UFC 246: Inside the Octagon - McGregor vs Cowboy

UFC begins a new decade with the highly anticipated return of the notorious Conor McGregor, who takes on UFC superstar Cowboy Donald Cerrone at UFC 246. The Octagon welcomes McGregor back after a 15-month hiatus . The former two-division champion looks to prove once again why he is the biggest draw in the game, however, this isn't the Cowboys' first rodeo under the bright lights, a relentless competitor where they never say die. Cerrone boasts an unrivaled UFC finishing record and knows he has the firepower to defeat Irish Cardinal Gregor. fans can expect fireworks as we kick off 2020 with an almighty bang hello and welcome to the UFC inside the

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we're back for a new decade John Gooden Dan Hardy Connors the comeback

cowboy

Cerrone never left Dan it's a fight huge to start this year in 2020, how exciting, I think the big story here is the fact that the biggest name in mixed martial arts, one of the biggest names in sports, is back to work, yeah, it is and directly confronts the veteran and the

cowboy

, as well as someone who can.

It really challenges his game in a lot of different ways and what we expect from Conor is always an aggressive, flamboyant start, you know, big powerful left hands and all that kind of stuff, but it's the way he does the training, the guy responds. That's what really is the best. The most fascinating thing that we've seen from the cowboy throughout his career is that we've seen great knockouts, we've seen great submissions and he's also one of those guys that has a full set of skills at every range and it just depends on which one. The kind of skill set is polished and put on the table for that fight and also how he views McGregor and what he expects from Aggregor and how his skill set interacts with that because I would say that of the two, the Cowboys, the Who has the options, yeah, oh no, we know what he's going to do, Cowboys, who has to fit his pieces around Conor to deal with that.

Okay, I'm very excited about your analysis, but we need to start with the facts and statistics. Of the things here that I think we should consider, we know that the Cowboys later in his career, but he remains so young that even number 36 counts, but the most interesting thing is that he is the biggest man, everyone gives up a handicap of scope, I guess. Again, to his credit, I mean, it's strange that Conor always seems to have a reach advantage over his opponents, but again we've talked about it before that it's a physical issue. You know, you look at the cowboy, he's very straight and has long arms. but tight, narrow shoulders, well, the last time you caught someone with a fish finger doing that cowboy fish finger, he just got those kind of straight narrow body words, if you look at McGregor, he's got that Dragon shape Bruce Lee Cobra extended. he keeps going and that adds reach to his arms so you know he'll be able to get to the cowboy.

He has long arms and uses that reach very, very well. The disadvantage, obviously, with the cowboy a little bit taller, will be that he will try to get away from no. shots a little bit back, but I think that works in McGregor's favor, the height of the jeans plus the length of his legs, in my opinion, is a big key because obviously all the statistics we have are the ones that stand out. I, yes, seven fell kicks, I mean, it's an easy secret weapon in this fight, yes, I saw the wonderful documentary series that the Cowboys team has put together and, in my opinion, their head coach has things that such Maybe they oversimplify to the point that Conor McGregor has a great left hand. and a first round, yes, it's an oversimplification in your eyes too and you know how, so this fight starts to look like in the first few moments, it's absolutely an oversimplification, but I think the coaches that said no, I think what a cowboy Hearing that, he would know and I think Connor would dismiss him if he heard that about him.

There is much more in his left hand. Yes, he has a main technique. His entire game is built around her, but the game that surrounds him is left. The hand is good enough to make sure that the left hand lands consistently in the fights against Brandão against Poirier against Mendes he is the aggressive fighter who is pushing people against the fence that is what I expect from him in this fight the reason for This is because one thing we cannot guarantee with the Cowboys, who are off to a slow start. You know they have some good first rounds, but generally they are under pressure in the first round and Connors is great at getting people to the fence and the way he does it there. just take a quick look at this footwork because most south legs, let's use this position as an example, most south legs, where are we, where is Connors, so there is Connors dangerous weapon, there There's Connors' left hand, just the only one, well, if you?

If you are a southpaw fighter, you want your opponent to move into that punch because that surrounds them on power punches. It's a common sense thing to do what we see Connor do, which is different if we see him forcing people away, we want to see him forcing. Brandão along the fence here as he tries to land that left hand and I think there's a good reason for that, but it's worth noting that it's an unorthodox way of applying the technique; the way to close the distance is by kicking so he has the body kick and the spin kick we see the spin kick here when Brandon tries to get a little too far away it just slows him down and forces him back into the fence but still Connors forces him away from his left hand as he punches him, this is why, so check this out as you have Brand backed up against the fence here still punching to the right side away from his left power punch as the / As the knockout punch lands, the takedown punch lands, it's important to know where Connors' foot is against the fence, this is why, in my opinion, he throws the punch this way.

Look at the type of posture. Look how close he is. Most Southern paws would want to be at this angle, forcing you into the fence, trying to get you to go that direction to move. towards the power hand, but Connors punches so far out of reach that his toes are on top, his big toes are actually dead underneath, there's no grip on that foot at all, so as he throws that punch with all his power over the top, back foot drags and because he over extends it look at that back foot drag drags bags into the fence hits Stubby's toe on the fence look at his angle I mean I know he hit it and it hurt him now, but it's still an unusual position, my theory is the reason he does this is because it knocks his left hand down.

He likes to have the fence on this side, so people circle around to that vulnerable side. He always hits them in the direction he moves them, which for boxing doesn't really make much sense. but for mixed martial arts we are still trying to understand the angles of the

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in a boxing ring, you will be stuck in a 90 degree corner, here you have 135 degrees so there is more room to breathe, this is his last fight against Habiba , as you can see, the first blow you threw could be circular, just cut in a straight line, control the flavor of the center of the ox again, we talked about it with DC, that grinding cycle that he puts people on, this is the Conor cycle. the cycle where he forces people until he makes them vulnerable to the left hand everything he does yes, he has a big left hand, that's the main thing, but everything he does in his game supports that they are all complementary techniques, yeah, so let him land those kind of pyramids with his left hand exactly on that big base, a wide base technique was a key technique at the time, so an aggressive Conor McGregor came for him in the first few opening exchanges and , like you said before, cowboy, maybe a little more tip.

Shy at first, typically, how does he respond? I think the cowboy smothers him and I think we've seen this in previous fights, particularly at welterweight. Something that has become very good for dealing with bigger, more powerful fighters is that instead of backing away and trying to find them. space in an octagon, which is very difficult to do with Conor, he meets them, fire blanket, that power, get as close to him as possible, secure them, force them to tie up, try to get the takedown, so think about the benefits of this if he is forcing Conor to do it.

In fighting we know that we have seen that type of fatigue in previous fights. The Cowboy will lean on that so even if he doesn't succeed with the takedown I think he can find himself in the clinch but it's time because the thing with The Cowboy again is experience and this is his UFC debut the reason why I did this because people have always underestimated his ground game, yes, in his first fight in the UFC, he got caught by some powerful shots against Paul Kelly, took him down and got the submission at the right time. of these takedowns is really what the key is because you can't imagine that Conor McGregor is going to be aggressive, he's going to throw over the top, which if the cowboy gets it right at the right time, it's anything else, a change of level below that and also the way that cowboy gets his takedowns.

I'm going to break them down. The way the cowboy gets takedowns out of him is pretty consistent and is pretty useful when you're fighting southpaw, so here we are against Rick's story. Now Rick's story is really going to move forward and he's going to become an orthodox fighter with the punch he throws, but the techniques remain the same. The cowboy reaches for the far leg and puts his head on the same side, which I don't know. Many of the fighters who do that generally go the opposite way. The benefit of this is that it allows the cowboy to put all of his body weight on his opponent, so what is this?

When he comes in here, this is his position, that's the position he wants, he's fine, he has one hand on his hip and heads. the other side so you're pinching the hips here controlling the hips one side with your arm one side with your head but your main focus is this arm here as a trip exactly that's a barrier for that leg once you've got it wrapped it keeps it nice and tight against him and then he forces them through and the benefit of having this as a high elbow look how high that elbow is, he can drive them into that base but take that base away at the same time so he collapses on top of him and Patrick Cote Charles Oliveira II hit them with that takedown and immediately took down the stories, a good fighter as we know him, the story tries to get out of this and the cowboy does a great job controlling him. on that leg, look how he's raising that leg and history knows what happened, he's trying to defend this, he's put his arm up, he's trying to stay upright and he's still getting run over and there's the camera angle changes , you'll see exactly what I do.

I'm talking about because the position we go in, cowboy, cowboys have several different controls in this position, the first control you have is this hand here, the main one, you're pulling up with this hand removing that base, you're also pulling in with this hand he stays close to his opponent's body so that he has two hooks on the side of his body that pull him towards his opponent, but he also has his body weight coming down towards his opponent, so he has his chest, shoulders and head position, everything is leading towards your opponent. so he's taking the base of the waist, collapsing it down and driving it over the base that he's removing, it's a really good technique and what you'll see is the cowboy reaching that far side tends to defend that leg very well, but if the cowboy may get close enough to start running him over, I think that will cause some problems and again like I said the takedown might not necessarily be the goal, could the grappling work on the grappling could be the goal, but if the cowboy take it to the ground?

We know the Cowboys are very dangerous and in his fight against Hernandez we saw him adapted slightly, these are really good steps in a wrap, the near leg trips the outside leg, but the same principle that still propels him down on that basis It didn't need to be removed. leg this time because they were already, you know, in the seat of their pants, but the technique is still the same, a lot of the things we've seen done in the past in their takedown defense will be applicable to that, but it will still put the cowboy into a position where he can exploit him.

I think it's okay, so with the cowboy and the takedown of him, if he's successful, we've seen numerous performances throughout his curriculum. Vitesse. I'm sure you'll show us a couple of how they do it. finish, yes, and what we have seen from him at welterweight is a certain variety in his submissions, plus, Charles Oliveira's triangle was beautiful. Look at this check, he comes over, reaches out with his left leg and drinks directly towards his back. A really nice job and a A quick hit must have also been a big squeeze when being ofback, he achieves a submission against Mike Perry and almost avoids the blow with a hook to the leg, he was not fast enough, but this is the technique that kana has. we have to be careful because we know he's vulnerable to it when he gets tired when he shoots takedown when you shot a takedown on Nate you got caught in a renegade choke obviously there could be a fight too Cowboys but great rear naked choke great for softening people up it's very good for hurting people and then jumping on a rear naked choke too so it's not even like he has one route to do this he has several different routes to land the rear naked choke and I feel like if he forces Connor down to the floor Connors will eventually turn his back on you like you did against Khabib because he will try to get up.

Great scrambles, yes scrambles will force him back to his feet and that's really where the Cowboys and I take the back so we made a bet on that underrated running game cowboy. Can we say that Connor is not? a bad fighter, he is not a bad fighter and we have seen a lot of evidence of this now yes, he has a great left hand and many other great swords to hit, but I think we have to start giving them some recognition. for his ability to fight, yes, I agree, I do, he is a good fighter and then the times we have seen him on the ground, the little flashes that we have seen are very smooth movements, very skilled, it is always the same when You have one thing that stands out about your game and that is so strong that everyone compares every other part of your game to that thing, so every part of Conor McGregor's game is not comparable to his left hand because it is very effective , but that doesn't rule it out. how effective is it, yes the run game is less run game in this fight, more takedown defense.

I would say I think the Cowboys will try to stifle him. I think the Cowboys will try to finish him off. Connor does an excellent job against the clinch, moving his hips away from him. Good head position. hand position hand fight wrist fight all that kind of stuff great fight great takedown defense we saw the same thing against Khabib, besides the strength he was showing, the balance and stability was shown when he was taken down, check this out , I mean This is a really good job, it was just kind of invalidated because the technology with which the takedown was finally finished, sure, but no one was defending the takedowns, it could be blood, a takedown like heavy because no one is, no one It is and this is strong. look at this, look how strong this position is in this, it still doesn't touch the floor, still the shorts don't touch the floor at all, that's good strong positioning and you have to think that he did how much for the fight with Habib, even if en I haven't done any fighting for this fight, mind you, everything is still in the bank and I feel like I feel like that's going to be happening.

I feel like if the cowboy's shots on takedowns will be negated, especially the first one, you know, after he's defended a couple. you become easier to defend, then the cowboy starts to intervene in the clinch like we saw him do against Robbie Lawler. I know there are so many. This is the thing about the Cowboys game, like you, you, you, you just stop a problem and he gives you two or three orders to deal with and that's where I'm really excited to see how he deals with someone like the cowboy because there are so many different things that the cowboy can throw in massive fights, so a lot more analysis is coming, don't go anywhere, welcome.

He's back, so Dan gives us a quick rundown of this big UFC 246 main card, okay, being the fighter we know, he's going to be aggressive, he's going to come out and try to take the middle cowboy, being a slow starter, I think it reinforces. that decision, so we're going to push him back, you're going to try to start landing that left hand and that's going to keep him in position with the techniques that he uses, the body kicks, the roundhouse kicks and then the shorter range strikes, but it's all about to land. That left hand I'm forcing someone away from it, so the cowboy is under pressure, it will start the level change and it will start to work.

Takedowns and submissions if he reaches the ground. We know the Cowboys had great submissions, but Connor also has great takedown defense, yes. good fight good ability to get back to your feet so that's where we meet in the clinch and this is where the cowboy does his good work yeah well let's talk about that since you're alluding to maybe it's not over the fight. with the submission he's still in that mid range and we've seen that the cowboy has a lot of weapons, if that takedown doesn't work he can go back to striking it, yeah and sometimes we've even seen him step on it to like it .

It's like a lazy takedown just so he can get to the clinch, right? I wouldn't even be surprised if we saw some of that beautiful clinch work that you could parry, but again it's more to quell the easy attack than any aggressive, powerful punch he's attempting. To take your mind off it, the same here with Hernandez, so much garbage was taught that is included in this one. Hernandez really stacked the odds against him, but the cowboy did a great job securing him, working these on the body, working with elbows and hitting him. he will also work McGregor's body, it will be helpful if there are questions about his cardio, that will be something the cowboy can work on and although the things he did against Robbie Lawler, in my opinion, are probably the best tightening job he did because he was chaining things together, it was nice, it was elbows and then he started adding kicks at the end and the high kicks are where I see him causing the biggest problems for McGregor because Cohn is great in the clinch, his good hand fights. he's got good control when he comes out, he's got this nice kind of stylized step where he's got his chin up and down, but his head up, yeah, the two traditional cow poses I'm Conor McGregor, if you think cowboys push him up forward in that clinch and then just throw that high kick even if it lands on the guard, you know, eventually they move the Alex Hernandez one, it landed in the outfield and took him down, yeah there's power in those kicks and I think making the most of that gap in Conor.

McGregor's game where we don't see him taking advantage of long-range clinch breaks. I think the cowboy can do some damage. Let's go back to a couple of points we were making and respond, Mr. Oneis, coach, he's just a left hand man. and the other one shows us why it's so much more than that and some of the other weapons we've seen from McGregor, well if it's just the left hand then you'd have to think about other techniques, there's nothing else. to think about, but it's not just a left hand, it's strategic in the way that it takes someone down, touches the body, works the body, hits the body, touches, it just constantly gives people other things to think about, What you know about yourself when you aim is whether you can achieve it.

Caught with a couple of body shots The next time you see someone move your instinct is to cover your body which then opens the left hand to the lead cowboy, we know his body weakness has been punished in the past. The Cowboys had a scar right on his abdomen, he had abdominal surgery after the accident he had and there has been a weakness in his body and I think Connor is smart enough to be able to do it right. I can exploit that weakness in the body. to start opening up the head, the headshots and I mean, even if even in the Kirby fight they throw these power shots to the midsection and I might even recognize it if you start adding that you know Teddy, this is because because there is water in the basement.

I think it is a very nice phrase. You say money in the bank. Teddy Atlas. Water in the basement. I'm holding this guy back. mm-hmm. Connor would say that he would know that cowboy can fight hard for five rounds because of this experience that he has. He knows how to rest, he also knows where to find opportunities to pressure him, so if he can get some of that out of that, tank work on the body and I'm not saying that cowboy won't do the same to Connor. because if I'm a cowboy, I'm doing the same thing, but this is definitely a vulnerability for Connor, if there's a cowboy there that Connor can exploit, let's go back to cowboy and he has the record for the number of knockouts resulting from kicks to the head , show us. something like that, yeah, well, this for me, this is my favorite cowboy playlist that we've ever created and the reason why it's so good is because it has variety and the same thing that you always expect from a cowboy, if it's making really gross jokes.

He has five or six different entries in the rear, naked choke, same with the kick and the beautiful thing about the kick is that he is disguised by the way he throws it, but he is also disguised by the techniques that he throw before. a work of art technique, look every inch lands in all three configurations, the head kick, but the punches move his opponent to the head kick, everything he did in that scenario, from head to body, To make a hook, the heads move in the direction. From the right kick to the head that he is going to throw, each of these techniques is the same, even if the blow does not land, he throws something that generates a reaction that forces the opponents to go towards his foot, it is kind of cruel, but works very well, what is this?

This is Matt Brown, he's not going to turn the lead hand and you can see Matt Brown react. Now we have two reactions to that Brown here because he's also expecting the body kick because the Cowboys landed some bodies. kicks in this fight Matt Brown is weak to the body, you know, these patterns persist throughout, so look at the Cowboys, sorry, we're seeing the Cowboys lead the hand, we're seeing these jabs, there's no intention of throwing it, he just throws it, but what's the reaction he gets when the punch comes out with no intention of landing on him?

He gets the reaction and his head is still open both times. This is consistent throughout the Cowboys' career. Beautiful work here. Same with Matt Brown. Look from the other angle, this is really nice, then Matt Brown steps in with a body shot and you can see the Cowboys throw a count to hit the head, so he lowers his head into the kick again, passes out with hands. do half the work for him, I wouldn't say he's the most flexible of the fighters in the car, but the way he throws this kick is up, almost like he's throwing a knee and extending it a little bit like Robert Whitaker, here It's where Khan has I have to pay attention because he likes to have that wide guard, but he also likes to move his head on the center line when he puts his hands down, he's moving his head if the cowboy starts to pull those techniques and Connors leans in a side to side.

The next one to escape that blow, a kick, will follow. Cowboys don't throw punches to land punches, he throws them to prepare his head for the kick. Let's watch as Connor for a second said he only had a half-shot. camp against Habib, it was not, he did not respect the training and his coaches, maybe you listen to his words, not mine, and now we have heard his coaches say: the best camp of all time, the best we have ever seen , is happy, etc. etc., which as a mixed martial arts fan, that excites me, bringing about a change after a loss is always a good thing if you kept things the same as they were in Khabib's training camp.

I'd be more worried because it didn't work out, I mean. I know he's fighting a very different opponent, but I still like to see fighters try to make changes even after a win, so it doesn't surprise me since Conor, as a student of the game, would be trying to find ways to improve, You know, reaching out to coaches and stuff for help and trying to figure out how we can best equip ourselves for his return, but at the same time it's the rhetoric you'd expect from someone who's lost their way. It wasn't a great training camp, but this training camp has been the best, oh, okay, right, and he loses to the cowboy, we could go, we might hear you, but this training camp wasn't great, but the next one will be the best of all time.

Part of me dismisses some of that because I know those are the things you should say, but at the same time I think Connors is honest enough as he was when he lost Nate Diaz. You know, that was one of the most impressive things about his entire career to me. After the fight interview, he was very matter-of-fact about it, yes, and I think he has mental clarity at least with the people around him who are honest enough with him to keep him grounded, yes, this It's what you need. what to do, yeah, maybe you didn't because there might be fight in the future this year, the challenges will only be bigger, you know the Kabiri match won't be easier than the first fight, so they have to stop putting those Things are in place and I feel like this will be the McGregor we've seen because of Khabib's loss, yeah, and I'm more invested in what he says because of what you said, the way he handled his losses in thepast.

I don't think there's any reason to cheat or lie and no, I think that's why we should definitely be excited. It was more exciting this whole blockbuster main event. I can not wait. Thank you very much for your thoughts. Keep the conversation going using the hash tag inside the Octagon suite at UFC Europe thanks so much for watching, we'll be back on the next PPV