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Breakdown of Conor McGregor Shoulder Strikes VS Cowboy Cerrone UFC 246

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After Conor McGregor easily defeated Cowboy Cerrone in UFC 246, a lot of people had questions about the shoulder strikes he was using in the fight. MMA Coach Vince Salvador breaks down how Conor used them and why they were so effective.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Coach Vince Salvador:
How’s it going? I’m coach Vince, one of the coaches of the MMA team, and this is your tip of the week. So over the weekend we watched the Conor – Cerrone fight. The shoulder strikes were one of the strikes that he used to set up a lot of things. It’s not a new move. A lot of people have been doing it for a long time. It really has a lot to do with the grip. And we’re going to go over ways to stop it, prevent it, and also how to use it. In that situation, the over hook, come on, we’ll go on this side and the bicep right. From here, if I control this and over the hook here, his head’s exposed unless he changes his head position. So if he changes head position and gets his head to the inside, I can’t hit him with the shoulder anymore.

Right? So to prevent this, bring your hips in, shoulder position and you want to be tight so I can’t get into that position anymore. I have to push, bring my head on this side to hit him with this shoulder. So if his heads on this side, it can happen, especially if I have the bicep control because I have control of this arm. Now I can go over hook here and I can just help with the shoulder. If I want to, I can, if I’m shorter than my opponent, like I am here with Jeff, I can drive from down low and bring it upward just to make space. A lot of times when we use that, it’s just so we can make space so we can fire that inside to make space that we can turn to here. Right? But if you don’t defend it, it can be a weapon and it’s a good weapon to use against the cage.

So if I’m here and his head’s on the wrong side, right, I can hit him here, use that to start busting him up to set up, take down and stuff like that. So another thing … Grab me the same way. Over hook bicep head position is key for me. So if he wants to hit me with the shoulder, what does he need? He needs to get his head on this side and put from this position here. So what first things first for me to prevent that, I got to get the same grip as he has. Now I have shoulder control. He tries to bump, doesn’t work anymore. Now with my underhook and this position here, I have a stronger position than he does. I get my head back into position where I can use it and none of this ever happens. That’s my tip of the week.

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