Georges St-Pierre has given his take on Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone.
McGregor and Cerrone are set to collide on Jan. 18. The welterweight bout will headline UFC 246 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many experts and fight fans are saying that McGregor’s best shot against Cerrone is to finish him early, while “Cowboy” would have the upper hand the longer the fight goes. St-Pierre shares in this belief.
GSP Dishes On Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone
In a video posted on the official YouTube channel of Tristar Gym, St-Pierre spoke to his coach Firas Zahabi to discuss McGregor vs. “Cowboy.” Here’s what the former welterweight king had to say (h/t BJPenn.com).
“If it’s a quick fight it’s going to be McGregor,” Georges St-Pierre said on the TriStar Gym’s YouTube channel. “If it’s a long fight it’s going to be Cerrone.”
St-Pierre believes that Cerrone can be most effective if he utilizes his grappling against the “Notorious” one.
“[It] depends if Cerrone comes and tries to grapple because he has a very good ground game, his ground game is very underrated. I’ve trained with him before, he has good takedown. He is very explosive to shoot the takedown,” he explained. “People don’t know that because he doesn’t use it much. He used it against Patrick Cote. If he does that, to weather the first couple minutes of the storm and McGregor’s powerful left hand, I think he can get it.”
Where Cerrone could get into trouble is if he decides to stand and trade with McGregor, says St-Pierre.
“I think if he wrestles in round one he has a good chance to win. But, if he tries to play a boxing and karate game with McGregor, McGregor will knock him out… It’s hard. The odds are more towards McGregor. Cerrone can pull this off too. It’s at 170, [it’s] Cerrone [advantage] I think. McGregor looks big. I don’t know enough about McGregor. But, from what I’ve seen is he is like a sniper,” Georges St-Pierre added. “When you fight a sniper, you need to move, you need change levels, you need change angles, change [the] distance and I don’t know if Cerrone will do that. He is known to be a slow starter as usual, so if he doesn’t start right away hard with the speed he is going to get caught.”
