Georges St-Pierre Outlines How Donald Cerrone Can Avoid Getting KO’d by Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor is the consensus favorite to win his upcoming bout with Donald Cerrone. But, Georges St-Pierre recently broke down how he thinks Cerrone can avoid getting KO’d by the feared striker, and deliver a win at UFC 246.

GSP weighs-in on McGregor vs. Cerrone

As the January 18th fight between Cerrone and McGregor approaches, the latter is carrying odds on the betting lines ranging from -300 to -333. Those are fairly significant, in terms of reflecting the consensus that McGregor will win the highly anticipated bout.

Well, recently Tristar coach Firas Zahabi spoke with St-Pierre about the upcoming fight. While breaking down the contest, the Canadian superstar said this (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“It depends if Cerrone comes and tries to grapple because he’s got (a) very, very good ground game,” said St-Pierre. “His ground game is very underrated. I’ve trained with him before and he’s got good takedowns. He’s very explosive to shoot the takedown. People don’t know that because he doesn’t use it much. He used it against Patrick Cote but if he does that, to weather the first couple of minutes of the storm and McGregor’s powerful left hand, I think he can get it.

“I think if he wrestles (in) Round 1, I think he has a good chance to win. But if he tries to play a boxing game, karate game, with McGregor, McGregor will tag him and knock him out.”

“McGregor from what I’ve seen, he’s like a sniper, and when you fight a sniper, you need to move,” St-Pierre said. “You need to change levels, you need to change angles, you need to change distance and I don’t know if Cerrone will do that or if – because he’s known to be a very slow starter…”

This seems to be the take by a lot of people. Case in point, recently Jorge Masvidal also opined that if Cerrone comes out and mixes in some grappling, takes some gas away from McGregor, his chances of winning will rise.

Will Cerrone look to wrestle though?

The big question is, however, will Cerrone shoot any takedowns or look to clinch up? The dangerous fighter has already said publicly that he plans to stand with McGregor, since that’s what fans want to see. Of course, there’s a chance Cerrone is just saying that to throw McGregor off, or that he’ll change his mind if he’s taking punishment early on.

We’ll find out soon enough. UFC 246 will be hosted by the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.