Conor McGregor is making his return to the Octagon against Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 and Georges St-Pierre believes the fight could go a number of ways.
St-Pierre, like many, believes the Irishman could very well knockout Cerrone. But, he also thinks the longer the fight goes, the more it favors “Cowboy.”
“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.”
Whether or not it will be a quick or long fight all depends on Cerrone’s gameplan according to Georges St-Pierre. He thinks if Cowboy decides to wrestle McGregor that will help drag out the fight into the later rounds.
“[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.”
Although Georges St-Pierre wouldn’t give a definitive pick as he says either one can win, he is leaning towards McGregor.
“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.”
What do you make of Georges St-Pierre’s breakdown and prediction of Conor McGregor vs Donald Cerrone? Sound off in the comment section, PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/7/2020.