Conor McGregor is a large featherweight. Like every other fighter in the UFC, he cuts a considerable amount of weight during camp with a final big drop en route to the weigh-ins a day before the fight. But Chael Sonnen has revealed just how big that last push is going to be, and it’s quite severe: 27 pounds.
Transcript via LowkickMMA.com:
“He’s a very big guy. I was impressed with how big he is,” Chael Sonnen said. “I was like ‘Conor, what do you weigh?’ He said, ‘I’m around 172 pounds’. He’s got to be 145 lbs in eight days.”
That’s a lotta weight, even in the current extreme weight cutting culture the UFC has right now. Guys infamous for cutting large amounts of weight like Thiago Alves go from 194 pounds 10 days before the fight to 170 for the weigh-ins … that’s 24 pounds. Bigger guys can cut more weight, and Alves is two weight classes above McGregor.
So there’s a couple of possibilities here.
- Conor McGregor is in the middle of a weight cut so severe he could screw up his recovery and end up gassing during a five-round wrestle-fest with Chad Mendes.
- Conor McGregor and / or Chael Sonnen are exaggerating the size of his weight cut to mess with the media and Mendes.
- Conor McGregor does what he wants because he’s the king and nothing will stop him from becoming the champion!
Irish fans are likely to put their money on option three, while I’ve spent enough years covering Chael Sonnen to check my watch twice when he tells the time. But if Conor McGregor ends up under Chad Mendes looking exhausted and unable to get up after round two, we may have a little insight into why.
(Via LowkickMMA.com)
