Chael Sonnen agrees with Sean O’Malley, who thinks Conor McGregor’s extra muscle is going to be of little use when he returns to the Octagon.
McGregor has been limited to weight training since breaking his tibia in his trilogy with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, and has only recently returned to hitting pads. The Irishman’s focus on weight training has led to him gaining a lot more size and muscle. In a recent tweet, ‘The Notorious’ shared photos of him looking a lot bigger.
Sonnen On McGregor’s Transformation
Sean O’Malley believes McGregor’s extra muscle will not benefit him much in cage fighting, and Sonnen agrees with him. Speaking on his YouTube channel (as transcribed by BJPenn.com), the 44-year-old said that the former two division champ shouldn’t be boasting about his 190-pound frame, because that shows he’s not been training.
“So there is this picture floating around of Conor McGregor looking bigger than we have ever seen him weighing something like 190 pounds,” Sonnen said. “And O’Malley said ‘Man, I don’t know if that helps you in fighting’, and I don’t know where it would help you in fighting. And if he does in fact weigh 190 pounds, he should not be going down to 155. Now, hold that thought because Sean is the only one to state the obvious. First off, that picture of Conor, he did not look great.
“Conor is chiseled man. There’s clothing people that pay Conor to wear their stuff. He’s got this fantastic build. That picture of him at 190, I can’t give those same compliments. He looked like he was extremely bloated. And when somebody weighs 190 – that’s used to weighing 155, 175; what you have to wonder is how. How did you get this big? Why? The answer to me seems redundantly obvious. You’re not training. You cannot train the way you need to prepare in MMA, which we’re well aware. We are well aware that Conor is not. He’s got the hurt leg and he’s not doing what he is used to. He’s not jumping rope. He’s not running. He’s not pulling the sled. He’s not sparring. We get it. He’s having to do other exercises. But that’s always important to know because that’s what Sean’s talking about. If you’re not doing our sport, who gives a damn what you weigh? If your calorie deficit to intake got so far out of control, that you’re bigger than you’ve ever been, that’s not a good thing.”
Do you agree with Chael Sonnen?
See also:
