Conor McGregor’s striking coach Owen Roddy is a bit uneasy about Khabib Nurmagomedov’s weight situation ahead of UFC 229.
In April 2017, Khabib Nurmagomedov was slated to headline UFC 209 in Las Vegas. Those plans suddenly fell through when the undefeated Dagestani fell ill before the early morning weigh-ins, leading to the match-up being scrapped.
The main issue for that incident was pointed to a bad weight cut, and for Conor McGregor’s striking coach Owen Roddy, this kind of problem could once again arise for the upcoming matchup at UFC 229 this weekend.
“It could be a concern, yeah,” Roddy said on a recent episode of MMAFighting.com’s Eurobash podcast. “It has happened before. Don’t focus on what is out of your control, you can only focus on what you have control over.”
“We don’t know what could happen, anything could happen.”
The last time McGregor was in competition was in August of 2017, where he fought and lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a highly-publicized boxing match. Some may say ring rust could be an issue, but Roddy assures that “The Notorious” had kept his weapons sharp even throughout his absence from MMA.
“Conor has obviously improved with his hands, they’re a lot sharper. His wrestling, his jiu-jitsu too, he hasn’t stopped training. He hasn’t fought, but he hasn’t stopped improving over the past two years since he [last] fought in the Octagon.”
“He’s a far better fighter, but he still has that same mentality. He’s still as sharp as ever, he’s still intelligent in there as always. I’m just excited to see him back in there.”
UFC 229 will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on October 6th. It will be co-headlined by another lightweight tiff between Tony Ferguson and Anthony Pettis.