5 reasons why Conor McGregor will beat Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229

#2: McGregor’s chin is proven to be granite

McGregor survived an onslaught on the ground to destroy Chad Mendes

A lot of observers who are picking Khabib to win this fight are basing their pick on McGregor’s 2015 fight with Chad Mendes – a wrestler who essentially represents a smaller version of Nurmagomedov. Mendes took the fight with McGregor on relatively late notice, but was still able to secure takedowns and cut the Irishman with elbows on the ground before he ran out of steam and succumbed to a second round TKO.

The fight did show that McGregor’s takedown defense isn’t impregnable, and Khabib is probably a better takedown artist than Mendes, too. But can he really do that much damage on the ground? I’d actually suggest the answer is no. Firstly, Nurmagomedov is not the kind of fighter to purely look for submissions on the ground like Nate Diaz. He’s only submitted two men inside the Octagon in fact.

That means he’s going to look to ground-and-pound Conor, and judging on McGregor’s previous fights, it’s going to be very difficult to finish him off in that way. McGregor took a lot of cosmetic damage and was cut by Mendes, but he never looked hurt and when he got up, he was clearly the fresher man. Questions have been asked about Conor’s cardio, but when he was on the ground against Mendes, he certainly didn’t appear to tire out.

Essentially, Conor’s chin appears to be made of granite – he’s taken big shots from other fighters before and shrugged them off too – and it’s going to be difficult for Khabib to put him away with ground-and-pound. And if he can’t do that, then every round starts on the feet – where he’s in massive danger from the Irishman’s striking.