Miletich: McGregor has make it close to a streetfight

UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich wrote the blueprint for becoming a mixed martial arts champion – you have to be good enough to hang with nationally talented wrestlers, strikers, and submission specialists. Not good enough to beat a top black belt on the mat, or bloody a ranked boxer, or pin a top Div I wrestler, but good enough to hang. He knows a lot about using one combat sports skill set against another, maybe more than anyone.

During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Miletich detailed how UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor must use his skill set in a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather.

“If I’m going into a fight like this, that’s that good, I’ve got to take him into anaerobic territory, said Miletich, as transcribed by Dave Doyle for MMA Fighting. Because boxers are not anaerobic animals. A boxer is an aerobic animal, like runners. Wrestling is completely anaerobic. So the more he can put his hands on him, push down on his forearms, just off balance him, block a leg here, off balance him, push a leg, CRACK, just turn it into a rough and tumble anaerobic type existence, that’s when Mayweather will get tired.

“You can’t go out an box with a boxer, you just can’t do it. I’m training a fighter who’s going into that fight to cheat within the rules, the entire fight. Literally. It’s got to be literally that close to a street fight. It has to be. Get two warnings for everything you could possibly get. And look, if you get a point taken, you get a point taken. It’s not like he’s winning on the cards anyway. I’m just being honest.

Helwani asked Miletich about what technically Mayweather could do.

The constant pressure of the tap of the back of the head and the push to the hip at the same time to make the head pop back to throw stuff,” said Miletich. “The bringing the head through and throwing a lead hook which would be opposite side for him. Stuff like that. Blocking the leg when he gets them in the ropes, because they’re the same stance, lean forward, clashing, block the outside of the leg, and get him off balance and take the leg out from under him. Make him stumble, make him lose his balance, and unload on him.

A lot of different stuff like that to get people off balance, you know? That’s the thing. And he’s got to go at the same time Mayweather goes. He cannot counter by getting out of the way and throwing back. He’s gone. You have to throw at the exact same time as he throws.

If McGregor pulls off that upset, you realize how big that is for MMA. It’s gigantic. It really is. But I try to tell people I’m a combat sports fan. I love boxing, I love judo, I love this, I love that, I love it all, all the different forms of combat sports. So it’s not, to me it’s not about being a boxing fan or an MMA fan or anything. I don’t want to be a purist. All these forms of combat have something to offer to me. It’s human out there testing each other spiritually, physically and mentally against each other. It’s very cool.

Miletich says a McGregor win would be the biggest upset in combat sports history, and sports history.”

A win will take risks.

Mayweather’s good at scoring points, staying ahead on the cards and coasting to victories, said Miletich. Will McGregor pull him out of that and make him go out on a limb and try to knock him out? That’s the thing. But McGregor’s got a good enough chin, and I think he can hang around, and that means he’s in there for 12 rounds with that monstrous left hand. It doesn’t matter who you are. If you are that weight and you get hit with that left hand, it’s going to hurt you.

It’s certainly the biggest combat event ever in the history of, I mean, this is, you think about Thrilla in Manila, and Foreman, Frazier, and guys like Ali and Frazier and Foreman and all those guys, I mean, this is going to rival, if not beat that.

Managment at AXS TV loaned Miletich out to Showtime where he previously worked, and he will be working MayMac in a capacity to be determined.