Can Conor McGregor fix his cardio issues?

I’ve said it time and again, fighting is more than just throwing your bones at another human being in hopes of securing a knockout. There are so many little nuances to fighting that it’s truly impossible to fully explain. It’s at once a contest of wills, a dance, a brawl, and poetry in motion. It’s a complicated mess while at the same time predicated on science and the principals of cause and effect. Not every fight is like that, but you catch my drift.

When we considered a fighter of the caliber of Conor McGregor, fighting can easily be broken down to more of an art form. Rather than just looking at it through the lens of fists and feet, McGregor has fine tuned a game based on graceful movement, as well as devastating power. His left straight punch has often been dubbed the “Touch of Death” as he has the tendency to put grown men to sleep with the strike. That destructive power combined with distance management, awareness, and movement has taken Conor McGregor from unknown prospect to two time world champion.

Yet, there has always been a crack in the armor of McGregor. Behind all that bravado and brash talk, the Irishman has a weakness in his game that simply can’t be denied. To put it plainly, Conor McGregor gets gassed in fights. He has reached such levels of exhaustion that it has hindered his performances in both Nate Diaz fights as well as his match against Floyd Mayweather.

What could be the culprit for such an occurrence, one that would ultimately be a big target for future opponents? Famed MMA coach Firas Zahabi of Tristar Gym think he may have an answer to that. Training MMA superstar Georges St-Pierre, Zahabi has a keen insight that he shares with UFC commentator Joe Rogan.

How could he fix it?

So if Conor McGregor really is a victim of his own genetics and fast twitch reactions, is there a feasible way to circumvent this deficiency?

As a kickboxing teacher and coach myself, the answer is a complicated one. Ultimately the solution would be to change McGregor’s tactics. Now, that doesn’t mean changing his fighting style. Changing a fighter’s style is like changing their DNA. At some point it’s ingrained into their very being. But that doesn’t mean his approach can’t be altered.

It’s always struck me that Conor McGregor is a great counter fighter. While many people think of his aggressive nature during fights, all I see is a man pushing forward, pressuring his opponents to rush forward, make a mistake and get themselves countered. The problem with that approach is that McGregor is always firing on all cylinders. He’s using energy to push forward, he’s using energy to read his opponents every movement, and he’s taxing his central nervous system with constant anticipation for the rush in hopes of countering. That means by the time he gets to the later rounds he’s shot.

Instead focusing on constant pressure and taxing himself by wanting to counter at every opportunity, Conor McGregor should instead allow himself to fall in love with feints. In his heyday, and now in more recent fights, Lyoto Machida used to feint his opponents over and over again in hopes of making them flinch or rush in to one of his counters. He didn’t need to move forward, he didn’t need to apply constant pressure through volume and aggressive footwork. Instead he used a minimalist approach to make his opponents tense up which saved energy for Machida and ate up the gas tank of his opposition.

McGregor needs to fall in love with feinting. He needs to fall in love with watching the fight and taking his time to counter at the perfect moment rather than every time a window seems open. If he realizes that not every opportunity is one to jump on he may do a much better time in conserving his gas tank. This is only one suggestion of course, but it’s certainly something for him to consider, especially if he hopes to defeat the wrestling machine known as Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Do you think Conor McGregor can defeat his cardio issues as well as Khabib Nurmagomedov?

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