'Without the sh*t talk, he's a lot less effective' - Ben Askren gives his thoughts on the new Conor McGregor

Ben Askren has weighed in with his thoughts on the new Conor McGregor. Askren believes that McGregor isn’t as effective in his fights without his notorious trash talk.

Conor McGregor’s first fight against Dustin Poirier witnessed him unrelentingly attack Poirier with trash talk and insults. Their first fight, which transpired at UFC 178 in September 2014, ended with McGregor besting Poirier via first-round TKO.

On the contrary, Conor McGregor chose to be incredibly respectful in the buildup to his rematch with Poirier. This fight, which transpired at UFC 257 in January 2021, ended with McGregor losing to Poirier via second-round TKO.

Besides, in addition to the UFC 257 rematch against Poirier, Conor McGregor had similarly adopted a respectful approach to his previous fight – his UFC 246 (January 2020) matchup against Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. McGregor defeated Cerrone via first-round TKO.

On an edition of the Real Quick with Mike Swick podcast, former UFC fighter and retired MMA competitor Ben Askren addressed the new version of Conor McGregor. Askren stated:

“Conor without the sh*t talk is a lot less effective. I mean if you just look at just the first Poirier fight, in the first fight, he (Conor McGregor) got him really upset, right? And Poirier got overextended; tried to fight too hard, and boom, clips him, puts him down. Jose Aldo; gets him mad, Aldo rushes in, boom, puts him down. And now, in these last couple of fights, we’ve seen like this nicer, happy, more mature (McGregor) whatever you want to call it. He’s not the same Conor we saw five years ago. And there’s other things that are different as well. But I think Conor without the sh*t talk is a less effective Conor.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)

"I OWN RIO DE JANEIRO!" 🇧🇷Remember when Conor walked into the World Tour press conference, put his feet up, and said this? 👀#HistoryLessonsWithConor pic.twitter.com/4o819zPbF5

— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) September 25, 2018

"He's a lot like Muhammad Ali.""To even have my name next to that great man is special..."Conor McGregor reacts to Dana White comparing him to the legendary heavyweight 👊#UFC229 pic.twitter.com/HGOWKOC44N

— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) October 6, 2018

"The respect is there!""You're going to help a lot of people!"Charity first brought this fight together.Plenty of respect between @TheNotoriousMMA and @DustinPoirier.#UFC257 pic.twitter.com/Pb1lh19iBG

— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) January 21, 2021

Furthermore, Ben Askren and Mike Swick reiterated that Conor McGregor’s trash talk was tremendously effective in helping him get under his opponent’s skin.

Ben Askren praised Conor McGregor’s technique but criticized his unpreparedness in dealing with Dustin Poirier’s low kicks

Dustin Poirier (left); Conor McGregor (right)

Ben Askren and Mike Swick opined that McGregor seems to have aged considerably between his UFC 246 fight against Cerrone and the UFC 257 fight against Poirier.

Moreover, Ben Askren and Mike Swick praised Conor McGregor’s technique in the UFC 257 fight, particularly his performance in round one. The duo also gave Poirier props and insinuated that McGregor ought to have been better prepared to check Poirier’s low kicks.

Askren and Swick indicated that the MMA world is likely to develop better techniques to check low kicks in the years to come.

Ben Askren is presently set to compete in a professional boxing match against YouTube superstar Jake Paul on April 17th, 2021. Meanwhile, the consensus is that Conor McGregor is likely to fight Dustin Poirier in a trilogy matchup later this year (2021).