Coach explains why Conor put his hands behind his back
There is some variation among fighters about where to put your hands. Should they be by the chin, cheeks, eyebrows?…
There is some variation among fighters about where to put your hands. Should they be by the chin, cheeks, eyebrows? There was a Matrix moment in the UFC 205 main event when then-featherweight champion Conor McGregor held his hands behind his back while fighting then-lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez.
Was it a headgame? An effort to draw Alvarez into a shot that could be countered? Was McGregor under arrest for cockiness and wearing a suit too tight??!?
Conor’s coach, SBGi founder John Kavanagh appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and explained what was going on. It turns out, the move was not impromptu – McGregor had been doing it in practice.
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As Kavanagh explained, the hand clasp was a response to an injury to the right index knuckle that McGregor suffered at UFC 202 vs. Nate Diaz.
“He found that if he actually held his right hand behind his back, it kind of reminded him not to throw it as much,” said Kavanagh, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “That’s why he started reaching back and actually grabbing his hand.
“It was almost like a mental note: take care of the right hand.”
The back clasp served a dual purpose. A Southpaw’s best attack is the straight left. And one of the best set ups for a straight left is a Rock Back.
Dropping the hands is an effective means of getting the other fighter to punch, leaving him open to a counter.
“If you put your hands down, an untrained person will try to swing at your head,” said Kavanagh. “It’s a base instinct — I want to punch the guy in the head.”
“If you have a very high level of striking, boxing like Conor does, you understand rules like that. And there are many of them. And I don’t think others are kind of catching up to that level of skill.”
Conor McGregor is currently taking a break from fighting until May, when he and partner Dee Devlin are expecting their first child. After that the contest he seems most interested in is a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather.