Owen Roddy: ‘Very talented’ Donald Cerrone struggles with southpaws like Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor’s striking coach is excited by the prospect of “The Notorious” facing off with Donald Cerrone for a number of reasons ahead of UFC 246 on Jan. 18 at the T-Mobile Arena.

Although some have claimed that Cerrone is a good matchup for the Irishman based on his previous results against southpaws, the Irish MMA legend insisted that “Cowboy” is a “very talented” counterpart with “lots of weapons” at his disposal.

“I like the Cerrone fight, but he’s very talented,” Roddy told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast.

“It’s only when you start looking at all of his fights and the tools that he has — he’s got weapons, he’s got lots of weapons and he’s good everywhere, he’ll mix it up. Yeah, he’s a very talented fighter, but like everyone he has holes in his game. He has struggled a little bit with southpaws and there’s no better southpaw in the world than Conor. I think we can land shots on him and that’s what I’m most excited about.”

Roddy expects the anticipation for the fight to be palpable by the time we enter 2020 in three weeks’ time.

“Once things start to build [the fight will be big], the fight has only been officially announced a couple of weeks ago, so it’s building nicely. When it starts getting into the New Year, three or four weeks out it’s just going to explode. Cerrone and Conor, the matchup is perfect. Their mentalities, their attitudes…their attitudes towards fighting…I think it’s going to build for an exciting fight and exciting build-up to a fight.”

As well as relishing the style matchup, Roddy revealed that he is looking forward to a less intense back and forth between McGregor and Cerrone on the back of an intense build up to the SBG fighter’s last bout when he was gearing up to face arch rival Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“The last few fights have been like wars,” said Roddy. “You’re going into camp and [the opposing] team isn’t getting along, it’s a bit much to be honest. This is going to be fun, this will be exciting. They’ll be back and forth, Conor will be throwing some stick, but Cerrone will be able to take it and he’ll be able to throw it back as well. There is mutual respect there, I don’t think it will…the back and forth… get too dirty or anything like that. It’ll be lighthearted and that will be nice and it will be enjoyable for everybody. When they get in and do it, it’s going to be a very exciting fight.”

Owen Roddy joins the latest episode of Eurobash. His interview begins at 42:00.