UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz, who as announced by UFC President Dana White during Friday’s excellent UFC “Unstoppable” press conference will competing in the long-awaited rubber-match against Urijah Faber in the co-main event of UFC 199 in June, recently spoke with Luke Thomas of MMAFighting.com about tonight’s UFC 196 main event.
As usual, “The Dominator” gave an incredibly technical breakdown of tonight’s welterweight headline attraction between UFC Featherweight Champion “The Notorious” Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.
Regarding Diaz having a more storied background against southpaws than McGregor, Cruz offered the following analysis.
“The beautiful thing about this fight is that he’s a southpaw. How many rounds do you think Diaz has against southpaws, comparatively speaking, to the people McGregor has faced in the past?
One, he’s trained with his brother his entire life, who is a southpaw. Two, his brother’s bigger than him, stronger than him and big brothered him, so he’s used to being bullied. He’s used to being talked to in a demeaning manner. He’s used to everything Conor McGregor does because his brother Nick Diaz does the same thing to him day in, day out. There’s nothing that Conor McGregor could do him that his older brother hasn’t already done to him, I promise you if you know Nick.
That’s a huge step in the right direction to begin with because the mental battle isn’t nearly the same as it’s been for all of McGregor’s past opponents. Besides that, the reach doesn’t become as big of an issue also because when you face a southpaw vs. conventional fighter, the conventional fighter gives up range because of the foot placement. When you’ve got a southpaw vs. a southpaw, that evens up just like a conventional fighter vs. conventional fighter. So, that counter left hand that Conor’s so good at, it’s not taken away, but you don’t have to reach as much as his past opponents did.
You got an Aldo who you’re fighting and he has to reach in order to land the left hook, no matter what. That’s one entire side of your body that if you decide to reach with, you’re going to get countered every single time against a southpaw. None of those counter options are there against Diaz for McGregor and that’s one of his biggest weapons.”
Cruz also explained why McGregor’s motion, use of negative space and angles will be his path to victory inside the Octagon on Saturday night.
“That’s his path to winning, to be honest. It’s exactly what we were just saying a second ago. Conor does have an eye for the way that fighters are moving. What I mean by the way fighters are moving is the lines that they’re basing their styles on.
This is the best way I can explain it to the general public. If you’re racing a 700 horsepower Corvette with rear-wheel drive versus and all-wheel drive car, which can take turns because it’s all-wheel drive, the all-wheel drive car is always going to win if there’s turns involved in the race. If it’s a straight line, you might take the muscle car because it doesn’t take as much moving and it doesn’t take as much traction and as much control. But if you’re on a bobbing, weaving course that’s going to have turns, you’re going to want the all-wheel drive car. Every single time.
Conor McGregor turns these fights into windy, turny road, so that you’re forced to not be able to race on a one-way straight, narrow route. What Conor’s doing is he’s making what used to be a straight drag race into a race with a bunch of turns and curves and stops and gos. What that does is it breaks rhythm and it forces the person who’s driving that car or the person who is fighting in that body to deal with way more than just a straight line.
Conor’s movement is the key to why he’s been doing so well. And the reason why it’s been a key is because he sees the basics of everybody else that he’s fought is moving on. They’re moving in straight lines: forward and back. It’s a drag race car. You’re dealing with somebody who’s making a lot of turns.
He uses the fact that you can only go in a straight line against you. He has all these other options when you basically have to stay in a straight line. How do you beat somebody who can turn, brake on a dime, do all these other things when all you can do is go straight and backwards as fast as possible?”