Tristar Gym head coach Firas Zahabi has his theory as to why Conor McGregor has had so many cardio issues in his past several fights.
The Notorious One has shown serious issues in his pair of Octagon appearances against Nate Diaz, as well as his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in which he was finished in the 10th round via TKO.
Zahabi recently joined UFC commentator Joe Rogan’s podcast The Joe Rogan Experience and discussed why he thinks the Irishman has been having issues conserving his energy (via Bloody Elbow):
“It think it’s partly genetic,” Zahabi said. “I call it the touch of death. He’s got that left hand, it’s the touch of death. That touch of death comes at a cost. How do you have the touch of death? Where does power come from? Number one on the list, number one, is where your muscle is attached to the bone. It’s genetic. So, Mike Tyson, he has a powerful left hook not because his coach taught him how to hit a left hook.
“He could have hit a left hook like that if he had a mediocre trainer. It has to do with the leverage of his bones,” he continued. “So, for instance, imagine a really heavy pole that weighs a hundred pounds, and I want to stand it up. Well, depending on where I grab it, I’m gonna have more resistance or less resistance. If I grab it near the end, I have more leverage. So where your muscles are attached to the bone is gonna dictate how much leverage you get out of it.”
It turns out that the type of muscle fiber McGregor possesses could play a factor into his issues as well:
“If you have a fast-twitch muscle fiber, you can hold less oxygen, but it can twitch faster. Hence the name,” Zahabi explained. “So, if you’re a slow-twitch muscle fiber guy, you can metabolize more oxygen, but you can’t twitch as fast. So, there’s a give and take. So you have a guy like Nick Diaz who needs to knock you out with volume. He can’t knock you out with one shot,” he added. “Look at B.J. Penn. If round one, he doesn’t knock you out, the likelihood of him knocking you out in round two is less. Diaz is the opposite.
“The likelihood of him knocking you out in round three is higher than round one, because of the cumulative attack. McGregor, look at his stats. It’s all round one knockout, round two knockout (using) his fast-twitch, high-leverage left hand. If you take him into deep waters, his fast-twitch muscle fibers cannot metabolize with Mayweather. Mayweather’s so smart, he let McGregor work for three rounds. ’I knew you’re getting excited, keep working. And when you have nothing left, I’m gonna put you out.’ That was such a brilliant strategy.”
