"You're making a sucker's play there!" - Chael Sonnen slams people expecting Conor McGregor to gas out at UFC 257
As the rematch between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier edges closer to realization, speculations about possible outcomes have started spreading like wildfire. There are some speculations, though, that former UFC Light Heavyweight Chael Sonnen disagrees with quite strongly.
In the latest edition of 'Ariel and the Bad Guy', Chael Sonnen and Ariel Helwani deliberated on the return of Conor McGregor to the Lightweight division. At the very onset, Chael highlighted some assumptions that people were making and opined that these assumptions held no value. One assumption he particularly did not like was that people expect Conor McGregor to gas out if the fight goes beyond a certain time limit. Chael said,
"...and the second error is that Conor gets tired and quits! Excuse me, we have seen it twice and Conor has admitted to it. But, one of them was at 170 pounds, where he never belonged, or he never should have been. Anybody is going to be exhausted in that environment. And another time he got tired that affected the outcome was 30 minutes after fighting the greatest boxer of all time."
Chael Sonnen did draw pretty great references to validate his analysis. Conor McGregor first went up to Welterweight immediately after winning the Featherweight title to face Nate Diaz in their first fight. He fought at 168 pounds, and that extra mass played a huge role in the drastic amount of energy he spent within the first round. The second round saw a comparatively much more gassed out Conor McGregor tapping out to a rear-naked choke executed by Diaz with little resistance.
In the second reference, Chael Sonnen mentioned Conor McGregor's boxing mega-fight against Floyd Mayweather. Their fight lasted for 10 rounds. In the tenth round, Floyd was able to bag the victory via TKO.
Floyd Mayweather is an extremely technical boxer, and does not employ power as much as he uses technique and skill. Floyd's elegance inside the ring did make sure that Conor was left with extremely little gas in the tank. Nevertheless, although Conor McGregor lost the fight, he was applauded by many in the fight industry for being able to withstand 10 rounds of boxing against one of the best boxers of all time.
How has Conor McGregor fared in other fights that lasted too long for comfort?
Conor McGregor's erratic and precise style inside the Octagon ensures that most of his fights end soon enough. However, there have been instances that his ability to last longer was tested.
Right off the bat, his follow-up fight with Nate Diaz saw both of them carry out a dogfight for the entirety of five rounds. Granted, Conor McGregor did look pretty tired at the end of the fight. But, not only did he hold his ground and absorb everything that Diaz had to offer, but he also came back with devastating counters of his own throughout the fight.
Another example is his outing with Max Holloway at Featherweight. Both promising 145-pounders fought for the entirety of three rounds, at the end of which Conor McGregor won via unanimous decision.
It is evident that when Conor McGregor fights at his own weight with the proper training, gassing out is not that big of a problem. And he, too, finds it problematic that there are people who attach that staple of gassing out to him.
He said that he aims to do away with that tag once and for all, come Saturday.