Official Conor McGregor thread (part 3) *Updated Warning in 1st Post Re:Boxing match

wonderfullife

akelly02 wrote: »

Im sorry but there IS no doubt he is the no 1 contender, that is effectively what the interim belt is that he holds.. would it be the same story if when connor beat Mendes at 189 dana said actually no you have the interim belt but you are not next in line, you have to fight Frankie next before getting your shot at aldo...some craic in here if that happened

I accept being the Interim Champion makes him the de facto number 1 contender in practice.

I'm saying in theory Max Holloway has an equally impressive claim to the number 1 contender spot, especially if he beats Pettis.

What I'd do if i was the UFC is this:

UFC 208

Bisping v Romero
Khabib v Ferguson

UFC 209

TBD v TBD
Aldo v Holloway

It wouldn't be "holding up" divisions it'd be giving the fans 2 amazing fights, the result of which gives us 2 indisputable contenders.

finglashoop

wonderfullife wrote: »

Why doesn't he "have to go near Max"? 4 of Jose Aldo's 8 UFC wins are against 2 men. People say Conor didn't clean FW out entirely.....well Aldo sure as hell didn't either. Let him fight the winner of Max v Pettis and prove beyond doubt he's the number 1 contender.

This mystique created around Aldo is amusing. Terrific fighter but people like to spin his 5 year tenure in the UFC to be something it's not and they usually try include the WEC days when he was a completely different fighter. He's 8-1 inside the UFC and half of his wins were against Frankie and Chad.

He had 50 minutes to try put Frankie away and never really came close to doing so.

The UFC can legitimately make Aldo v Pettis/Holloway and Khabib v Ferguson and then Conor has 2 clear number 1 contenders he MUST face if he wants to defend his straps.

Nothing is 'held up' if they choose that course of action. That's 2 exciting eliminators for the number 1 contender spot.

Youre bias is hilarious. And so is your reasoning.

Mcgregor beat holoway and since then holloway is on huge win streak but doesnt deserve a shot ( but mcgregor deserved a shot again at nate after a loss). Aldo beat everyone he had to while defending his title until conor, he has the interim ( meaning hes guaranteed the next shot, its the whole point of interim) he also gets no rematch but you want them to fight each other?

Khabib is undefeated and was promised a shot. Its a toss up with ferguson who is on a huge win streak and also deserves a shot.

So basically mcgregors 4 most viable opponents to trim themselves down to 2.

I know your a fan of mcgregor but the tunnel vision out of yourself and some others when it comes to him is ridiculous.

Personally i think for the sake of both divisons he should defend or give up featherweight and leave them all to it and fight one of khabib / ferguson. If he is going to fight woodley it should be after this.

But thats using logic, which no doubt, your response wont contain

winston82

wonderfullife wrote: »

Why doesn't he "have to go near Max"? 4 of Jose Aldo's 8 UFC wins are against 2 men. People say Conor didn't clean FW out entirely.....well Aldo sure as hell didn't either. Let him fight the winner of Max v Pettis and prove beyond doubt he's the number 1 contender.

This mystique created around Aldo is amusing. Terrific fighter but people like to spin his 5 year tenure in the UFC to be something it's not and they usually try include the WEC days when he was a completely different fighter. He's 8-1 inside the UFC and half of his wins were against Frankie and Chad.

He had 50 minutes to try put Frankie away and never really came close to doing so.

The UFC can legitimately make Aldo v Pettis/Holloway and Khabib v Ferguson and then Conor has 2 clear number 1 contenders he MUST face if he wants to defend his straps.

Nothing is 'held up' if they choose that course of action. That's 2 exciting eliminators for the number 1 contender spot.

Of course the division is help up. Without a shadow of doubt Aldo is the no.1 contender and he is absolutely next for McGregor. Why is anyone fighting for an interim belt when McGregor is fit to fight??? Your thought process is all up your hole.

Hazys

Marc Gasol shoots the game winner at the buzzer...wait for it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GINW-o0MIqg

Alternative link: https://streamable.com/5682

.ak

winston82 wrote: »

What I don't get is why would he scape a win over Diaz rather than defend his featherweight belt? If you are a true champion surely this is a no brainer? What's that about?

You do realize that when RDA pulled out Aldo was offered a title shot against McGregor right?

He turned it down, despite the 'anytime, anywhere' brag.

ASOT

.ak wrote: »

You do realize that when RDA pulled out Aldo was offered a title shot against McGregor right?

He turned it down, despite the 'anytime, anywhere' brag.

He was only finished a medical suspention he was never an option realistically.

stephenl15

These last few pages have been great

winston82

.ak wrote: »

You do realize that when RDA pulled out Aldo was offered a title shot against McGregor right?

He turned it down, despite the 'anytime, anywhere' brag.

Jesus, here comes another one.

Lukker-

.ak wrote: »

You do realize that when RDA pulled out Aldo was offered a title shot against McGregor right?

He turned it down, despite the 'anytime, anywhere' brag.

It would have been at 155 but still, his excuse was like "I'm not a cockfighter, you can't just summon me to fight on 2 weeks notice, things need to be more organised".

Yeah more organised so you can waste everyone's time and pull out. Given his history of questionably pulling out of fights so he gets to fight in Brazil more often I don't blame Conor for not fighting him.

wonderfullife

finglashoop wrote: »

So basically mcgregors 4 most viable opponents to trim themselves down to 2.

I know your a fan of mcgregor but the tunnel vision out of yourself and some others when it comes to him is ridiculous.

Personally i think for the sake of both divisons he should defend or give up featherweight and leave them all to it and fight one of khabib / ferguson. If he is going to fight woodley it should be after this.

But thats using logic, which no doubt, your response wont contain

Why are you opposed to Max v Aldo and Khabib v Ferguson?

Are you able to make a solid case for BOTH Khabib and Tony? Yes. So let them fight and then there is a clear contender.

I can see why the interim belt muddies the waters at FW and i'm not arguing Aldo is undeserving of a title shot. I'm arguing he isn't this CLEAR CUT no debating it contender. Max has impressive claims. If Aldo wasn't holding an interim belt we'd all agree that Max v Aldo is a fair match to make.

winston82 wrote: »

Why is anyone fighting for an interim belt when McGregor is fit to fight??? Your thought process is all up your hole.

Did you have a problem with Frank Mir defending the Interim Belt against Shane Carwin at UFC 111?

Brock wasn't injured at that stage or suffering from Diverticulitis either - he was in training and fought four months later.

Exact same logic I'm employing here. Let Aldo defend the Interim strap against Holloway and the winner faces McGregor.

Funny how people seem to think these things are unheard of. The Interim Belt has been defended on 3 occasions in UFC history while a champion was not injured.

.ak

ASOT wrote: »

He was only finished a medical suspention he was never an option realistically.

Nothing was stopping him fighting. Technically McGregor was only just finished a medical suspension shortly before last week. Aldo could train on the sly, as most fighters do. Nobody stopped him taking the fight but himself.

winston82 wrote: »

Jesus, here comes another one.

Another what? Poster poking holes in your goal-post shifting? :P

Head Wreck

Max Holloway has more UFC featherweight victories in the last 3 years than Jose Aldo has in his whole career.
Holloway is the only fighter besides Nate to last more than 2 rounds with Conor.
Max deserves the shot more than anyone and I would be more interested to see him face max. He has good chin, we know aldos is extremely delicate.

CurryFlavoured

Head Wreck wrote: »

Max Holloway has more UFC featherweight victories in the last 3 years than Jose Aldo has in his whole career.
Holloway is the only fighter besides Nate to last more than 2 rounds with Conor.
Max deserves the shot more than anyone and I would be more interested to see him face max. He has good chin, we know aldos is extremely delicate.

We don't, he's been KO'd once by one of the most powerful shots around which he also ran into.

I'd give it to Aldo - he's still a great, GOAT featherweight and he came back well vs Edgar (next best contender at the time). I think it could be a fantastic standup battle if Aldo doesn't do something stupid again.

wonderfullife

I just don't get why people are so opposed to seeing Khabib v Tony and Aldo v Max.

Those are AMAZING fights and they both mean something. They cement one man in each division as the categorical clear contender. As i said above, when Brock was ready to return there was great debate over whether Mir or Carwin was the best contender. Frank Mir defended his Interim title against Carwin and lost. Then there was no debate and Carwin faced Brock in a unification bout less than 4 months later.

What's the difference here? Not much, if any.

dashoonage

ah jaysus lads...i went to bjj there....someone give me a tdlr....

.ak

wonderfullife wrote: »

I just don't get why people are so opposed to seeing Khabib v Tony and Aldo v Max.

Those are AMAZING fights and they both mean something. They cement one man in each division as the categorical clear contender. As i said above, when Brock was ready to return there was great debate over whether Mir or Carwin was the best contender. Frank Mir defended his Interim title against Carwin and lost. Then there was no debate and Carwin faced Brock in a unification bout less than 4 months later.

What's the difference here? Not much, if any.

After that Tristar video you posted I'd love to see Nate vs Khabib or Ferguson... I have a soft spot for Nate and I think he'd do better then he's saying.

riffmongous

mdwexford wrote: »

You would be wrong then.

That's why nobody does it.

What a great rebuttal that was :rolleyes: If a fighter goes up and loses he goes back to where he was, he still has his belt and everyone will give him credit for giving it a shot and if wins, he's a hero. If he defends his belt and loses he has lost everything, there is a huge risk difference there, look at McGregor and Penn, the losses didn't hurt them one bit

mdwexford

Any featherweight title fight that isn't McGregor Aldo is nonsense.

Having Ferguson Khabib fight for a number one spot is also nonsense. There doesn't always have to be a clear number one. Conor should fight one of them if his next fight is at 155. Let the other wait or take a fight and risk their spot.

CurryFlavoured

wonderfullife wrote: »

Held up how?

Max Holloway is on a 9 fight win-streak. Guess who hasn't beaten him? Jose Aldo.

Conor has beaten both Aldo and Holloway.

If Aldo had gone and beaten Holloway then I'd 100% agree with you. It's not "held up" when there are 2 guys with legitimate claims to be the number 1 contender.

Sorry but I think this is silly for a couple reasons.

1. People made the exact same argument about him and Edgar, he won that fight at ufc 200.
2. That's not how finding a contender works, you don't keep making fights until the best contender comes out head and shoulders above. What if a new contender arises after Aldo fights and beats Holloway. He has to fight him then I guess? Aldo fights and beats him, then a new contender comes again. Same again? It's obviously a very unlikely hypothetical situatuon but you see my point, do we just keep putting off title shots on the basis that we don't have a 'clear contender'? Obviously not.

I think they're both interesting fights, but I'd give the shot to Aldo.

mdwexford

riffmongous wrote: »

What a great rebuttal that was :rolleyes: If a fighter goes up and loses he goes back to where he was, he still has his belt and everyone will give him credit for giving it a shot and if wins, he's a hero. If he defends his belt and loses he has lost everything, there is a huge risk difference there, look at McGregor and Penn, the losses didn't hurt them one bit

It's all it required.

If that's the case how come it never happens. Why didn't GSP fight Anderson. Why didn't Jones fight Cain. Etc

The aura of invincibility is gone, your bottom line can take a big hit. It can give other fighters the blueprint and confidence to beat you. It's not a free shot in the least.

Because it's a hell of a lot easier to make the same weight and fight the same guys than to move up or down and have to do something new.

ardinn

I think this should happen

Give aldo the feckin fight - he's interim champ in fairness

On the same card the co-main is Kebab v massy Maybe 208 - no main event yet. Or 209 - its back in NYC

Simples

Head Wreck

CurryFlavoured wrote:

We don't, he's been KO'd once by one of the most powerful shots around which he also ran into.

He's never really been hit clean, Mendes tagged him and had him in big trouble. Conor slept him with 1 punch.

riffmongous

CurryFlavoured wrote: »

Sorry but I think this is silly for a couple reasons.

1. People made the exact same argument about him and Edgar, he won that fight at ufc 200.
2. That's not how finding a contender works, you don't keep making fights until the best contender comes out head and shoulders above. What if a new contender arises after Aldo fights and beats Holloway. He has to fight him then I guess? Aldo fights and beats him, then a new contender comes again. Same again? It's obviously a very unlikely hypothetical situatuon but you see my point, do we just keep putting off title shots on the basis that we don't have a 'clear contender'? Obviously not.

I think they're both interesting fights, but I'd give the shot to Aldo.

Yeah why ruin two contenders when we can have them both

Lukker-

I think we might see Conor vs Aldo next. Ferguson vs Nate @ 209 for the next title shot at LW after Khabib. Khabib can wait until after McGregor deals with Aldo but he might be a while waiting considering he can't train during Ramadan. Might not see Khabib vs. Conor until this time next year. Will he be willing to wait without crying or making vague Dagestani threats to the UFC? Time will tell.

wonderfullife

CurryFlavoured wrote: »

It's obviously a very unlikely hypothetical situatuon but you see my point, do we just keep putting off title shots on the basis that we don't have a 'clear contender'? Obviously not.

I think they're both interesting fights, but I'd give the shot to Aldo.

What people seem to be missing (completely) is that the UFC regime under WME/IMG is a hybrid of sporting meritocracy and sports entertainment.

Why did we have the tournament planned at MW? Why did Weidman need to fight Romero? Why did Rockhold need to fight Jacare? Surely by the logic you employed, Bisping should have just defended it immediately against Jacare or Weidman or Rockhold. Surely they could have all just sat on the sidelines and waited for a title shot, on the basis there's no need to be number 1 contender.

If a clear contender is not needed, then why arrange those fights?

Answer = They have an element of sporting merit (to try decide a clear contender) and they have an element of sports entertainment (to try make the UFC money putting the fights on).

It's no different here.

If they do it at Middleweight then why not do it at Lightweight or Featherweight. Of course, you could just make both Khabib and Ferguson sit on the sidelines and let Conor try to defend the strap against them both consecutively - but that robs the fans of amazing fights in the meantime.

Likewise with Aldo. I'd much prefer he goes and beats Max/Pettis and then fights Conor than to see the Conor rematch immediately.

Mellor

weldoninhio wrote: »

I watch most cards too, i like MMA as a sport. The UFC is turning it into WWE, where it doesn't matter who the best fighters are, its all about who makes the most money.

I don't know why you are trying to convince the blow-ins. They would understand like real fans. Real fans matter, the UFC needs to remember that

wonderfullife

Lukker- wrote: »

I think we might see Conor vs Aldo next. Ferguson vs Nate @ 209 for the next title shot at LW after Khabib. Khabib can wait until after McGregor deals with Aldo but he might be a while waiting considering he can't train during Ramadan. Might not see Khabib vs. Conor until this time next year. Will he be willing to wait without crying or making vague Dagestani threats to the UFC? Time will tell.

This Khabib stuff has to stop.

He was absent for 2 whole years from injury and since he returned he has stopped an unranked opponent and submitted a #7 ranked opponent.

You'd swear he's been tearing through the division beating everyone. He has 2 notable UFC victories - against the then #6 ranked RDA in 2014 and now against the #7 ranked Michael Johnson.

Does NOBODY find it amazing that Khabib is the #1 ranked contender in a division where he has never beaten the following names in the top 15:

Ferguson
Alvarez
Diaz
Barboza
Cerrone
Poirier
Melendez

He's ranked #1 contender in the division and has somehow skipped fighting the whole lot of them and the best win of his career was against RDA, who at the time was ranked 6th?????

CurryFlavoured

wonderfullife wrote: »

What people seem to be missing (completely) is that the UFC regime under WME/IMG is a hybrid of sporting meritocracy and sports entertainment.

Why did we have the tournament planned at MW? Why did Weidman need to fight Romero? Why did Rockhold need to fight Jacare? Surely by the logic you employed, Bisping should have just defended it immediately against Jacare or Weidman or Rockhold. Surely they could have all just sat on the sidelines and waited for a title shot, on the basis there's no need to be number 1 contender.

If a clear contender is not needed, then why arrange those fights?

Answer = They have an element of sporting merit (to try decide a clear contender) and they have an element of sports entertainment (to try make the UFC money putting the fights on).

It's no different here.

If they do it at Middleweight then why not do it at Lightweight or Featherweight. Of course, you could just make both Khabib and Ferguson sit on the sidelines and let Conor try to defend the strap against them both consecutively - but that robs the fans of amazing fights in the meantime.

Likewise with Aldo. I'd much prefer he goes and beats Max/Pettis and then fights Conor than to see the Conor rematch immediately.

I understand it well. I guess the glaring difference in that comparison is that Bisping had defended his title about one month prior to those 'tournament' matchups at middleweight. You're asking for the featherweight title shot to be delayed by another 3-4 months to find a 'clear' contender when there's no need imo. The greatest FW of all time is sitting there healthy, off the back of a comeback win vs Edgar. Like I said we were hearing the same arguments about Aldo/Edgar in the Summer, the 145 division is running around in circles.

CurryFlavoured

It's a tough situation though, everybody wants a shot. Lightweight division is stacked with killers and so is featherweight tbh. One thing I will say is that a shot against Woodley would be stupid, on the meritocracy/entertainment spectrum that would be 90% entertainment 10% meritocracy. Honestly I think Conor deserves a break but that's near impossible given the situation.

ASOT

wonderfullife wrote: »

This Khabib stuff has to stop.

He was absent for 2 whole years from injury and since he returned he has stopped an unranked opponent and submitted a #7 ranked opponent.

You'd swear he's been tearing through the division beating everyone. He has 2 notable UFC victories - against the then #6 ranked RDA in 2014 and now against the #7 ranked Michael Johnson.

Does NOBODY find it amazing that Khabib is the #1 ranked contender in a division where he has never beaten the following names in the top 15:

Ferguson
Alvarez
Diaz
Barboza
Cerrone
Poirier
Melendez

He's ranked #1 contender in the division and has somehow skipped fighting the whole lot of them and the best win of his career was against RDA, who at the time was ranked 6th?????

He signed a contract to fight Alvarez & he signed a contract to fight Cerrone, both pulled out/got different fights; Gil was suspended; Dustin was at FW; Diaz was plodding along coming in overweight to get money before he eyed the conor fight; Barboza ill give you he porbably should have faced.

Along with the above the mans been injured you can only fight whats infront of you? You seem to have a serious gripe about khabib. How much did you have on MJ?