Anderson Silva talks Conor McGregor’s flaws, potential fight with Mayweather.
We all have our flaws, but Conor McGregor’s are abundantly clear. That’s according to former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who was featured on Combate News TV on Thursday evening.
Silva, who ruled as the 185 lbs king for seven years, said McGregor’s most notable weakness is jiu jitsu.
"He has flaws. We all have flaws. And his flaws are clear,” Silva said, per MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz. "He defends well, but he doesn’t have jiu-jitsu. The main thing is that he uses his movement and his opponent’s movement in his advantage.
"He never puts himself in uncomfortable positions. Everyone who fought him put themselves in uncomfortable positions and weren't able to get back to comfortable positions again."
Despite picking up two UFC world titles in 2016, ‘The Notorious’ still faces criticism for being one-dimensional. McGregor, who trains under Ireland’s BJJ black belt John Kavanagh, was choked out by submission wizard Nate Diaz at UFC 196 but rebounded with a majority decision win in the rematch. The brash Irishman then went on to capture lightweight gold after TKO’ing Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 and is now in talks with Floyd Mayweather about a potential boxing superfight.
Silva, 41, encourages McGregor to take the fight and believes he would surprise Mayweather with his boxing skills.
"I think everybody has a chance,” Silva said. "When you step inside (the ring) to fight, you have a chance. Of course that if you’re fighting Mayweather, people would say ‘oh, McGregor won’t last a round,’ but we never know."
"The movement is different, how you have your feet on the ground is different, the timing is different boxing,” he continued. "The only way to see is putting them to fight. He would have to stop at least a year to be able to do a close fight, and I believe he should do it."
Negotiations are apparently underway for a potential Mayweather-McGregor showdown, with ‘Money’ and UFC president Dana White trading back-and-forth on the stipulations.
Mayweather, a 49-0 world class boxer who is considered one of the greatest of all time, offered McGregor $15 million. White, the UFC’s longtime head promoter, fired back with an offer of his own and said he’d pay Mayweather and McGregor $25 million each for a boxing fight under the UFC banner.
