Sonnen refutes notion of McGregor’s ‘cardio issues’

If there is one prevalent criticism about Conor McGregor in terms of his overall fighting game, it has always been his conditioning. It is also something that he himself admitted after his boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. a year ago, where he explained that it was a “patch of fatigue” that usually gets to him, even during his two fights against Nate Diaz in 2016.

But according to Chael Sonnen, the problem could be more about having to deal with being in a stressful environment such as a prizefight, rather than a conditioning issue.

“There’s a narrative out there about his conditioning, and that largely came because of his fight with Nate Diaz where Conor said ‘I ran out of energy,’” Sonnen said during a recent episode of his Beyond the Fight Podcast. “He said that.”

“I just don’t know that that was an accurate assessment, meaning that Conor was in poor shape, or if you should also look at the intangibles of which, one, he was surprised, so when you have an adrenaline dump or some kind of a frustration, it’s gonna cause some stress, which is gonna cause fatigue. And also, he was up two weight classes.”

Sonnen adds that McGregor’s own statements may have led to the development of that angle about his lack of conditioning.

“Even though Conor helped to add fuel to the fire which was ‘I didn’t have enough energy, which created a false narrative – what I believe is a false narrative – that he has cardio and lung issues,” Sonnen said. “I don’t think that’s true.”

As for McGregor’s upcoming title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov, Sonnen concluded that it will all boil down to who can dictate the pace, rather than being able to utilize their best weapons.

“I think so many of us are talking about if Conor can land the left, or Khabib can land the takedown,” Sonnen explained. “But it’s usually an intangible.”

“It’s never about who – very seldomly – is about who is technically more proficient, who’s more dynamic, who’s more explosive. Those things all have a little piece of the pie, but it’s generally an intangible. And generally, when you have to get ready for a fight, outside of that lucky punch or submission, you have to plan for a worst case scenario, which is to be there out there all night long.”

Khabib and McGregor will headline UFC 229 on October 6^th in Las Vegas.