UFC 246: Chuck Liddell, Georges St-Pierre Predict Conor McGregor vs. Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone

Former UFC champs Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell and Georges St-Pierre made detailed prediction of Conor McGregor vs. Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone.

Cerrone was chosen to welcome McGregor in his much awaited UFC return at UFC 246. Ahead of the fight, McGregor is already expected to come out stronger than he ever was. However, for former UFC champs Liddell and St-Pierre, “Cowboy” can take the former two-division king if he will be able to utilize his ground game.

For years, McGregor’s poor ground skills have been what experts see as the hole in “Mystic Mac’s” game. And this is no different from what Liddell foresee in McGregor’s return. In a brief talk with Elie Seckbach of EsNews, the legendary fighter predicted that if Cowboy can “convince McGregor” to take the fight to the ground, it will be over.

“If Cowboy can come out and convince him (McGregor), he’s gonna take him down and go after him, and (if he) can gas him (ou), I think Cowboy can do it,” Liddell predicted.

Liddell also credited McGregor’s toughness and noted that “The Notorious” is “always gonna be tough.” However, the Hall of Famer admitted that he has always been a big fan of Cerrone and that’s the reason why he thinks Cowboy will come out on top.

A few days ago, “GSP” already weighed in on McGregor vs. Cerrone. According to the former UFC welterweight champ the underrated grappling skills of Cerrone is the key to finish a lethal striker like McGregor.

St-Pierre, who has trained with Cerronin the past, also revealed that Cowboy is very explosive in shooting takedowns. In fact, St-Pierre remembers how Cerrone outlasted Patrick Cote using the said takedowns and believes that he must repeat it against McGregor.

“He used it against Patrick Cote. If he does that, to weather the first couple minutes of the storm and McGregor’s powerful left hand, I think he can get it,” St-Pierre predicted

Despite being confident with Cerrone’s ground game, St-Pierre doesn’t disregard McGregor’s striking. As per the French-Canadian superstar, Cerrone will risk everything if he tries to trade blows with McGregor.

“If he tries to play a boxing and karate game with McGregor, McGregor will knock him out. It’s hard,” St-Pierre emphasized.

Meanwhile, McGregor recently addressed the reason why he is facing Cerrone in his return. According to McGregor, Cerrone was the “first on the list” of fighters who have been calling him out but he also plans to face all of them, MMA Fighting reported.

“If you look at the list of call outs or the people that I’ve engaged with, Donald was probably was one of the first ones. So he’s first on the list, and that’s it. I’ll get to every single one of them also,” McGregor explained.