CONOR McGREGOR BELIEVES that Eddie Alvarez has little chance of lasting the distance in their UFC 205 main event in 11 days’ time.
And McGregor says that if Alvarez does manage to make it to the finish line when they clash at Madison Square Garden on 12 November, it’s an experience the reigning lightweight champion will struggle to recover from.
With Alvarez putting his title on the line in New York, McGregor is aiming to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two belts at the same time after putting himself in line for a shot at the strap courtesy of August’s win against Nate Diaz.
McGregor emerged victorious from a gruelling five-round battle with Diaz at UFC 202 in Las Vegas. But in spite of a gritty and resilient display, some observers were criticial of the Irish fighter, insisting that he struggled to handle the demands of a 25-minute contest.
The rematch with Diaz marked McGregor’s first venture into the championship rounds of a fight. Alvarez has been beyond the third round on three occasions in the past, while 15 of McGregor’s 23 professional bouts have ended in the first round.
Nevertheless, in a conversation with UFC commentator John Gooden recently at Straight Blast Gym in Dublin — footage of which was captured by The Mac Life — McGregor showed no signs of concern for his stamina. In fact, the 28-year-old seems adamant that Alvarez won’t be able to live with the pace he’s capable of setting.
“I’m coming alive in the fifth round,” said McGregor. “My body fat is coming down and my VO2 max is going up. We’ve been monitoring this very carefully. I don’t think he’s going to last anywhere near the fifth round. If he does he’ll never fight again. If he does I’ll take my hat off to his heart. But he’ll be like Nate. He’ll never, ever, ever be the same again.
But if he does make it to the fifth, that’s when I take off. I’m sprinting in the fifth. We’re ready.”
After his second-round submission defeat to Diaz in March, McGregor overhauled his approach to preparation. A key player in his new training regime is Dr Julian Dalby, a former Irish cycling champion. McGregor is also planning to make the three-month training programme he used for the Diaz rematch available for fans to follow.
“It’s been phenomenal. All you’ve got to do is look at the results. From the first Diaz fight to the second Diaz fight, it took me three months to get that. It took me three months from not lasting two rounds to out-lasting a triathlete over five rounds who has 30 pounds on me,” McGregor said.
“The work we’re doing, the cardiovascular training that we’re doing with the doc, with the ninjas, with Coach Kavanagh, everything is monitored. Nothing is guesswork. There’s no guesswork here. Everything is true now.”
Put me down for a quarter page
Someone tell mattress mick
“Old Mr Brennan” wont be happy with this development..
It’s just a massive money grab, It’s not even a competitive fight, we already know Mayweather wins. But it really doesn’t matter, Win lose or draw, both fighters will make the ten’s of millions, In Floyd’s case hundreds of millions.
I predict the ‘fight’ itself will be over in less than 10 min. An early and easy KO/TKO win for Mayweather
Look, the fight is what it is! It’s just a money making stunt. I don’t care who wins the fight, I admire two men who can put themselves in the position to make millions in a matter of minutes! It’s bloody brilliant. Fair play to Conor for getting himself to a place where he has the opportunity to do that. Not one person on this page would turn down the opportunity to make that kind of money. It’s win win for them both, I genuinely hope Conor wins, probably won’t happen but anything can happen in a good knock. If he looses who cares, he won’t, he’ll be too busy counting his money to give a toss!
Very bad for boxing ….
@Jah: How? More attention, more newcomers doing their research to familiarise themselves with Mayweather and his previous fights and therefore becoming more interested in the sport in general. It’s a mismatch but everyone already knows that and it’s a huge event for boxing all the same. Even if McGregor somehow won then the public will be satisfied (general feeling is people are rooting for him) so there would be plenty of happy customers in that extremely unlikely scenario.
@Brian: i was hoping my ‘…’ would translate as sarcasm. Alas, I have failed in this endeavour
@Jah: Genuinely. You need to put /sarcasm\.
Now. You wanna scrap on the undercard? We can a pokemom card battle or something.
“pokemom” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
@Jah: ah… very silly of me
@Brian: if people research Mayweather not only will the discover what a great boxer he was but what an incredible low life woman beater he is too.
@Paul O Mahony: jeekers
@Paul O Mahony: you obviously didn’t do your full research either. would never condone such behaviour but context is key. read into actually what happened including from witnesses and you won’t feel the same I guarantee it.
@Brian: hmmm…..he pleaded guilty on a number of occasions in court and done time for one. Would you plead guilty if you didnt do something? I wonder why he was sent to court if he was innocent? He also came to settlement with other women to keep them out of court. Do you really believe he never touched a woman? What context makes it ok to beat a woman in front of your children?
@Paul O Mahony: Brian has his tin hat on
Look, the fight is what it is! It’s just a money making stunt. I don’t care who wins the fight, I admire two men who can put themselves in the position to make millions in a matter of minutes! It’s bloody brilliant. Fair play to Conor for getting himself to a place where he has the opportunity to do that. Not one person on this page would turn down the opportunity to make that kind of money. It’s win win for them both, I genuinely hope Conor wins, probably won’t happen but anything can happen in a good knock. If he looses who cares, he won’t, he’ll be too busy counting his money to give a toss!