Owen Roddy has made his prediction for Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov.
There was a lot to unpack from Owen Roddy’s interview on the Ariel Helwani MMA Show. What McGregor fans will likely be most interested in is his prediction for UFC 229’s headliner. Unsurprisingly, his prediction is very similar to that of his SBG teammate John Kavanagh.
“Conor lands on the chin and puts him to sleep. I always give his opponent the benefit of the doubt because some people are tough and can take more shots than others, but it’s only a matter of time. If Conor lands in the first, really, it could be done in the first. Once he lands on the chin, you’ll all see it in Khabib’s face. Once he lands, it will be lights out either immediately or shortly after.”
“I’m expecting a KO. Most definitely. Whether it’s in the first or the second, I don;t know. But, I would predict that he’s going to flatten him… I definitely think Conor’s going to land quick enough. It’s just how he deals with being here and how he copes. I’ve seen it many times before. Not many people can take the shots. Very, very few. I don’t think Khabib can take them either.”
“I find it hard to visualise anything else other than Conor knocking him out.” #UFC229 https://t.co/z6qEUuOyLs
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 5, 2018
Only a matter of time
The SBG striking coach sees McGregor as the complete package on the feet. He believes Nurmagomedov has never faced the likes of him before. After all, McGregor isn’t your average knockout artist.
“It’s not only the power, it’s the accuracy, the timing, it’s everything. Khabib has been hit by some powerful people and been rocked, they’re powerful strikers but they’re not as accurate as Conor. They don’t have the timing, they don’t have the speed. Conor has it all. It’s a very, very tough task for anybody to come in there against Conor. I don’t see him lasting.”
“He can be hit. That’s not a mystery. You can see he’s been hit in every one of his fights. That’s not a good thing when you’re going in to fight Conor McGregor. Conor lands once and you’re going to fall asleep.”
A lot of people have criticised Nurmagomedov’s striking in his title win against Al Iaquinta. Some have even suggested he was forced to stand up because he was too tired to secure the takedown in the latter rounds. Roddy isn’t too concerned about the Dagestani’s striking though. He doesn’t expect him to use it too much against McGregor.
“He’s never fought a striker like Conor McGregor and if all those guys can land shots on him, most definitely Conor can land on him. 99% of the time, Conor sleeps people when he lands them. Definitely in the Al Iaquinta fight he kept it standing obviously because he felt there ws no threat coming from Al Iaquinta and he wanted to play around a little bit. He looked kind of amateurish when it comes to the striking but, then again, that’s not what we’re expecting from Khabib this time around. We’re expecting the aggressive wrestler.”
Styles make fights #UFC229 https://t.co/mpD0AeLR3E
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 4, 2018
Negating the mauling
Roddy is no fool. He knows how elite Nurmagomedov is at grappling. However, he is in the process of fine-tuning a gameplan to negate it. Obviously, he didn’t reveal any details, but he seems very confident it will work.
“He poses some threats as well. His grappling is phenomenal. But, everybody has holes in their game. Everybody can be beaten and we definitely think we have the tools to put Khabib away.”
“I have to say Khabib is where he is because it’s not just that he’s a wrestler, that’s his forte and that’s where he’s the best, but he’s good everywhere. It doesn’t matter. I always back Conor. I think he’s just ahead of the game when it comes to his ability. It’s not an easier match than any of them. He poses a very serious threat but, with the right gameplan, he can get in there and get the job done. Definitely.”
You can see the spirit drain from their faces https://t.co/VIJxOzFYXT
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 11, 2018
Emotions
The build-up to this fight has been very heated. We don’t need to mention what happened on UFC 223 media. If you’ve been residing under a rock all year, you can catch up on that situation by watching the UFC 229 promo. That being said, once the cage door slams shut, Roddy believes McGregor will be void of emotion.
“Once Conor gets in the cage, he’s all business. There’s no emotion, no matter whether they’re good or they’re bad emotions, they never come into play once the door closes. He’s shown that time and time again. He’s had build-ups in previous fights and still gone in and been that tactical assassin that he always is. He’ll be the same person in October. No matter what happens in the build-up, the weigh-ins or whatever, he’ll go in, he’ll be cold, he’ll be calculated, he’ll be accurate and he’ll land those shots like he always does.”
McGregor hasn’t had an MMA fight since August 2016. The last time we saw him fight, he was being TKO’d by Floyd Mayweather in the boxing ring. Roddy doesn’t expect any ring rust though. As McGregor says, he stays ready so he doesn’t have to get ready.
“No (concerns about ring rust). Other people are affected by that. Even myself, I would have been very nervous if I hadn’t fought. Conor’s different. When he goes in there, it doesn’t matter if he fought last week or two years ago, he gets in there and he’s just always on point, always focused. He’s just the person that he always is in there. Nothing changes that. The work will be ending outside the Octagon and Conor will still just focus on what he’s doing in the cage. He’s just got an unbelievable ability to overperform in the Octagon.”
