Georges St-Pierre Sounds Off On Khabib vs. Conor

Georges St-Pierre sounds off on the big UFC lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor in the headliner of UFC 229 from Las Vegas. This lightweight title fight is the biggest of the year for the UFC on pay-per-view.

Many fighters have offered their prediction for this fight. Now we can add the name of the former UFC welterweight and middleweight champ. During a recent interview, GSP stated that he expects to watch a fight that will be entertaining as well as the importance of the first round.

The first round of the scheduled five-bout contest will determine the outcome in his eyes:

“It’s going to be early,” St-Pierre told MMA Fighting. “We’re going to see early in the first round what’s going to happen. If Conor can land, it’s going to be crazy, he can cause damage and end the fight early with his big left hand. Everything else is like a setup. All his kicks, all this stuff is a setup.”

GSP continued by stating that the major weapon McGregor has is obviously his dangerous left hand that has brought him several victories.

Greatest Weapon

“His main weapon is the big left hand. Everything else, the trash talk, the kicks, the punches, it can hurt but it’s all a distraction. The left hand is the one that hurts every time. He’s a sniper. He’s very good at it. Everybody knows but nobody — it’s very rare, the people who have been able to avoid it. And that’s what Khabib needs to do.”

The former UFC welterweight and middleweight champ shifted his focus to Khabib and pointed out that he needs to go with what brought him to the point that he’s at now.

“On the other side, if Khabib is able to put Conor on the ground or against the fence and smother him with ground-and-pound, that’s his game. So it’s going to be early. We’ll see in the first half of the first round how the fight goes. It will give up the idea of how the fight will end, I think.”

Time Off Is Not A Problem

St-Pierre also went on record by stating that McGregor is someone who can come into a fight on a long layoff and still compete at a high level.

“I think the pressure will [help], I perform my best under pressure, I always do. Some people crash, but me, it ignites me. It makes me even better, so I love it. And I think Conor is the same. He does his best under pressure. That’s when he’s [on his game].”

Khabib’s Potential Mistake

GSP also brought up how Jose Aldo made an error when he fought McGregor as he rushed him, which left an opening that McGregor capitalized on.

“Jose Aldo made a big mistake when he fought Conor — he rushed him and he opened himself up and he made a mistake, and I thought Conor was able to capitalize very early in the round. So, we’ll see if Khabib will make the same mistake.”