BAS RUTTEN RECKONS Conor McGregor can score an early victory over Eddie Alvarez, but the mixed martial arts legend has warned that the balance could be tipped in Alvarez’s favour if the fight enters the championship rounds.

McGregor, who defeated Nate Diaz in August over five rounds in their rematch at UFC 202, has been talking up the improvements he has made to his stamina since his second-round submission defeat to Diaz back in March at UFC 196.

In 10 days’ time, the Dubliner could potentially be in for the second 25-minute outing of his career when he faces UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in New York. A win would see McGregor, the reigning UFC featherweight champion, become the first fighter in history to hold two UFC belts at the same time.

In an interview with Submission Radio, Rutten — who became the first European fighter to win a UFC title back in 1999 — insisted that there was evidence from both fights against Diaz, which were contested at welterweight, to suggest that McGregor’s gas tank may be a chink in his armour.

Eddie Alvarez, that’s a real tough guy. We know what he can do. This is a guy who brings constant pressure, and we saw with McGregor, the first time when he fought Diaz, that constant pressure didn’t work out well for him and he started having stamina problems.

“In the second fight there was a moment — I believe it was in the third round — if Diaz would have pushed at that moment he might have taken that fight, but he didn’t and he allowed McGregor to get his second wind and then McGregor came back and he won the fight. He clearly won the fight. I don’t think it was that Diaz won. I think he [McGregor] really won that fight,” said the Dutch former heavyweight champion.

“Alvarez knows this. Stamina is not a thing that you can build in six months. Of course it has to do with running hills and doing crazy stuff for stamina, but a lot of it is in your head. Once you start doubting yourself in your head, if he gets tired and he starts thinking about the last two times that he got tired, and especially the first time because that’s where he lost, then you start breathing different.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Bas Rutten. Chris Pizzello Chris Pizzello

“You start trying to cover up. You don’t want to show your opponent that you’re tired, so now you don’t breathe through your mouth anymore; you start breathing through your nose. But your breathing pattern gets interrupted and that’s going to make you more tired. You simply have to breathe in and out.”

Rutten added: “There’s a lot of games playing out in the head. The bad voice and the good voice, I always say. McGregor needs to stay away from the bad voice. Then once he gets tired he can still pull it off. He should think about the last fight where he had the second wind, move around, walk away from the fight — literally he did that — take a breath and then come back. It’s not like I’m running away from you, that was perfect. He should always do that.

“Alvarez is not going to give him that space. He will be a guy like Rafael Dos Anjos; he will be on you non-stop. And he knows that will be his gameplan because that’s the way to get McGregor tired.

Once a fighter is tired, you can be any fighter on the planet but you’re probably going to lose.”

Far from believing that McGregor will come up short at Madison Square Garden, however, Rutten says the 28-year-old Irish fighter is capable of stopping Alvarez inside two rounds. His concern for the challenger will kick in if the fight goes beyond the third.

“I think in the first two rounds, if there will be a knockout, I think it’s probably coming from McGregor — that he wins by knockout,” Rutten said. “I’m afraid when he goes into the championship rounds, and Alvarez has been there a bunch of times and he pushes it, that could be trouble for Conor.”

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