DC praises McGregor, but adds a big but …

AKA star and UFC champ champ Daniel Cormier appeared recently on The MMA Hour, and complimented Conor McGregor’s performance in his failed title challenge vs. AKA teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, DC argues that Notorious can’t shine any brighter, which should give his team pause for thought about a rematch.

That first takedown, I was like wow, he really made [Nurmagomedov] work for this takedown, said Cormier as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. Because this is what we say at AKA — we try to get you lost in the sauce. … Like, when we’re on a leg, we want to give you one [takedown attempt]; okay, you’ll defend; two, you’ll defend; three, then you start going, ‘Okay, wait a minute,’ then you start to get lost. You get lost in all the different transitions, from move to move to move, and eventually we get you down. And once we get you down, obviously it’s very difficult to get back up.

[McGregor] didn’t get lost in it. Like, Khabib had to go to level four to get that first takedown. He went high crotch, he went crackdown, he went ‘try to get the angle,’ he tried to run the pipe, then he actually had to go to his knees, look across the back to get to a double just to get Conor down the first time. Conor didn’t get lost. He really did a good job, and that’s why if you’re Team McGregor, there’s cause for concern, because I don’t know if he could do that any better and he still got beat in the way that he got beat.”

He did a good job and I don’t know if he could do it any better … because then [Nurmagomedov] is going to go to level five, and he going to go to level six, and he’s going to just keep putting different things behind each other until eventually you kinda can’t keep up. That’s what Henry Cejudo does. That’s what he did to DJ a couple times to get those takedowns.

You know who did it really good was Tatiana Suarez. Tatiana shoots a double leg on Carla Esparza knowing Carla was going to defend it. She knew. Like, ‘There’s no way I’m just going to take this girl down. She’s been wrestling too long.’ She shot a double leg, not for that first shot. She shot that double leg to get Carla to defend, drop her hands, and when Carla dropped her hands, arm drag, now Carla’s on the bottom. The first shot was never the intent. That’s why my takedown offense is like 45 percent. I don’t care, I’m just throwing shots at you until eventually I’ll grab one of them. I’m just throwing different things at you until I get the reaction I want, then I can go to my true finish.

Cormier also commented on McGregor’s relentless pre-fight trash talk that McGregor directed at Nurmagomedov’s family, people, and faith, and contrasted it with the bitter pre-fight banter between himself and Jon Jones. DC, Jones, and McGregor all understood in varying degrees that they were putting asses in seats, ultimately to the benefit of their bottom line. Nurmagomedov not so much.

When [McGregor] was building the fight and kinda going home going, ‘Okay, yeah, I think that might’ve gotten him a little bit,’ or, ‘that got under his skin,’ the whole time it’s causing [Nurmagomedov] to just go, ‘God, I hate him. Man, I can’t stand this dude. I want to hurt him,’ then going back to the gym and training harder and more,” said Cormier. “So, that’s where the difference lies.”