Daniel Cormier Thinks Conor McGregor Can’t Improve His Takedown Defense And Grappling Game A Lot In The Future
Daniel Cormier is Khabib’s longtime friend and a coach at AKA (American Kickboxing Academy). He described Khabib’s UFC 229 performance as very good. Let’s remember, The Eagle defended the UFC Lightweight title. He forced The Notorious to tap in the fourth round. Daniel Cormier is very proud of Dagestani’s showdown. (via MMAFighting.com)
“I thought Khabib fought beautifully,” Cormier said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I thought he implemented the gameplan that he wanted to implement, fought the way that he wanted to fight and did exactly what he needed to do. I thought he fought beautifully.”
Let’s take a brief look at Fightmetric stats. Khabib controlled the match for more than 12 minutes. He took Conor McGregor down seven times. The Eagle also won the second round with an impressive score of 10-8!
Daniel Cormier claims Conor McGregor defended well throughout the fight. Yet, he doubts The Notorious could improve his takedown defense and grappling game a lot in the future. That is the reason why Daniel Cormier believes McGregor Team should be worried about Khabib Vs Conor rematch. DC described Conor’s defense and Khabib’s wrestling game step-by-step. He also added a few other examples from the world of MMA too.
“Honestly man, that first takedown, I was like wow, he really made [Nurmagomedov] work for this takedown,” Cormier said. “Because this is what we say at AKA — we try to get you lost in the sauce. We want to get you lost in the sauce, right? Like, when we’re on a leg, we want to give you one [takedown attempt]; okay, you’ll defend; two, you’ll defend; three, then you start going, ‘okay, wait a minute,’ then you start to get lost. You get lost in all the different transitions, from to move to move to move, and eventually we get you down. And once we get you down, obviously it’s very difficult to get back up.”
“[McGregor] didn’t get lost in it. Like, Khabib had to go to level four to get that first takedown. He went high crotch, he went crackdown, he went ‘try to get the angle,’ he tried to run the pipe, then he actually had to go to his knees, look across the back to get to a double just to get Conor down the first time. Conor didn’t get lost. He really did a good job, and that’s why if you’re Team McGregor, there’s cause for concern, because I don’t know if he could do that any better and he still got beat in the way that he got beat.”
“That’s why, I think if you’re Team McGregor, you’d be concerned about a fight with Nurmagomedov, because I don’t think he could defend any better,” Cormier continued. “I thought was as good as [he could do], because he did a good job and I don’t know if he could do it any better … because then [Nurmagomedov] is going to go to level five, and he going to go to level six, and he’s going to just keep putting different things behind each other until eventually you kinda can’t keep up. That’s what Henry Cejudo does. That’s what he did to DJ a couple times to get those takedowns.”
“You know who did it really good was Tatiana Suarez. Tatiana shoots a double leg on Carla Esparza knowing Carla was going to defend it. She knew. Like, ‘There’s no way I’m just going to take this girl down. She’s been wrestling too long.’ She shot a double leg, not for that first shot. She shot that double leg to get Carla to defend, drop her hands, and when Carla dropped her hands, arm drag, now Carla’s on the bottom. The first shot was never the intent. That’s why my takedown offense is like 45 percent. I don’t care, I’m just throwing shots at you until eventually I’ll grab one of them. I’m just throwing different things at you until I get the reaction I want, then I can go to my true finish.”
DC also made a comparison between his beef with Jones and Conor Vs Khabib rivalry. Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones fought at UFC 178 media day. Both fighters even crashed off the stage! Yet, Daniel Cormier believes Khabib took everything personally. He exploded after UFC 229 main event, leaped over the fence, and attacked Dillon Danis. According to DC, other fighters were aware they trash-talk and insult each other for “the greater good”.
“I think, Conor, he was building a fight, and there was just a little bit of a difference in the approach,” Cormier said.
“When he was building the fight and kinda going home going, ‘Okay, yeah, I think that might’ve gotten him a little bit,’ or, ‘that got under his skin,’ the whole time it’s causing this guy (Nurmagomedov) to just go, ‘God, I hate him. Man, I can’t stand this dude. I want to hurt him,’ then going back to the gym and training harder and more. So, that’s where the difference lies. It’s like, we (Jones and I) never regretted anything we said to each other or about each other, and it was okay if it just continued to escalate.”
Do you think Daniel Cormier has right? Should McGregor Team be worried about the rematch? Of course, if Khabib doesn’t decide to change the promotion!
