Recently, on a podcast, Conor McGregor’s coach and long-time MMA teacher, Owen Roddy (along with BJJ legend Eddie Bravo) was interviewed about the possible upcoming Tony Ferguson VS. Conor McGregor fight, whether or not it’ll happen, when it’ll go down and who will win…
“It’s exciting,” Roddy said. “When the word goes out like that, and people start to talk about it, it’s usually not far off the deal being done. It could be a good one. Ferguson is the interim champion and rightfully so, he had a good performance against Lee. And he’s had a lot of good performances.
“I’d like to see it. People, including myself, were talking about the Diaz fight, but who knows that may come again. But if it’s Ferguson, that’s going to be a cracker as well. I still see Conor — if they’re standing for any sort of extended period, it’ll be a quick one and that’s it.”
“He’s just not as tidy as Conor,” Roddy said. “You play the percentages, and Conor’s the cleaner, more refined striker. Ferguson is tough, he’s unorthodox, but in my opinion Conor’s just the superior striker.
“You got to give it to Ferguson, he’s tricky on the ground and he’s got some nice submissions and stuff. But if it was to go to the ground and Conor keeps it simple, and doesn’t get caught up in any of that crazy stuff [he’ll be fine].”
“It’s a great style,” Roddy said about Eddie Bravo’s 10th planet jiu jitsu system, which Ferguson got a black belt in. “It’s great if you’re getting caught up in that guard, because you don’t know it. But I think if you’ve got very good fundamentals, it makes it very difficult for you to get anything off in 10th planet. I think some of it as well is a little bit attribute based. you need to be really, really flexible to play that rubber guard stuff.
“But if you go in there lazy and you don’t know that game, you can be caught out very quick — But that wont be the case if Conor does go and meet Ferguson. We have a lot of guys in the gym that play that 10th planet style, watching Tony seeing what he likes to use, and having answers and options if that occurs.”
“If Conor wants to go at the end of the year, then we go straight into camp,” Roddy said. “He came back training last week, and got a couple of sessions in. He’s back in the gym, after the whole whirlwind. I think it’d be great to let him get back training and enjoy training and take it from there. But at the end of the day, whatever happens happens. If we go into camp tomorrow, we go into camp tomorrow and that’s it.”
“It’s an exciting fight isn’t it?” he said. “[Ferguson] definitely brings problems, and people are asking for it, and that’s the most important thing. Money talks at the end of the day, and whatever makes the most money is what both people would go for. But because people are asking for it and posting about it, that’s starting to generate the momentum that they needed to get that big fight. It’ll be a good fight. It’ll definitely be a good fight.”