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UFC fighters and their respective coaching teams usually spend a lot of time studying their opponents. With an abundance of tape available on almost every fighter on the UFC roster, it's not that difficult for fighters to dissect their opponents anymore.
Fighters spend time trying to find out the flaws and susceptibilities in their opponent's game and ways to exploit them during the fight. Sometimes, fighters study their opponents so well that they develop a vision of exactly how a fight is going to pan out. It's as if they can see through a crystal ball and predict the outcome of their fights.
In this article, we look back at times when fighters got their predictions for fights absolutely bang on.
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#5. When Daniel Cormier predicted he would KO Stipe Miocic at UFC 226
Former two-division UFC champion Daniel Cormier eerily predicted how he would put Stipe Miocic to sleep just hours before their fight for the heavyweight title at UFC 226. Unbelievably, Cormier's prediction came true, word for word.
In an interview with DC at UFC on FOX just after the fight, Michael Bisping revealed Cormier told him he'd knock Miocic out just hours before the fight:
“You just said to me off-air, ‘I’m going to knock him out’. Your confidence is at an all-time high but you said you’re going to knock him out? You’re not going to outwrestle him, you’re not going to submit him – you’re going to knock him out?”
Cormier then went on to explain why he made the prediction. He said the move to heavyweight had helped pack more power in his strikes and he could very well finish Stipe. Cormier also spoke about trying to take advantage of the holes in Miocic's game.
He said Miocic kept his guard low after moving out of clinch position and that's when he'd try to strike him right on the money. That's exactly what happened during the fight as Cormier became a two-weight world champion:
“Look man. There are some things that he does – especially when you get out of clinch positions where his hands are pretty low and that chin is way up in the air. He’s got a big ol’ face and I’m going to try and crack him upside his head.“I used to hit guys and it would have effect on them. At 205lbs, that seemed to disappear. In sparring I’ve put guys down on five or six occasions this training camp and that’s something I haven’t done in years.“I’ve put guys down with hands. I’ve put guys down with kicks. My strikes are now having the effect that they did when I started to fight.” said Cormier.
#4. When Jon Jones predicted how he'd beat Daniel Cormier 3 years before UFC 214
Ahead of his first UFC fight with Daniel Cormier, Jon Jones spoke about the flaws in DC's game and how he's susceptible to getting knocked out by head kicks. Cormier sometimes dropped his head towards the right during fights and that left him vulnerable to head kicks.
Even Cormier acknowledged the same and assured Jones that he'd worked on it and that he wouldn't repeat the mistake again. "Don't think you're going to kick me in the head with your left leg," said Cormier to Jones in a press conference.
Well, he didn't get kicked in the head during their first fight but when they ran it back at UFC 214, Jones landed the left high kick to the head Cormier said he wouldn't be able to. It led to a stoppage win for 'Bones'.
#3. The origin of Left Hook Larry
The odds were stacked heavily against Michael Bisping when he was offered a title shot on just two weeks' notice against Luke Rockhold at UFC 199. Rockhold had previously beaten Bisping earlier in their UFC careers.
However, Bisping believed he could change things in the rematch. Bisping and his coach, Jason Parillo, spent hours studying footage from Rockhold's previous fights. They recognized that Rockhold always kept his right hand low during fights and came up with the perfect gameplan to beat him.
"Luke Rockhold, I knew by his training footage that he was going to be vulnerable to that left hook," said Parillo.
During the fight, Bisping kept firing the left hook at every possible opportunity. He'd also use combinations that would end with a left hook. One of these vicious hooks landed flush on Rockhold's chin and he got rocked. Rockhold managed to pick himself up only for the left hook to land once again and that was all she wrote. Michael Bisping became the UFC middleweight champion.
Since Bisping relied completely on the left hook to beat Rockhold, he was later given the nickname Left Hook Larry.
#2. The Birth of Mystic Mac before UFC 178
A promising up-and-comer in the UFC back in 2014, Conor McGregor certainly knew how to grab the headlines. At the press conference ahead of his UFC 178 clash with Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor was oozing with confidence. The fashionable, young and outspoken Irishman promised to crack Poirier early with the jab before bouncing his head off the canvas in the first round.
Every single word spoken by McGregor turned out to be true. At the time, Poirier had never been knocked out in his entire career but could you really doubt 'Notorious'?
After testing the waters in the initial exchanges, a glancing left-hand shot by McGregor clipped Poirier on the temple. He went crashing down to the canvas, his head bouncing off it, just as advertised.
It took Conor McGregor less than two minutes to get the job done against Dustin Poirier at UFC 178. In the post-fight interview, McGregor said the following:
"I don't just knock them out, I pick the rounds. You can call me Mystic Mac, because I predict these things."
Since then, McGregor has also been known as Mystic Mac for being able to accurately predict the outcome of his fights.
#1. The method to Conor McGregor's madness
Conor McGregor mastered the art of mind games to perfection ahead of his fight with Jose Aldo at UFC 194. Ahead of the fight, the Irishman would intentionally incite the Brazilian legend by insulting him and getting in his face chance he got.
By the time all the press conferences and media obligations were done with, McGregor was inside Aldo's head, and he knew it. In fact, that was his masterplan. McGregor knew that Aldo was so angry, all he wanted to do was get his hands on 'Notorious'. This over-aggressive mentality played right into McGregor's hands.
McGregor sensed it long before the fight. In an interview with Robin Black, McGregor narrated exactly how he was going to KO Jose Aldo at UFC 194:
"When we stared down, I felt his right hand was twitching a little bit which was a subtle tell for me. He is ready to unload that right hand but that could be a downfall for him. If he let's that right hand go, I will not be there," said McGregor.
The fight went exactly as McGregor said it would. Aldo over-extended with the first punch he threw and McGregor pulled back and countered with a precise left hand shot of his own. It was over in the blink of an eye. To date, McGregor holds the record for the fastest KO in a UFC title fight at 13 seconds.
