Talked to striking coach about Diaz-McGregor II

[legkicktko]

He is Mohhamed Ouali. He is one of the best striking coaches in the world (feel free to check out his youtube HL). He has won numerous world championships in Muay-Thai. He has fought the best of the best including Tyrone Sponge and many others. As far as coaching, he is responsible for vintage Thiago Alves, Bigfoot Silva vs Fedor, Marlon Moraes, and many others. He was until recently the primary striking coach at ATT. You can see him in the corner of many fighters although recently I believe he retired to only coach part time if at all.

I saw him in the gym and was asking him his thoughts. He breaks down fights like no one I've seen before. I asked him about Diaz Mcgregor II and he told me some interesting points.

• If he was coaching Conor, he would employ a kick and move gameplan with very little boxing (Like Condit) except employing a better jab which he says is important to kicking. Basically kick Diaz as much as possible early and slide out of range of his boxing. This is easier said than done because he said its exhausting and contrary to popular belief, He does not believe McGregor has great footwork. He says Conor starts out with good footwork like against Aldo, but once he exchanges he forgets to get out of range as the fight goes on and his footwork becomes non-existent.
  
• He said its imperative that he does not allow himself to get clinched against the cage because that will tire him out.
  
• He said the gameplan will be tough because Diaz's cardio is his best asset and he will have that in the second fight.
  
• Speaking of matchups, he said striking wise, Diaz was a stiff fight for anyone. But that Edson Barboza is the worst matchup in the division for him on the feet. He says it would possibly look like the Dos Anjos fight except Barboza would keep kicking his leg instead of grappling him and he only expects it would take a couple of kicks to immobilize Nate. He said Barboza is the best kick and move guy in the division.

Just thought you guys might find these things interesting...

Anything can happen, at the end of the day its an opinion, but it is still cool to here the perspective of someone who knows.

 

[Yabuki]

Your Coach know wassup..Barboza has the slickest striking in LW division. He gets you thinking low all the time and you eat a shin in the chin.

 

[chitoortiz]

nice. interesting story.

 

[Gabe]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

 

[CodCommando]

Barboza is probably the most entertaining LW in terms of pure striking. His defence is flawed but I'll never forget his fights where he kicked people until the ref just told him the fights over.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Id love to see Nate vs Barboza.

 

[hasar]

Nice.

 

[SteveColdStone]

Conor's gotta get on his bike and outpoint Nate, which is easier said than done. A lot of people have been saying this is his best path to victory but he doesn't really kick the legs often and his best kick (spinning back kick) isn't really open when both guys stand southpaw. His whole game is basically based around landing that left hand and putting people away, he doesn't have a jab and him not having the reach advantage causes problems. He can get inside and land uppercuts but Nate can just eat them and he should be harder to hit after a full camp. Very tough fight for Conor.

I think Nate stops him with strikes in the third this time. Superior boxer, better chin, better heart, better cardio. Not to mention his better grappling.

 

[soulsstealer]

I thought he would bring something new to to table. Kicking and wrestling, didnt everyone already know that was diaz bros weakness from before. Conor needs to utilize his own tools to KO diaz.

 

[THRP45]

He is Mohhamed Ouali. He is one of the best striking coaches in the world (feel free to check out his youtube HL). He has won numerous world championships in Muay-Thai. He has fought the best of the best including Tyrone Sponge and many others. As far as coaching, he is responsible for vintage Thiago Alves, Bigfoot Silva vs Fedor, Marlon Moraes, and many others. He was until recently the primary striking coach at ATT. You can see him in the corner of many fighters although recently I believe he retired to only coach part time if at all.

I saw him in the gym and was asking him his thoughts. He breaks down fights like no one I've seen before. I asked him about Diaz Mcgregor II and he told me some interesting points.

• If he was coaching Conor, he would employ a kick and move gameplan with very little boxing (Like Condit) except employing a better jab which he says is important to kicking. Basically kick Diaz as much as possible early and slide out of range of his boxing. This is easier said than done because he said its exhausting and contrary to popular belief, He does not believe McGregor has great footwork. He says Conor starts out with good footwork like against Aldo, but once he exchanges he forgets to get out of range as the fight goes on and his footwork becomes non-existent.
  
• He said its imperative that he does not allow himself to get clinched against the cage because that will tire him out.
  
• He said the gameplan will be tough because Diaz's cardio is his best asset and he will have that in the second fight.
  
• Speaking of matchups, he said striking wise, Diaz was a stiff fight for anyone. But that Edson Barboza is the worst matchup in the division for him on the feet. He says it would possibly look like the Dos Anjos fight except Barboza would keep kicking his leg instead of grappling him and he only expects it would take a couple of kicks to immobilize Nate. He said Barboza is the best kick and move guy in the division.

Just thought you guys might find these things interesting...

Anything can happen, at the end of the day its an opinion, but it is still cool to here the perspective of someone who knows.

Thanks for sharing TS.

 

[Team Sleep]

He is Mohhamed Ouali. He is one of the best striking coaches in the world (feel free to check out his youtube HL). He has won numerous world championships in Muay-Thai. He has fought the best of the best including Tyrone Sponge and many others. As far as coaching, he is responsible for vintage Thiago Alves, Bigfoot Silva vs Fedor, Marlon Moraes, and many others. He was until recently the primary striking coach at ATT. You can see him in the corner of many fighters although recently I believe he retired to only coach part time if at all.

I saw him in the gym and was asking him his thoughts. He breaks down fights like no one I've seen before. I asked him about Diaz Mcgregor II and he told me some interesting points.

• If he was coaching Conor, he would employ a kick and move gameplan with very little boxing (Like Condit) except employing a better jab which he says is important to kicking. Basically kick Diaz as much as possible early and slide out of range of his boxing. This is easier said than done because he said its exhausting and contrary to popular belief, He does not believe McGregor has great footwork. He says Conor starts out with good footwork like against Aldo, but once he exchanges he forgets to get out of range as the fight goes on and his footwork becomes non-existent.
  
• He said its imperative that he does not allow himself to get clinched against the cage because that will tire him out.
  
• He said the gameplan will be tough because Diaz's cardio is his best asset and he will have that in the second fight.
  
• Speaking of matchups, he said striking wise, Diaz was a stiff fight for anyone. But that Edson Barboza is the worst matchup in the division for him on the feet. He says it would possibly look like the Dos Anjos fight except Barboza would keep kicking his leg instead of grappling him and he only expects it would take a couple of kicks to immobilize Nate. He said Barboza is the best kick and move guy in the division.

Just thought you guys might find these things interesting...

Anything can happen, at the end of the day its an opinion, but it is still cool to here the perspective of someone who knows.

Really going out on a limb there saying the guy with the most leg kick stoppages would do well against the guy with the most easily kicked and undefended legs lol

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

Expect when has conor shown he is a "thai" type of kicker? His kicks are of the flashy but mostly useless kind.

Conor is a left hand power puncher and not much else.

 

[Seismic]

You would think Nate is undefeated given the talk of battle plans need to be drawn up to beat him. Lennox Lewis lost to Oliver McCall and Rahman despite him being the far superior fighter. Shit happens. There is such a thing as a bad night. Lewis annihilated them in his rematches and that's why the bookies have Conor at short odds for his rematch. Oddsmakers aren't swayed by irrational hatred for Conor like the Natehuggers are. They have coldly analyzed the rematch and have come to the conclusion that Nate isn't suddenly amazing and Conor isn't suddenly shit.

 

[CereserBr]

Thanks TS.

 

[HaulParris]

Thank You TS, good stuff.

 

[FenoxSky]

Your Coach know wassup..Barboza has the slickest striking in LW division. He gets you thinking low all the time and you eat a shin in the chin.

I question Barboza having the best striking in the division, he has gotten a lot better lately (addressing his biggest problems of dealing with pressure, adding more variety and technique to his boxing in the pocket and his footwork in general) and he's up there for sure, but there's a lot of bad match-ups out there for him. Johnson won a striking fight against him not long ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if guys like RDA and Conor can clock him (RDA without even the threat of the takedown).

 

[serr]

Your Coach know wassup..Barboza has the slickest striking in LW division. He gets you thinking low all the time and you eat a shin in the chin.

I agree, but he's losing against sluggish guys like Michael Johnson and Ferguson. So how important is crisp technique in MMA?

 

[FenoxSky]

Barboza/Diaz seems very intriguing to me, both have made progress in dealing with their old problems now. Edson is a lot better at dealing with pressure and Nate with kicks.

 

[NAS451]

I thought he would bring something new to to table. Kicking and wrestling, didnt everyone already know that was diaz bros weakness from before. Conor needs to utilize his own tools to KO diaz.

DId you even read what you wrote? You said McGregor and wrestling in the same sentence. And he thinks he's too fancy for leg kicks.

 

[stav]

but once he exchanges he forgets to get out of range as the fight goes on and his footwork becomes non-existent.

Don't need to be a striking coach to pick up on that one, it was one of the keys to his defeats, I made a post about it straight after his loss. Mc Gregor had amazing counters and great engages, scored well in the first but his disengages after offence were poor. I suspected 20sec into the fight that it might cost him by being countered in the dead space at some point in the fight.

the rest is good stuff, thank you for sharing mate.