– Paul Dollery reports from Las Vegas
AS HIS TEAM-MATE and long-time sparring partner, Artem Lobov is obviously backing Conor McGregor to emerge victorious from Saturday night’s rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
Lobov believes McGregor will finish the job before the judges are called into action too. However, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, the Russian-born fighter says the key to finishing Diaz will be to approach the fight in the mindset that it’s going to last the distance.
Diaz submitted McGregor in the second round of their headline bout at UFC 196 last March, but Lobov expects that result to be reversed this weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“Conor is going to have much better cardio in this fight and he’s going to be prepared for whatever Nate brings,” said Lobov, who takes on Diaz’s team-mate Chris Avila on Saturday night’s preliminary card.
“The secret to beating Nate Diaz is thinking of every shot that you throw as points that you’re scoring. Tell yourself, ‘This is going to be a five-rounder, I have to out-point him’.
“If you do that, you’ll be patient and eventually the knockout will come because he’ll eventually crumble under all those shots. I believe that’s what Conor is going to do and I feel he will finish Nate, possibly towards the end of the third round.”
His defeat to Diaz earlier this year was an unexpected setback for McGregor, but Lobov is adamant that — with the benefit of hindsight — the UFC featherweight champion will eventually reflect on that result as a turning point in his career.
“Everybody needs to experience adversity in order to change for the better. We all need those challenges and this just happens to be Conor’s challenge,” Lobov said.
“It has taken him to new levels, it has opened up his eyes to a lot of things and in the long run it will prove to have been a good thing.”
