Conor McGregor will look to make history at UFC 205 when he goes up against lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez to try and be the first ever to hold two UFC belts at the same time. His striking coach Owen Roddy spoke about how he believes the highly anticipated bout will play out, and much like his pupil, he exudes confidence.
“No disrespect to Alvarez, he is a great fighter and stuff, but he does move similar to a lot of people that Conor has fought,” Roddy told Submission Radio. “And even when Conor’s fought strikers, they all become that type of fighter. When Conor lands, you become a panicked wrestler, and that’s what’s going to happen.”
“Conor’s very clean, and when it comes to a couple of exchanges, Alvarez is going to feel the difference in accuracy and the difference in power and he will start to wrestle and that’s what they all do.”
“Conor’s fought the same type of person all his career,” he said. “Alvarez is a great wrestler, so there will be things we’ll be working on with Conor to make sure that Alvarez can’t keep a hold of him, can’t keep him against the fence, but Conor’s gonna land and I think it’s going to be a matter of time before Alvarez goes to sleep to be totally honest.”
McGregor’s camp believes that they’ve seen and competed against multiple boxer-wrestler types, and they’ll just be tweaking a few things that worked before in order to prepare for Alvarez.
“Conor’s just been training the way he always does, but now will be the six weeks out, now would be specific to Alvarez,” Roddy said. “He kind of fights very similar in the regards that he’s a grinder, he swings for the fences, he comes in, he looks to make a dirty fight and Conor’s fought people like that before. So it’s just trying to, from my point of view, it’s just trying to put some shots in there that we think are gonna land, try and walk Alvarez into the shots we want him to walk into, and then obviously avoid the clinches as often as we can and getting off and landing those shots.”
As for his prediction, Roddy thinks McGregor ends it within the first two rounds.
“I honestly never really change my prediction because I see what Conor does day in, day out in the gym,” he said. “I see how clean his striking is and I see how powerful he is. So I always give them the first, the second round. Late in the first, cause Conor needs to work out what the shots are and when the shots are going to be available and when to put them into play. But once he lands, it’s a slippery slope.”
“Once he lands clean, then it’s a countdown. How long can the guy stay in there or how lucky can they be to get a hold of him and stall the clock?” he said. “And I honestly think Alvarez has been dropped a few times, so that’s not good knowing when you’re going in to fight Conor McGregor. If you’ve been dropped before and you’re going in fighting Conor McGregor, there’s a very, very high chance that you’re going to be dropped again.”
UFC 205 happens on November 12, and you can check out one of the most stacked cards in the promotion’s history here.
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