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Conor McGregor makes his octagon return in UFC 246 against Donald Cerrone. Though fans are highly favoring Conor to pull off the win they can’t count out Cowboy because of his experience and his body of work. Cowboy can finish the fight with is strikes and he can submit his opponents on the ground. 

On the other hand, Conor McGregor is arguably the most vicious in the early rounds and can knock Cowboy out early. So who is going to get his hands raised on January 18th? Well, former welterweight champion and arguably one of the greatest minds in the sport, Geroge St Pierre gives his verdicts on this mega event between Conor and Cowboy.

The fight is likely to end in two ways primarily. In one scenario, Conor puts up a pace that Cowboy can’t keep up with and Conor gets the finish inside the first two rounds. Or Cowboy weathers the early storm of Conor and wins the fight in the later rounds where Conor is not at his best. GSP also expects a similar outcome at UFC 246.

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“If it’s a quick fight it’s gonna be McGregor, if it’s a long fight it’s gonna be Cerrone” stated GSP.

Donald Cerrone Can Shock the World at UFC 246

Though GSP thinks that Cowboy can win the fight he also thinks that a certain gameplan has to be implemented against Conor. GSP believes Cerrone’s ground game will be the key to the victory against Conor. He explained:

“[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. 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.”

READ: Impressive UFC debut of Conor McGregor

The Precision and Boxing of Conor McGregor

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However, GSP does not favor Cerrone winning a striking battle against Conor McGregor. He believes Conor will knock Cerrone out early if Cerrone decides to box with him. GSP continued:

“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. I don’t know enough about McGregor. But, from what I’ve seen is he is like a sniper. 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.”

READ: Unforgettable quotes of Conor McGregor

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The odd does not look so good for Donald Cerrone going into the fight. Conor puts a high pace from the beginning of the fight and Cerrone is a slow starter. Conor is a phenomenal boxer and very unorthodox when it comes to creating an angle to land his punches. On the other hand, Cerrone has had problems with good boxers in the past. However, there are some X factors that have to be considered.

First, the fight is at welterweight that favors Donald Cerrone in terms of experience. Secondly, will ring rust plays a factor in Conor’s performance. Hence there can be a ton of ways this fight can play out.