Owen Roddy, Conor’s McGregor’s striking coach, admits they were not prepared for an "aggressive" Floyd Mayweather, who instead of being defensive - was coming forward in their contest last month at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Mayweather hung back for the first few rounds, but then the comebacking fighter began to come forward and being aggressive in the fight.
Eventually McGregor tired out as the fight continued and eventually was stopped in the tenth round.
Roddy says they should have been ready for that kind of strategy from Mayweather.
“I should have been aware of a game plan like that from Mayweather and that probably should’ve been done in camp. It’s hard to change things when you’re in the fight, so I’m a bit disappointed in myself that I didn’t predict that he would walk forward and let Conor catch him on the arms and walk him down,” Roddy said to the MMA Hour.
“I honestly thought (Mayweather) was going to pop shots, sit back, work the shoulder roll and Philly shell. He did play that game for the first couple of rounds. Conor was having success with all of that, but unfortunately I didn’t have the stuff in place for the walking down strategy. We’ve learned from that.”
All in all, Roddy was pleased with his fighter's overall performance in the contest.
“I felt the game plan that we came up with and the strategy we had for the first four rounds was really good. Conor was doing well. It was a tight fight,” Roddy said.
“Conor was landing shots that we worked and he was landing them often enough. In my opinion, when Mayweather switched it up and he kind of walked Conor down with the hands high and elbows in and just kept walking forward and let Conor throw shots at the arms – when we saw that we hadn’t prepared for it. We tried to switch it up from rounds six or seven. We were telling Conor, ‘just keep popping one or two shots, don’t throw any more combinations – just keep it single shots, enter into the clinch and try to push him backwards.’
“When it’s that intense, and you’re constantly being pushed back, it doesn’t matter how fit you are. From nine and ten, Floyd managed to put Conor on the back foot for those two rounds and kept walking him down. I know from experience, when someone is constantly pressuring you like that and you don’t have a second to get a breath, fatigue sets in really quick."
