As the highly, anticipated bout between Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone nears, many people have opined that “Cowboy” should mix in his wrestling and take the feared striker down. But, according to McGregor’s jiu-jitsu coach and teammate, Dillon Danis, the star’s ground game is on another level right now.
Danis heaps praise on McGregor’s jiu-jitsu
Although Cerrone is an extremely talented striker, the consensus seems to be that on account of McGregor’s own stand-up, and his booming left, “Cowboy” should shoot some takedowns. Especially since, according to this narrative, McGregor isn’t as strong on the floor and Cerrone has a dangerous submission game. Case in point, recently Georges St-Pierre argued that Cerrone should look to take McGregor down.
But, in a recent interview Danis did with “The Schmo“, he had this to say about McGregor’s ground game (quote via MMA Mania):
“Conor’s been one of the best jiu-jitsu guys that I’ve ever rolled with, like MMA-wise since I started training with him,” Danis see. “His jiu-jitsu is on another level, and it always has been. I think people just underestimate him for some reason, but if it does go to the ground, they’ll see. They’ll see how good he is.”
This is interesting to hear. Although, Danis is known for making over the top statements, so, not everyone is going to take his word on this. That said, others have argued for a while now that McGregor’s jiu-jitsu is underrated. Further, you would think that on account of the fact he was submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, McGregor has spent a lot of time improving his ground game further.
UFC 246 line-up
Here is the complete line-up for UFC 246, which will be hosted by T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on January 18th.
UFC 246 Main Card 0n ESPN+ PPV (10 p.m. ET):
170 lbs.: Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone
135 lbs.: Holly Holm vs. Raquel Pennington
265 lbs.: Maurice Greene vs. Aleksei Oleinik
115 lbs.: Claudia Gadelha vs. Alexa Grasso
155 lbs.: Diego Ferreira vs. Anthony Pettis
UFC 246 Prelims Card 0n ESPN (8 p.m. ET):
145 lbs.: Maycee Barber vs. Roxanne Modafferi
145 lbs.: Andre Fili vs. Sodiq Yusuff
155 lbs.: Drew Dober vs. Nasrat Haqparast
145 lbs.: Grant Dawson vs. Chas Skelly
UFC 246 Early Prelims Card 0n ESPN+ (6 p.m. ET):
205 lbs.: Aleksa Camur vs. Justin Ledet
125 lbs.: Askar Askarov vs. Tim Elliott
135 lbs.: Brian Kelleher vs. Ode Osbourne
125 lbs.: J.J. Aldrich vs. Sabina Mazo
*Fight card, bout order and the amount of matches subject to change.
Line-up via MMA Mania