Silva: McGregor 'has flaws,' but stands a chance against Mayweather

Anderson Silva may not be impressed by Conor McGregor's ground game, but isn't questioning his standup skills.

During a recent appearance on Brazil's Combate News, "The Spider" cited the reigning lightweight champion's jiu-jitsu as his Achilles heel, but commended McGregor for his ability to keep out of harm's way, a style his coach, John Kavanagh, previously explained was bred to keep head trauma to a minimum.

"He (McGregor) has flaws. We all have flaws. And his flaws are clear," Silva said, per MMAFighting's Guilherme Cruz. "He defends well, but he doesn’t have jiu-jitsu. The main thing is that he uses his movement and his opponent’s movement in his advantage.

"He never puts himself in uncomfortable positions. Everyone who fought him put themselves in uncomfortable positions and weren't able to get back to comfortable positions again."

All three of McGregor's career losses have come by way of submission.

Silva also dished on a potential boxing match between "The Notorious" and legendary pugilist Floyd Mayweather. While Silva refrained from counting McGregor out of the would-be bout, the former middleweight king believes the Irishman shouldn't share a ring with Mayweather until he's taken a solid year to hone his boxing chops.

"I think everybody has a chance," Silva said. "When you step inside (the ring) to fight, you have a chance. Of course that if you’re fighting Mayweather, people would say 'oh, McGregor won’t last a round,' but we never know.

"The movement is different, how you have your feet on the ground is different, the timing is different boxing. The only way to see is putting them to fight. He would have to stop at least a year to be able to do a close fight, and I believe he should do it."

According to a Friday report from MMAFighting's Ariel Helwani, the long-teased bout is now in its "exploratory phase."