‘Conor McGregor Is Good, Just Not As Good He Thinks’
UFC megastar Conor McGregor is scheduled to fight Jose Aldo at UFC 194 for the featherweight title in the main event. No doubt this will be one of the biggest fights in UFC history, but after Aldo had pulled out of UFC 189, which was their original fight, this fight doesn’t have the same amount of buzz going into it as they did for their UFC 189 fight. Heck, the UFC gave away a cool one million bucks to promote their fight at UFC 189. In the end, McGregor talked up the fight and Aldo pulled out with an injury. Shame. The UFC booked McGregor on the same card in the main event, but against Chad Mendes, which in turn saw McGregor win by second-round TKO to become the UFC interim featherweight champion. Nice achievement young lad.
Ever since then McGregor has called himself the “real champion” when speaking about his arch rival Aldo and will have to prove that when the two are set to meet at UFC 194. Awesome fight right?
McGregor has not only stated in interviews that he is better than Aldo but than anyone else in the division. A strong statement to say the least. McGregor is good, but is he really that good? Is he better than Aldo?
That’s an opinionated thing to say, ‘one fighter is the better than another’. McGregor wants to be a technical fighter, it’s pretty obvious by looking at the way he trains and fights, but he’s not. Sorry dude. The best example of that was at UFC 189 against Mendes. McGregor was taken down by Mendes and was dominated in the first round. It almost seemed as if he was going to be upsetted by the underdog in Mendes in what McGregor was calling “his event.” After surviving that, McGregor would go on to keeping the fight on the feet, which he dominated. However, McGregor is a guy who wants to be technical, but, in fact, he’s a brawler, a Dublin brawler. That would be a catchy nickname.
When McGregor is punched at by his opponent he panics and starts throwing for the fences. He cannot do that in his fight with Aldo because he will be picked apart. Give Aldo credit where its due. He’s one of the best in the UFC and world for that matter. His track record shows that. A guy that cannot be taken down. He picks his shots when he wants to and makes his opponent freeze and then he finishes them. Bottom line.
By looking at the stats of each fighter (UFC.com), McGregor lands 5.44 punches per minute while Aldo only lands 3.29 and McGregor is slightly more of an accurate fighter with his punches landed 44% of the time compared to Aldo’s with 43%. However, it comes back to being the more technical fighter. Aldo only takes 1.94 punches per minute while McGregor eats 3.01 punches. Also, Aldo has a better defensive stand up game as he blocks 72% of strikes compared to McGregor’s 64.22%.
When it comes to the ground game, Aldo has a takedown accuracy of 72% while McGregor has 83%, but Aldo’s takedown defense is 91% compared to McGregor’s 66%. Meaning that McGregor is easily taken down, which is what Mendes showed in their fight.
By looking at styles, techniques, and stats, Conor McGregor is not as good as he thinks he is.
UFC 194 takes place on December 12th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
