UFC legend explains why Alex Pereira and Conor McGregor are more susceptible to knockouts: "Just one shot away"

While Conor McGregor and Alex Pereira are two of the biggest stars in MMA today, one UFC legend believes the pair's underwhelming wrestling skills put them at risk of getting knocked out.

Talking to Chael Sonnen on a recent episode of the Good Guy Bad Guy podcast, former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier seemingly stamped McGregor and 'Poatan' as one-dimensional fighters while discussing their wrestling prowess.

As 'DC' sees it, an underdeveloped wrestling game negates a fighter's ability to break the pace in between fights:

"Conor McGregor also was such a tremendous striker that he was knocking people out, but he never had the ability to wrestle. He could grapple, he could defend takedowns, but he couldn't really wrestle. I feel... if you cannot wrestle at all, you're always in danger of getting hit with something, because you never can find safety."

Cormier added:

"Where as Alex Pereira is able to knock people out, you saw what happened with Izzy [Israel Adesanya], he [Pereira] can't wrestle, so you're always just one shot away from getting knocked out... If you're just a striker, in most instances, you are really just this close to being knocked out every time, because anybody can land a punch."

Catch Daniel Cormier's comments about Conor McGregor and Alex Pereira below (8:52):

According to Cormier, it was McGregor's inability to take down Dustin Poirier that enabled 'The Diamond' to find his rhythm and knock out the Irishman at UFC 257.

The UFC legend further highlighted his point, claiming that most current UFC champions have good enough grappling skills to change things up during fights.

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Michael Chandler seemingly confirms new fight date against Conor McGregor

After Conor McGregor's grand comeback against Michel Chandler at UFC 303 came undone owing to a toe injury on the Irishman's side, 'Iron' has now seemingly confirmed a new date for the fight.

After X user @JUchiha909 speculated McGregor vs. Chandler had been made for the UFC Noche event on September 14, Chandler responded by writing:

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However, the UFC hasn't made any official announcement regarding a new date for the fight. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that the Noche event, commemorating the Mexican Independence Day, won't have at least one Mexican fighter on the main event bout.