only has the striking aspect. Thing is, we may not see another prime Aldo for a very long time.
 
I felt Connor did well early on as well. And that big right hand was absolutely a game changer. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it was a big part of the game plan to drain Connor in rd 1 with wrestling and then eventually sting him good with a big right.

"No one's cracked that yet"

This is the essence of what I love about MMA. Connor DOES have the skills in his toolbox to beat Khabib. His relative size and strength at 155, his kicks to the body, and of course his left hand. He just couldn't put it all together on that night. MMA is just one big game of rock, paper, scissor. As far as cracking Khabib's game, I always felt the best package we have seen to deal with a guy like Khabib would've been prime Jose Aldo. He had the striking to hurt him and do damage, the low kicks to make his wrestling much less effective, the BJJ skills and overall affinity for grappling (including wrestling/cinch skills), AND he was big and strong enough to put some serious horsepower behind it all as opposed to an Edson Barboza type who only has the striking aspect. Thing is, we may not see another prime Aldo for a very long time.

Simply do not agree. McGregor does not have the skills in his toolset to beat Khabib. He does not have the takedown defence nor the the high level jiu jitsu game to nullify Khabib.

McGregor will still not have these skills in the rematch either.
 
Simply do not agree. McGregor does not have the skills in his toolset to beat Khabib. He does not have the takedown defence nor the the high level jiu jitsu game to nullify Khabib.

McGregor will still not have these skills in the rematch either.
Its al kinda diffuse, dependent on the scenario, and subjective. Connor may not be able to beat Khabib if he had to rely on TDD and BJJ to do so. But the tools I mentioned? Relative size and strength, kicks to the body, and his left hand. I can absolutely see Connor beating Khabib if he was able to implement these things. Especially early in the 1st or 2nd exchange. Its all a matter of each guys approach to the fight, who can execute best on that night, and a bunch of other factors.
 
Its al kinda diffuse, dependent on the scenario, and subjective. Connor may not be able to beat Khabib if he had to rely on TDD and BJJ to do so. But the tools I mentioned? Relative size and strength, kicks to the body, and his left hand. I can absolutely see Connor beating Khabib if he was able to implement these things. Especially early in the 1st or 2nd exchange. Its all a matter of each guys approach to the fight, who can execute best on that night, and a bunch of other factors.
I agree with this, however if there is a rematch the smart money goes on khabib. There was a big disparity in the ability to execute their game plans the other night. The stars really would have to align for Connor to win.
 
Its al kinda diffuse, dependent on the scenario, and subjective. Connor may not be able to beat Khabib if he had to rely on TDD and BJJ to do so. But the tools I mentioned? Relative size and strength, kicks to the body, and his left hand. I can absolutely see Connor beating Khabib if he was able to implement these things. Especially early in the 1st or 2nd exchange. Its all a matter of each guys approach to the fight, who can execute best on that night, and a bunch of other factors.

McGregor was getting taken down at will. Unless he can magically avoid that, or land before the very first takedown which is low percentage probability, he's going to lose badly again.
 
I felt Connor did well early on as well. And that big right hand was absolutely a game changer. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it was a big part of the game plan to drain Connor in rd 1 with wrestling and then eventually sting him good with a big right.

"No one's cracked that yet"

This is the essence of what I love about MMA. Connor DOES have the skills in his toolbox to beat Khabib. His relative size and strength at 155, his kicks to the body, and of course his left hand. He just couldn't put it all together on that night. MMA is just one big game of rock, paper, scissor. As far as cracking Khabib's game, I always felt the best package we have seen to deal with a guy like Khabib would've been prime Jose Aldo. He had the striking to hurt him and do damage, the low kicks to make his wrestling much less effective, the BJJ skills and overall affinity for grappling (including wrestling/cinch skills), AND he was big and strong enough to put some serious horsepower behind it all as opposed to an Edson Barboza type who only has the striking aspect. Thing is, we may not see another prime Aldo for a very long time.

Which one was prime Aldo? The Faber fight? Things I noticed about Jose through some fights, he never threw the much vaunted leg kicks in some fights when I thought there was no threat of the counter. I don't know if he would've had the gas tank to counter the clinch of Khabib. I'd like to think that Khabib would be able to get close enough at least once or twice. Even before Holloway, Jose faded against the likes of Hominick.

FWIW, I felt his best performances off the top of my head were Edgar 2 and Faber.
 
Which one was prime Aldo? The Faber fight? Things I noticed about Jose through some fights, he never threw the much vaunted leg kicks in some fights when I thought there was no threat of the counter. I don't know if he would've had the gas tank to counter the clinch of Khabib. I'd like to think that Khabib would be able to get close enough at least once or twice. Even before Holloway, Jose faded against the likes of Hominick.

FWIW, I felt his best performances off the top of my head were Edgar 2 and Faber.
I'm really just referring to 2009-2010 Aldo. Mostly the Mike Brown fight bc I held that Brown in high regard and Aldo was clearly superior. Right around the Faber fight.
 
Taking everything into context, what we know about the preparation of his past fights and his attitude, I think Conor just doesn't like to train with guys that can kick his ass. Kavanaugh is simply talking around that issue. It's just an educated guess, of course.

I don't think that's true at all. He showed great defense on the ground in the first round, Khabib wasn't able to get anything going against him in terms of actually doing damage once he had taken him down. He was doing all the right things. Conor's big problem is he just fatigues really quickly. He was trying to do some of the same things in the second round and just couldn't, and ended up taking a lot of punishment which meant that when Khabib chose to trade on the feet in the third he had no pop on his shots and his timing had gone to shit because he was so tired. Conventional wisdom was that Conor had to hurt him early, or else he would get ground out due to his ineffectiveness in the late rounds and I think that's exactly what happened.

I have to say it's hard to gauge how 'well' he really did, considering the amount of cheating he was allowed to pull off. As far as I can remember, the only time Herb intervened physically to break an illegal grab, that was in the first round, Khabib passed guard immediately after being stalled.
 
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Conor leverages his belief that he can win as maximally as possible. When you take that approach belief takes a high priority towards your performance. The fight game is very much a mental game. Conor uses this mental edge to a higher degree than other fighters. I would argue he takes this to a magical and unrealistic level.

This belief based approach may possibly concede that the other fighter is better but nevertheless sees that 1 out of 10 possibility of winning as inevitable. Conor specializes, or tries too, in the exceptional, the unlikely and the possible.

If Conor brings in extremely high level wrestlers daily in a training camp his ability to believe he can win would be completely eradicated through the fact of him being dominated on a day to day basis in camp. Sure Conor will get the upper hand a few times over a very high level guy in camp but that is not going to increase his belief in the possibility of winning.

Conor focuses on the possible, not the probable. If he brought in super high level guys the probable would outweigh the possible leading to less confidence.
 
There are a lot of very good wrestlers and sambists from former cis countries that a fighter or coach in Europe running a camp could avail himself on. Granted there is less of a focus on riding or matwork as you might get from a folkstyle wrestler, but the talent is very certainly there.

It's understandable (if not excusable) for a fighter from a place like Britain or France working in the bush leagues to be clueless in hornswaggling, since an 'organic' environment surrounding him with wrestling focused talent would not be there to benefit from. If you are a world class fighter fighting on a world stage though, the only word you could use to describe it is, negligence.
I thought you might be interested to know that France has been elevating their wresting program quite a bit in the last 2-3 Olympic cycles. Especially in Greco where they've had a few world/Olympic medals and even an Olympic gold medalist in Steeve Guenot. They have a few freestyle studs as well now. Not that a Greco or freestyle wrestler is going t be well-versed in riding but they do have skills on the mat to some extent.

This is something I have always watched out for; how do the skills that Olympic style wrestlers possess on the mat translate to controlling an opponent from on top in MMA? My thinking is if you can pin your opponent, if you can gutwrench your opponent, if you can turn your opponent from the front headlock, then you can probably use those skills and that strength to dominate an opponent from on top in MMA. Especially Greco guys who are known to be exceptionally strong in these situations. Its not as direct a transfer as a folkstyler would experience but Im guessing that if one of these foreign Greco guys coming into MMA wanted to dominate from on top im sure they could.
 
I thought you might be interested to know that France has been elevating their wresting program quite a bit in the last 2-3 Olympic cycles. Especially in Greco where they've had a few world/Olympic medals and even an Olympic gold medalist in Steeve Guenot. They have a few freestyle studs as well now. Not that a Greco or freestyle wrestler is going t be well-versed in riding but they do have skills on the mat to some extent.

This is something I have always watched out for; how do the skills that Olympic style wrestlers possess on the mat translate to controlling an opponent from on top in MMA? My thinking is if you can pin your opponent, if you can gutwrench your opponent, if you can turn your opponent from the front headlock, then you can probably use those skills and that strength to dominate an opponent from on top in MMA. Especially Greco guys who are known to be exceptionally strong in these situations. Its not as direct a transfer as a folkstyler would experience but Im guessing that if one of these foreign Greco guys coming into MMA wanted to dominate from on top im sure they could.
They’ve imported in some tough wrestlers but how tough is their program of French kids
 
I thought you might be interested to know that France has been elevating their wresting program quite a bit in the last 2-3 Olympic cycles. Especially in Greco where they've had a few world/Olympic medals and even an Olympic gold medalist in Steeve Guenot. They have a few freestyle studs as well now. Not that a Greco or freestyle wrestler is going t be well-versed in riding but they do have skills on the mat to some extent.

This is something I have always watched out for; how do the skills that Olympic style wrestlers possess on the mat translate to controlling an opponent from on top in MMA? My thinking is if you can pin your opponent, if you can gutwrench your opponent, if you can turn your opponent from the front headlock, then you can probably use those skills and that strength to dominate an opponent from on top in MMA. Especially Greco guys who are known to be exceptionally strong in these situations. Its not as direct a transfer as a folkstyler would experience but Im guessing that if one of these foreign Greco guys coming into MMA wanted to dominate from on top im sure they could.

That's partially true, but I'm not sure anything from the international styles replaces the years of riding and (crucially) preventing people from standing to escape that folkstyle provides. Khabib actually has a weird skill set insofar as he's not an American folk wrestler yet he uses the rides and mat returns of folk to control people while doing damage better than maybe anyone ever.
 
That's partially true, but I'm not sure anything from the international styles replaces the years of riding and (crucially) preventing people from standing to escape that folkstyle provides. Khabib actually has a weird skill set insofar as he's not an American folk wrestler yet he uses the rides and mat returns of folk to control people while doing damage better than maybe anyone ever.
I was actually inspired to start a thread about this very point. I agree, and when you have so much other grappling skill other than freestyle wrestling you will most certainly have a vast skillset. Plus, DC. Cain, etc has probably taught him a lot of folkstyle.
 
Conor shouldn't bother with groundwork and focus on the fact that he got about zero effective strikes standing. Everyone is focused on ground but remember a UFC title match has 5 ROUNDS. Conor already did a good enough job limiting damage from GNP. He won't win by boosting his weak spots. His strengths didn't even come into play yet! He needs to improve takedown defense to make the round standing as long as possible, and figure out how to get good strikes in. If he gets in a bad spot then the bell would restart him. Do it 5 rounds dealing more damage and the judges will have to call it for Conor.
 
He won't win by boosting his weak spots.

He needs to improve takedown defense

Pssst - TD defense IS one of his weak spots ... lol

Honestly, what I don't get (at all) was Kavanuagh's stated game plan. I only listed to the podcast once, so maybe I misheard or misunderstood, but he almost made it sound like even he thought Conor was probably going to lose. At different times he said things like "The plan was try not to get taken down. If we get taken down, try to sit up against the fence. If our back is to the mat just get to guard and accept that it will be a 10-9 round and the next one starts on the feet". WTF. So if your guy gets taken down at any point in time, your plan is to concede the round? Obviously it's not realistic to think he could match Khabib's grappling in that time period, but damn, that's BLEAK.

At another point he said something like "If we didn't waste too much energy trying to stand up, we thought maybe we could get Khabib into the 4th/5th rounds where he would be tired". SO the next strategy (after simply giving up) was to push the fight to a place where your guy is renowned for also having huge gas tan k issues!? Again, I don't get it.

Then he said at another point "We basically felt like either Conor knocks him out in 1, or we drop the decision to Khabib", but freely admitted (much to his credit) that he made Conor too defensive. Obviously, Khabib was always going ot be an uphill battle, and Conor is the one who actually has to go in and win the fight but damn, that just seems like awful game planning to me.
 
Okay you are right TD defense is a weak spot, but I was thinking more generally like trying to learn a ground grappling game. Their plan wasn't bad except they just assumed that Conor would get some strikes in, but he did not and even took some. They have to figure out how to strike a grappler, and it's probably not with Conor standing straight up while sticking his hand at the guy's eyes. That might annoy another striker but not someone who's happy to close the distance.
 
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