Despite worries over whether Conor McGregor would pull out against Michael Chandler following the cancelled press conference all seems well. Initially everyone was very concerned with the press conference cancelation and suspected McGregor may have lingering issues. But, those concerns have gradually dissipated following the lack of news. On top of that McGregor has released training footage on his social media.
Conor McGregor Shares Training Footage Ahead of UFC 303
The footage itself consisted of Conor McGregor doing different aspects of his training. The first clip showed the superstar doing a very light contact version of sparring utilising knees and elbows. It also displayed McGregor utilising a spinning back kick and boxing combos whilst he had his opponent against the fence. Very nice to see McGregor utilse his kicks more and greater diversity of strikes.
The second clip seemed to show footage from a full contact sparring session with Conor and his training partner wearing protective gear. It was very short and showed Mcgregor bouncing around the outside hands low and landing an oblique kick. Again Conor is making use of kicks more.
The third clip was of another sparring session and is very interesting. It shows Mcgregor sprawl to stuff a takedown land a knee in the clinch separate land a big left straight which drops his opponent. So clearly McGregor still has the power to hurt people as well as the timing and precision to land that left hand. The sprawl was also nice to see given Chandler does have his wrestling up his sleeve. An interesting consistency across the footage is Conor seems to be using knees more. The clip also shows McGregor resting.
The fourth clip shows some more boxing based sparring in Crumlin Boxing Club. The clip is very brief and shows McGregor land a left hand and miss an uppercut. This doesn’t really show much except that Conor is still training his boxing.
The Footage Continues
The fifth clip looks to be from the same session as the first again being some light sparring with the same partner. McGregor manages to take him down let him up and throw more kicks. Again giving us flashes of the old Conor who utilised a greater diversity of strikes and who kicked more.
The sixth clip showed another sparring session. This time McGregor is being pressured to the fence and lands a knee to the body lands a left hand then misses with 2 punches. He then gets held against the fence and does the signature shoulder strikes. again the knee utilisation emerges.
The seventh clip shows us a pad work drill. Conor blocks a shot with his right hand then throws a 1-2 combo rinse and repeat. This shows Mcgregor working on his bext boxing combo just the simple 1-2.
The eigth clip seems to be from the same sparring session as the 6th with both guys wearing the same things. This is bit more of a fast paced part of the session. McGregor is able to land his left hand and knee. His opponent keeps pressuring him throwing some leg kicks and punches as well as going for takedowns failing the 1st. Conor throws a knee which his partner catches and pushes him to the fence with it but Conor manages to break from the clinch.
The ninth clip again is a continuation from the eight. This one doesn’t show much except Conor again bouncing around on the outside with his hands low.
Last but not least is the 10th clip showing some more padwork. This time the drill is the left straight followed by a right hook a very effective combination for a southpaw. Zhelie Zhang recently showed it’s effectiveness against Wilder knocking him down with the southpaw right hook.
How Does McGregor Look?
Well from what we’ve seen McGregor is looking pretty good. He seems to be making an effort to go back to his old style of striking where he’d be a lot more diverse in what he threw. Conor also recognises the wrestling threat of Chandler as seen by his his training partners going for takedowns. On the feet Conor seems relatively sharp but we have to remember this is what Conor wants us to see otherwise he wouldn’t have released it.
McGregor also doesn’t seem to be showing signs of injury obviously it’s tricky to tell but visibly he’s looking healthy. This is reassuring as with the cancelling of the press conference there were rumours of injury spreading. But from what we can see he seems fine and is looking in good shape.
So in general this footage looks to be a good sign that Conor McGregor will be back for UFC 303 but we will have to wait and see come fight night.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
