A Theory on McGregors Cardio issue

[spinitch]

Conor can afford a pool now. However leg joint issues can restrict cardio training. Conor also cuts weight and is fairly muscular putting power behind his shots which can be tiring if not efficient. Floyd extremely efficient.

Conor was also more excited against Floyd. Absorbing body shots drains cardio from the best.

Anyway seems folks highlighted many of the different factors and leg issues could contribute along with taking body shots, cutting weight and expending energy fighting hard vs at a sustainable pace.

 

[Novice4eva]

How many basketball players have had those issues? If he doesn't want to run, spar(boxing) 24-36 rnds instead. I don't know how that will limit his mma training though. I don't get why nobody has asked him the question about cardio.

 

[98bird]

What would be the good cardio exercises when you bad/injured knees and don't want to provoke it?

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

Having heart is directly tied to your stamina - pushing through when your plan A is not going the way you planned it, when you're being pushed back just as hard.

He folds when things don't go his way. Not to mention he does a lot of really dumbass and pointless thing in the ring - wastes energy.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

. I don't get why nobody has asked him the question about cardio.

to busy praising him about quitting his job to go on welfare and live off his gal.

To busy praising him about moral victories.

 

[KlNG]

Well, to be fair, Tony had been also doing this:

So maybe he is just someone blessed with more resilient joints?

Or maybe he'll just pay later in his life, who knows.

Jesus christ.....

 

[Novice4eva]

What would be the good cardio exercises when you bad/injured knees and don't want to provoke it?

Sparring. Nothing prepares you for fighting like fighting. I would think simulated sparring on the heavy bag would be good as well.

 

[SpedDaddyV]

I dont think Conor wrestles/BJJ often, nor does he run or swim, probably all of which are the best cardio workouts

He rides bikes in the desert for the camera and smokes cigs

 

[Aluminati]

yes. and, i doubt Lobov presses Conor enough. I train hard daily, but have not been in an mma gym in years. my run times, lifts, etc. are all better than when i trained mma. But, I decided to put e gloves on against my son the other day, and it was competitive and fast-paced. 3x3 minute rounds had me feeling the worry about failing wind, and had my shoulders burning. I had another good round or two in me, and that would have been it for top speed. Its the twitch, the reactions that you cannot train for. I would bet Conor is always in control and never in trouble in his training. You need guys who are as good as you, or at least you need a string of guys who are close to your level subbing in every round, or even every minute,

In an ideal world (for Conor), Conor would be sparring Nate until he was able to go a full 12 rounds in boxing. Then, he'd hit the mats with him and do the same with 3-5 rounds @ 5min rounds. He needs to go against someone with better cardio who will pressure him on the feet, and someone who is better than him on the mats, until he's comfortable in both arenas. SBG has Gunnar, but they have no one who can press him on the feet. Nate could parlay his fights with him in much the same way as Zab Judah did with Floyd.

 

[Deleted member 429453]

Iv been thinking about McGregors ongoing Cardio issues or should I say recent Cardio issue

It appears McGregor has about 10-12 minutes then fades. 4 good paced rounds (12 minutes) against Mayweather, 2 solid rounds (10 mins) against Diaz, before alternating the final 3 rounds with a very tough 3rd (10th - 15th minutes) with Diaz

So why does someone who trains so hard have a difficulty with such prolonged cardio into the deeper rounds?

Well iv watched all behind the scenes access, embedded shows, all access and MacLife for all recent fights and thought of something...

All of McGregors cardio training is off his feet. I mean literally he does no road work or at least none evident, not even a treadmill for running.

We see him rowing, aerodyne, out cycling, pad and bag work but no running, no miles not ever - why?
In fact the only time we ever saw him 'running' was at the UFC performance institute in a specialised underwater treadmill to avoid impact and very slow paced which leads me to my point.

As someone who has cycled internationally and ran for my county I can tell you now the cardio for one movement doesnt transfer to the next. You will get a base level of fitness that will give you something to build upon when changing disciplines but I can tell you from experience just because I could comfortably do a 60 - 80 miles cycle didnt transfer to fitness for running a 10k for example and vice versa even though they both use 'legs'

Why? Impact! The impact of being on your feet and bounding and dealing with the gravity of carrying your own weight around is a very different type of fitness than non weight bearing cardio (the examples of which he prefers as outlined above)

Conor does not run and there must be a reason for this as to why he stays in his comfort zone as his 'legs going' as the boxing pundits would describe it or jelly legs if you've ever felt it is what McGregor concedes to when fights go into that 15 minute + time frame.

Keep in mind boxers or stand up fighters are notorious (no pun intended) for their road work, the early morning runs, the 5 miles a day (35 - 40 minutes = to fight duration of 12 round fight) the getting up at 5am or in Mayweathers case the 2am night time runs in the cooler Vegas weather - but they all put the miles in except McGregor?

So what is the reason?

Well his first and last 3 rounder was against Holloway this was a very fast paced fight and while McGregor hurt his knee he did not drop the pace or did not appear affected by Cardio in this fight at all

Therefore there are 2 reasons why McGregor doesnt do the road work required to have the 'on feet' impact level fitness required to compete 15 - 30 minutes

1) He is lazy, soft and doesnt want to work out of his comfort zone as he doesnt enjoy running

2) He has joint issues (knee, hip, ankle) or potentially his reconstructed knee following Holloway fight simply will not allow him to run and put in the miles expected in order to get himself through a training camp and has thus sourced other cardio methods as previously mentioned, in fact making reference to the underwater treadmill when I googled it, it is designed exactly for NFL athletes recovering from injury to avoid heavy weight bearing on the joints - this is the ONLY time we say McGregor run in any of the build ups in previous fights


I dont believe it is Number 1, he is tough, he does have heart fighting through a knee injury to get decision over current FW champ holloway, he doesnt look to stay in comfort zone challenging himself immediately wanting a rematch at 170 against the 185 - 190 Diaz who had 'strangled him on live TV' months earlier. He moved up in weight class, fought every opponent in front of him and challenged the P4P no 1 and TBE in Mayweather. This isnt dick riding, thats just a list of facts so its not number 1

So in my opinion (I said opinion not fact) it must be Number 2 which is a fucking shame that he must have had to find a work around for cardio post knee injury as cardio was never an issue previously, he played football as a youth but since that injury... no running, every other form of cardio but weight bearing running.

And this is why I believe McGregor will always struggle to have the fight level fitness required to compete in later rounds as his legs simply cannot cope with the demands of the type of grinding road work necessary to get himself into that condition to be on his feet for 30 minutes during a fight

Just my opinion folks and an angle I havent seen proposed


*TLDR

McGregor needs to do more running for the appropriate cardio required to fight

Or cos he's roiding

 

[campbecc]

How many basketball players have had those issues? If he doesn't want to run, spar(boxing) 24-36 rnds instead. I don't know how that will limit his mma training though. I don't get why nobody has asked him the question about cardio.

the problem with sparring as a cardio workout is the risk of CTE. Some people can get away with it but I doubt Conor would want to take the risk.

 

[98bird]

Sparring. Nothing prepares you for fighting like fighting. I would think simulated sparring on the heavy bag would be good as well.

It may be the best for fighting, but it's not the only thing. You can't spar all the time. You have to mix in other shit with it, otherwise you'd get wrecked...not to mention boredom.

If you spar only, even at light power, you can still get injured due to accidents or someone getting mad and spiking the power. And it's not that easy to find constant sparring partners...most of the time it's a pride issue. For someone like CM, he can hire as many as he wants, unlike the average Fighter.

Then there's grappling sparring, which is medium to full power and is even more prone to causing injuries. You can't rely on sparring for cardio build up. That's why Fighters run a lot for that constant cardio work that ruffles no feathers, but in turn, wrecks the knees especially if that's already a problem. So maybe stationary bikes or real bikes....but I'm still taking advice.

 

[98bird]

nor does he run or swim, probably all of which are the best cardio workouts

Ahh, what about swimming? How effective is swimming compared to running. Swimming ain't easy. I was swimming my ass off years ago at a Bally's and some grandma in the other lane was smoking me...and also smirking at me and shit....like I sucked ass. I mean, yeah I sucked ass compared to her, but that's pretty weird to be a dick to someone who's a noob, like that. That was so strange.

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

What about swimming? It's easier on the joints and it seems like good cardio.

Interesting point, I read about Eddie Bravo's Swim training before the Royler Gracie Metamoris match where he was doing intense pool interval training. Basically he would swim a length as fast as possible, take a short break then swim another fast length rather than just doing constant lengths at the same speed. It sounded like a really effective style of training for a fight, he discussed it at length on a JRE.
I would imagine training to do short bursts and recover quickly would be much more effective for fighting than being able to plod at a set pace for a long period. I don't doubt that long distance cardio events may help a fighter but I can't help but feel traditional roadwork is outdated.
I don't say this to hate on running/swimming/cycling etc as I am a runner myself but running is a sport in and of itself just as boxing/jiu jitsu and wrestling are sports on their own.
Where an MMA fighter takes the elements of wrestling/muay thai or whatever and applies what works in the cage they should consider the cardio sports as their own entities and take what works to apply to their sport. Apologies if this seems esoteric but the ability to run a 100 mile ultra marathon is about as useful in a cage as the ability to perform a 540 kick...they are both part of the disciplines that make up MMA but they are the fat we trim off to make our sport effective.

 

[maxi diablo]

Too much strength work imo, vs holloway he looked like he could've done 10 hard rounds, he since then put on 5-8lbs of muscle and i think the training methods are the issue. He needs to train with gsp abit as gsp the only guy i see with alot of muscle for his frame who has a gr8 gas tank.

He needs to run even though running sucks imo. He will probably lose power that way.

 

[Octupus Samurai]

Fuk this is cia bullshittt right here, are you a spy?

 

[Sleepdancer]

I can't remember which fight it was, I think it was the Chad Mendes one. But I saw him doing a morning run in an embedded. Which is funny because thats the fight where his knee was supposedly fucked up. But of course I could be miss remembering.

 

[theheater]

It's likely just genetics.

Take Pacquaio for example, 99.9999% of people in the world(including pro boxers) could train to try and throw 1000 punches all as hard and fast as each other in a fight like Pacquaio and still be fairly fresh at the end. But they couldn't, it's not just training sometimes it's genetics.

i agree its genetics but manny was on some horsemeat imo

this is how athletics work. i'm surprised there's so many uninformed people. conor is a power puncher. he has a higher ratio of fast twitch muscle

track n field is an easy way to demonstrate this. running is running. sprinters dont just decide to be sprinters vs distance runners. they have a different muscle composition. world champion sprinters would be pathetic distance runners if they did it their whole life. they are at a massive genetic disadvantage

the diaz bros and condit are very similar. elite cardio and a granite chin. long for their weight class and low muscle mass. go ahead and look at condits record. he losing the first round in all but about 3 fights. im serious, look it up. the diaz bros do much worse in the first round also. their opponents are usually more explosive and have less endurance. their granite chins and technique get them in to the second round where they begin to take over

 

[wonderbread]

Maybe Mcgregor just talks too Fucking much and gets winded.

 

[Nate Dogg]

Iv been thinking about McGregors ongoing Cardio issues or should I say recent Cardio issue

It appears McGregor has about 10-12 minutes then fades. 4 good paced rounds (12 minutes) against Mayweather, 2 solid rounds (10 mins) against Diaz, before alternating the final 3 rounds with a very tough 3rd (10th - 15th minutes) with Diaz

So why does someone who trains so hard have a difficulty with such prolonged cardio into the deeper rounds?

Well iv watched all behind the scenes access, embedded shows, all access and MacLife for all recent fights and thought of something...

All of McGregors cardio training is off his feet. I mean literally he does no road work or at least none evident, not even a treadmill for running.

We see him rowing, aerodyne, out cycling, pad and bag work but no running, no miles not ever - why?
In fact the only time we ever saw him 'running' was at the UFC performance institute in a specialised underwater treadmill to avoid impact and very slow paced which leads me to my point.

As someone who has cycled internationally and ran for my county I can tell you now the cardio for one movement doesnt transfer to the next. You will get a base level of fitness that will give you something to build upon when changing disciplines but I can tell you from experience just because I could comfortably do a 60 - 80 miles cycle didnt transfer to fitness for running a 10k for example and vice versa even though they both use 'legs'

Why? Impact! The impact of being on your feet and bounding and dealing with the gravity of carrying your own weight around is a very different type of fitness than non weight bearing cardio (the examples of which he prefers as outlined above)

Conor does not run and there must be a reason for this as to why he stays in his comfort zone as his 'legs going' as the boxing pundits would describe it or jelly legs if you've ever felt it is what McGregor concedes to when fights go into that 15 minute + time frame.

Keep in mind boxers or stand up fighters are notorious (no pun intended) for their road work, the early morning runs, the 5 miles a day (35 - 40 minutes = to fight duration of 12 round fight) the getting up at 5am or in Mayweathers case the 2am night time runs in the cooler Vegas weather - but they all put the miles in except McGregor?

So what is the reason?

Well his first and last 3 rounder was against Holloway this was a very fast paced fight and while McGregor hurt his knee he did not drop the pace or did not appear affected by Cardio in this fight at all

Therefore there are 2 reasons why McGregor doesnt do the road work required to have the 'on feet' impact level fitness required to compete 15 - 30 minutes

1) He is lazy, soft and doesnt want to work out of his comfort zone as he doesnt enjoy running

2) He has joint issues (knee, hip, ankle) or potentially his reconstructed knee following Holloway fight simply will not allow him to run and put in the miles expected in order to get himself through a training camp and has thus sourced other cardio methods as previously mentioned, in fact making reference to the underwater treadmill when I googled it, it is designed exactly for NFL athletes recovering from injury to avoid heavy weight bearing on the joints - this is the ONLY time we say McGregor run in any of the build ups in previous fights


I dont believe it is Number 1, he is tough, he does have heart fighting through a knee injury to get decision over current FW champ holloway, he doesnt look to stay in comfort zone challenging himself immediately wanting a rematch at 170 against the 185 - 190 Diaz who had 'strangled him on live TV' months earlier. He moved up in weight class, fought every opponent in front of him and challenged the P4P no 1 and TBE in Mayweather. This isnt dick riding, thats just a list of facts so its not number 1

So in my opinion (I said opinion not fact) it must be Number 2 which is a fucking shame that he must have had to find a work around for cardio post knee injury as cardio was never an issue previously, he played football as a youth but since that injury... no running, every other form of cardio but weight bearing running.

And this is why I believe McGregor will always struggle to have the fight level fitness required to compete in later rounds as his legs simply cannot cope with the demands of the type of grinding road work necessary to get himself into that condition to be on his feet for 30 minutes during a fight

Just my opinion folks and an angle I havent seen proposed


*TLDR

McGregor needs to do more running for the appropriate cardio required to fight

he jogged in the leadup to the Mendes fight, but I think that was more to help cut weight. agree on all your points though. for a sport where you're bouncing in and out with your feet, you need to strengthen them up.

but keep in mind that he only has a problem cardio wise against a handful of fighters. not mant ppl can sustain a high pace striking with him. nate has a zombie chin so he just keeps plodding forward.

we're all shitting on Conor's cardio, but there are many in the UFC that would wilt all the same. so although it's a problem, it's only been a problem for 2 of his opponents so far.

i think the more he wrestles and practices BJJ would help his cardio and be more practical for contenders at LW who all want to wrestle him down.