Rashad Evans (19-4-1) tycker inte att Conor McGregor (19-3) var samma fighter som han sett honom förut när McGregor blev besegrad av Nate Diaz (19-10) via submission på UFC 196 och nu förklarar Evans varför.
Evans var en av få som tippade på att Diaz skulle besegra McGregor och förklarar att han kände att McGregor var en annorlunda fighter i matchen mot Diaz.
”When I see some of these matchups sometimes, I start analyzing them and I start thinking of them over and over again. Sometimes a favorite does something that sways me the other way. It’s something really, really subtle, but I see it.”
”With McGregor, I felt like he was a lot different that last fight because — he wasn’t the same person. It seemed like he was putting on a little bit too much just for the show. And I know the woes of putting on too much for the show because I know at the end of the day you’re taking away from what makes you sharp in the cage.”
Evans berättade också att inte behöva gå ner i vikt inför matchen mot Diaz kan ha distraherat McGregor, som då gör något som inte ingår i hans vanliga rutin. Evans förklarar också att McGregor är van att använda sin längd mot kortare fighters i fjäderviktsdivisionen och får sina motståndare att tro att han är närmare dem än vad han egentligen är.
”Another problem was the fact that he didn’t have to cut weight,” sa han. ”Now every single thing that goes into a fight is a process. For me, putting on my suit — making sure I’m suited and booted before I go out there — that helps me get to my rhythm so then I’m not analyzing every aspect of a fight before it’s time to. So for him not cutting weight, for him not having that on his mind, he then put other things on his plate that he wouldn’t normally do because he was cutting weight.”
”And then, if you add the physical attributes to it, you have a guy in Conor McGregor who is dominating at his weight class because really, he’s tall and he as a cannon for his left hand. But he makes people make mistakes because he leads them to believe that he’s a lot closer than he is and then he pulls back, and then he catches them reaching. He’s either able to catch them with counter strikes or he makes them have a huge range to fulfill.”
Foto: Mazdak Cavian
