UFC 189 - McGregor v Mendes *READ MOD WARNING IN 1st POST*

Saipanne

scudzilla wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with that one, boring fight

Handbags at dawn.... Handbags full of bricks

thelibertyboy

scudzilla wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with that one, boring fight

sitting close to the cage jesus you can hear the crack of their shots it was AWESOME!!!!!!! dunno if you can see it on the footage but robbie was smiling when rory was trying to stop him ha :P

johnpro

Flights €1000 - will never travel with AA again worst airline ever
Hotel - $110 for the week stayed in hooters (no judgements)
Tickets - $245

That's prob as cheap as it can be done you need to factor in food and activities which can run up quite high depending on what you want to do? We went golfing, go-karting, pub crawls, shooting range etc that all adds up

2nd time in Vegas actually returning with money around $950 profit from black jack and betting...I keep lumping on mcgregor to win by tko so it helps pay for the next fight

DrPhilG

I paid £640 for flight.

$350 for ticket.

$630 between 2 for the hotel.

Went to the TUF finale too, $130.

NotoriousNidge

johnpro wrote: »

Flights €1000 - will never travel with AA again worst airline ever
Hotel - $110 for the week stayed in hooters (no judgements)
Tickets - $245

That's prob as cheap as it can be done you need to factor in food and activities which can run up quite high depending on what you want to do? We went golfing, go-karting, pub crawls, shooting range etc that all adds up

2nd time in Vegas actually returning with money around $950 profit from black jack and betting...I keep lumping on mcgregor to win by tko so it helps pay for the next fight

That doesn't sound too bad to be fair. Be good to hear from more people who travelled over.

Hard to know if there will be as many Irish at it in January, given the J1 crowd won't be about.

Would love to make the trip and have New Years in Vegas. Presume flights would be a bit cheaper?


I'm sure the craic will still be had

JokerD

Some week, started off on the Tuesday night with the kick off party in the Hyde nightclub in the Bellagio. Place was mental, you could sense the money you were being surrounded by, my friend was paying $11 for a Bud light.

Wednesday was the open workouts, when McGregor entered the room he ran straight over to the fans and along the line touching hands, crowd were jumping over each other to get to him. After his media obligations he went down the line getting pictures etc and then came back up to get everyone. I got my picture taken with him. He was so nice, people were thanking him for the picture but he was like "no, thank you".
Wednesday night I met Ben Rothwell at the deli in the MGM with his wife. Had so much time for me, he actually offered to get a photograph without me even asking. I said it was great how he was getting the crowd going at the workout. Ben talked about how he'd love to get on the Dublin card maybe against Junior or someone else I can't remember and would the Irish cheer for him. I said if I get to ask Dana a question, I'll ask him can you fight on the card. After we left him, my mate tweeted Dana about Ben fighting in Dublin and Ben was favouriting the tweet. Pretty cool.

Thursday was the press conference, we got great seats near the front at the aisle. Got to meet and get pics taken with Faras and Faber, also another two guys that had no issue posing for photographs. Outside then I met Megan the UFC presenter and she was very nice also.
Thursday evening the surreal behaviour continued, we met Paige VanZant at the Wyclef concert in which we managed to get VIP tickets because we tweeted something for the concert. We went upstairs to a free bar overlooking the pool where Wyclef was doing his stuff. As the concert was going on, Paige arrived up, we were now dancing to Wyclef with Paige VanZant. Next minute, Anthony Pettis arrives in, I get the photo in which he was more than happy to do and he starts chatting to my mate about our dedication staying up watching UFC with the time difference.
We moved then to another UFC party and because we had our wristbands we were skipping the queue and getting free entry, two normal lads spending the night like celebs. Pettis walked in to the nightclub and gave me a tap on the stomach going past.

Friday was the weigh in, when the doors opened I legged it and managed to get the third row, I was right beside the McGregor family and team who all were so nice. It was great to see their reaction when the weigh in was taking place. Afterwards I got to meet and chat to Tom Egan and Artem who both also had a lot of time for people. Earlier that day I meet Bader and played Rumble on the playstation. Two very nice guys.

Saturday, I got my picture with Herb Dean as he was arriving, no problem for him. The fight itself was mayhem , I had to go back to the hotel afterwards to get changed as when McGregor won, beer was thrown up in the air and people just got soaked but who cares.
Headed to the McGregor after party, got friendly with a few heads who let us sit at their VIP table in which they paid $500 for. It was difficult to get to Conor here, I just seen him and Dana from a short distance .

On Sunday, Dana tweeted about free TUF tickets so I ran from my hotel to the MGM conference room, when I arrived the UFC rep was about to drive away in the car park and shouted over "you want tickets?" I managed to snake the last two. Going through the MGM, Conor's Mother stopped us to thank us for the support, a very nice lady who appreciated the efforts.

In fact that was a running theme throughout the week, I even had UFC employees thanking us for the our support.

Credit to the UFC for the Fight Week, made us mingle with people you might never get to see or chat to.

sjb25

JokerD wrote: »

Some week, started off on the Tuesday night with the kick off party in the Hyde nightclub in the Bellagio. Place was mental, you could sense the money you were being surrounded by, my friend was paying $11 for a Bud light.

Wednesday was the open workouts, when McGregor entered the room he ran straight over to the fans and along the line touching hands, crowd were jumping over each other to get to him. After his media obligations he went down the line getting pictures etc and then came back up to get everyone. I got my picture taken with him. He was so nice, people were thanking him for the picture but he was like "no, thank you".
Wednesday night I met Ben Rothwell at the deli in the MGM with his wife. Had so much time for me, he actually offered to get a photograph without me even asking. I said it was great how he was getting the crowd going at the workout. Ben talked about how he'd love to get on the Dublin card maybe against Junior or someone else I can't remember and would the Irish cheer for him. I said if I get to ask Dana a question, I'll ask him can you fight on the card. After we left him, my mate tweeted Dana about Ben fighting in Dublin and Ben was favouriting the tweet. Pretty cool.

Thursday was the press conference, we got great seats near the front at the aisle. Got to meet and get pics taken with Faras and Faber, also another two guys that had no issue posing for photographs. Outside then I met Megan the UFC presenter and she was very nice also.
Thursday evening the surreal behaviour continued, we met Paige VanZant at the Wyclef concert in which we managed to get VIP tickets because we tweeted something for the concert. We went upstairs to a free bar overlooking the pool where Wyclef was doing his stuff. As the concert was going on, Paige arrived up, we were now dancing to Wyclef with Paige VanZant. Next minute, Anthony Pettis arrives in, I get the photo in which he was more than happy to do and he starts chatting to my mate about our dedication staying up watching UFC with the time difference.
We moved then to another UFC party and because we had our wristbands we were skipping the queue and getting free entry, two normal lads spending the night like celebs. Pettis walked in to the nightclub and gave me a tap on the stomach going past.

Friday was the weigh in, when the doors opened I legged it and managed to get the third row, I was right beside the McGregor family and team who all were so nice. It was great to see their reaction when the weigh in was taking place. Afterwards I got to meet and chat to Tom Egan and Artem who both also had a lot of time for people. Earlier that day I meet Bader and played Rumble on the playstation. Two very nice guys.

Saturday, I got my picture with Herb Dean as he was arriving, no problem for him. The fight itself was mayhem , I had to go back to the hotel afterwards to get changed as when McGregor won, beer was thrown up in the air and people just got soaked but who cares.
Headed to the McGregor after party, got friendly with a few heads who let us sit at their VIP table in which they paid $500 for. It was difficult to get to Conor here, I just seen him and Dana from a short distance .

On Sunday, Dana tweeted about free TUF tickets so I ran from my hotel to the MGM conference room, when I arrived the UFC rep was about to drive away in the car park and shouted over "you want tickets?" I managed to snake the last two. Going through the MGM, Conor's Mother stopped us to thank us for the support, a very nice lady who appreciated the efforts.

In fact that was a running theme throughout the week, I even had UFC employees thanking us for the our support.

Credit to the UFC for the Fight Week, made us mingle with people you might never get to see or chat to.

I may be a newbie but......Next time

martyos121

That sounded absolutely amazing Joker. Jealous isn't even the word!

Hazys

John Kavanagh just said on the MMA Hour, Conor couldn't do a single round of wrestling sparring in leading up to the fight due to injury. It had healed 2 weeks before the fight but they didnt want to risk re-injuring

The first round on wrestling sparring Conor did was in Round 1 of the main card in UFC189.

John mentioned it was his knee but its fully healed now.

.ak

Hazys wrote: »

Nice analysis of Conor's striking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukHnuHI-M54

Any other links for this? This is dead.

nc19

Ken Shamrock wrote:

......... I'm not here to belittle anyone or say they are wrong.........

I just spat my feckin tea all over the dog at that statement!

ibrahimovic

Hazys wrote: »

John Kavanagh just said on the MMA Hour, Conor couldn't do a single round of wrestling sparring in leading up to the fight due to injury. It had healed 2 weeks before the fight but they didnt want to risk re-injuring

The first round on wrestling sparring Conor did was in Round 1 of the main card in UFC189.

John mentioned it was his knee but its fully healed now.

Just for anyone else who wants to watch it, its live but you can rewind it on this link

http://www.mmafighting.com/2015/7/14/8954695/the-mma-hour-with-john-kavanagh-michael-bisping-ben-rothwell-firas

JokerD

martyos121 wrote: »

That sounded absolutely amazing Joker. Jealous isn't even the word!

It was unreal, I'm sure I met people on here I didn't know who they were.

It shows when you get there you don't need to have special connections to meet up and chat to people. We were chatting away having the craic with these Americans at the Wylcef concert when someone asks did we know who they were.

Apparently the C.E.O or C.O.O of Pandora music and I'm having the chat at the urinal talking about McGregor and the Americans loving it.

Funk It

JokerD wrote: »

It was unreal, I'm sure I met people on here I didn't know who they were.

It shows when you get there you don't need to have special connections to meet up and chat to people. We were chatting away having the craic with these Americans at the Wylcef concert when someone asks did we know who they were.

Apparently the C.E.O or C.O.O of Pandora music and I'm having the chat at the urinal talking about McGregor and the Americans loving it.

Did they know that they were talking with the Irish Foreign Relations Officer in the jacks?

Sounds like you had the time of a lifetime, and fair play to ya.


I've kept stump about all the chat about '2 weeks', but I think we should be thankful to the 2 fighters for making it happen, and if anyone is to blame (maybe not the right word) for the unavoidable scenario it's Aldo.

Any comments about when Mendes was putting his hands all over Conors face at all? Only saw the fight when it was on, haven't seen it since,.but not sure if he was just blocking Conors breathing, any funny business or just being a nuisance?

Myrddin

Funk It wrote: »

Any comments about when Mendes was putting his hands all over Conors face at all? Only saw the fight when it was on, haven't seen it since,.but not sure if he was just blocking Conors breathing, any funny business or just being a nuisance?

Meant to mention this myself, I'm fairly sure Chad got warned at least twice about it. Conor too seemed to protest about it at one stage too. Between this, & the Aldo fight, Chad's fingers certainly do wander a little.

Funk It

Myrddin wrote: »

Meant to mention this myself, I'm fairly sure Chad got warned at least twice about it. Conor too seemed to protest about it at one stage too. Between this, & the Aldo fight, Chad's fingers certainly do wander a little.

Ah good, I wasn't just imagining it so! Need to watch it again, but thought he got warned alright for it. Was an interesting tactic if nothing else.

Know of someone who used to cover people's eyes at the bottom of rucks in rugby. Was supposed to be unnerving and sent a few swinging. Seemed to do the job in pishing folk off. Thought this might be similar.

dave1982

Always thought hands on Face to disrupt breathing wasn't against rules, thought warnings were for his fingers either going in his eye or Chad trying to open conors cut more

Professey Chin

The warnings were for the fingers at the eyes. They were slipping up when he was trying to block the mouth. Only Mendes knows if it was intentional or not but its easy for them to slip up when sweaty and bloody

BaZmO*

I heard from a reliable source that one of the reasons why McGregor was willing to stay on his back for so long was the fear of doing damage to his knee if he try to force a stand up. Something to do with lateral ligament damage?

Zero-Cool

I figured as much, no way he trained under a bjj blackbelt for so long to not be able to do anything off his back, looked like he was biding his time as he knew he wasn't in danger.

As for the ol finger in eye/cut combo...

Knex*

Looks fairly intentional to me. What do ye think?

Edit: Deleting img as already posted above.

JustTheOne

sheehy83 wrote: »

I figured as much, no way he trained under a bjj blackbelt for so long to not be able to do anything off his back, looked like he was biding his time as he knew he wasn't in danger.

As for the ol finger in eye/cut combo...

That's a good thing so!

Another thing he can keep from aldo!

wylie

Yeah look intentional to me, chad has a good view.

After round one i think conor said "I recovered so quick" anyone catch that?

dave1982

He calm was on his back for a fella about to lose a 3 million dollar bet to finish the fight in 2nd round:D

Richy06

Dirty bastard, trying to open the cut a little more is what he was doing there.

The knee injury didn't stop him getting off his back, it affected his sprawl in the first place. He injured his knee during the camp and it was only healed two weeks before. No live MMA or wrestling rounds were done for the whole camp, even in the last two weeks in order not to have it flare up.

Conor's game off his back, especially in an MMA fight, isn't really throwing up subs off his back. It's being efficient, trying to minimise damage and create space with frames and feet on the hips or butterfly hooks so he can back his hips away. With a wrestler like Mendes, who likes to hang out in the guard and lay on you rather than advance position, it's hard to create that space. Unless you've ever grappled, it's hard to understand that for some. If he attempted to pass more, there'd have been more opportunities to create the space he needed. Ever see Conor on top, passing guard and advancing position? He knows plenty from having learned from a BJJ blackbelt for ten years, but going for submissions on a guy who's laying in your guard like that - when you DON'T have control of his posture - is a waste of time and just isn't smart.

JustTheOne

Richy06 wrote: »

Dirty bastard, trying to open the cut a little more is what he was doing there.

The knee injury didn't stop him getting off his back, it affected his sprawl in the first place. He injured his knee during the camp and it was only healed two weeks before. No live MMA or wrestling rounds were done for the whole camp, even in the last two weeks in order not to have it flare up.

Conor's game off his back, especially in an MMA fight, isn't really throwing up subs off his back. It's being efficient, trying to minimise damage and create space with frames and feet on the hips or butterfly hooks so he can back his hips away. With a wrestler like Mendes, who likes to hang out in the guard and lay on you rather than advance position, it's hard to create that space. Unless you've ever grappled, it's hard to understand that for some. If he attempted to pass more, there'd have been more opportunities to create the space he needed. Ever see Conor on top, passing guard and advancing position? He knows plenty from having learned from a BJJ blackbelt for ten years, but going for submissions on a guy who laying in your guard like that - when you DON'T have control of his posture - is a waste of time and just isn't smart.

Is his knee fully recovered?

Richy06

Yup. Was two weeks out from the fight.

CatFromHue

I'd need to see that clip in real time and stopped to judge it properly.

seiphil

Worrying that his knee flared up again. Hopefully it doesn't become a recurring injury that holds him back.

BaZmO*

The ref told Mendes to watch his fingers about two or three times at the end of Round 1, and even said, "Chad, this is your last warning"

The bell went and he seemed to lift him off McGregor and have a word.

What penalty would he have gotten if he continued doing it?