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Official Conor McGregor thread (part 2). Read warning in 1st post

El Guapo!

The last thread was nearing the 10k post limit so here's part 2.

The same rules as the last thread apply here. People seem to have strong opinions either way when it comes to McGregor and threads here tend to get a bit heated from time to time. Please keep it civil and discuss all things Conor in a mature way.
Any name-calling, trolling, baiting, or being a general ass-hat will earn you a ban from the thread and possibly the forum.
If you have an issue with a post, please use the report post function. Any off topic posts will be deleted.
Any "Do you even train Bro?" or "I'm an mma fan longer than you" type posts are not permitted either. They only make you look like a fool and as a result, everyone hates you. Yes everyone.

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Saipanne

Was his ttd not greatly improved in the last fight? I recall him stuffing quite a few attempts, until the last one.

Subcomandante Marcos

Saipanne wrote: »

Was his ttd not greatly improved in the last fight? I recall him stuffing quite a few attempts, until the last one.

Nate isn't exactly a take down artist. He almost ever shoots for takedowns, usually catches lazy kicks or waits for the other guy to shoot. Wrestlers are as totally different animal.

SureYWouldntYa

Wailin wrote: »

His biggest area of weakness imo is his cardio. It has been highlighted badly in the two fights against diaz and not really noticed before because fights were finished early mostly at 145. At 170 it was plain to see and 155 will be no better.

McGregor fights in an explosive way though, it's hard for anyone who fights like that to last more than a round or two

It's something Dominick Cruz says and said before the second Diaz fight, and that man knows his stuff

Wailin

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

McGregor fights in an explosive way though, it's hard for anyone who fights like that to last more than a round or two

It's something Dominick Cruz says and said before the second Diaz fight, and that man knows his stuff

Any link to that video with Cruz? Would be interested to hear his take on the fight.

[Deleted User]

Wailin wrote: »

Any link to that video with Cruz? Would be interested to hear his take on the fight.

I think Cruz is just angling for a fight with Conor

EagererBeaver

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think Cruz is just angling for a fight with Conor

Nah, he brought it up as part of the Fox coverage at 202. Was just doing analysis, and doing it well.

He's talked about moving up before though.

[Deleted User]

EagererBeaver wrote: »

Nah, he brought it up as part of the Fox coverage at 202. Was just doing analysis, and doing it well.

He's talked about moving up before though.

That doesn't mean much, i remember wonderboy called out woodley while interviewing him after the fight while working for fox at ufc 199.

JJayoo

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

McGregor fights in an explosive way though, it's hard for anyone who fights like that to last more than a round or two

It's something Dominick Cruz says and said before the second Diaz fight, and that man knows his stuff

So McG chooses to fight in a style which he knows he can only maintain for a round or two

Cruz talks just as much sh1te as anyone else, it's just packaged better.

wonderfullife

AbusesToilets wrote: »

Surely he should be working on wrestling regardless. It's the biggest area of weakness he has and given the type of fighters he is going to face at 155, the area he needs to improve the most.

I've no idea what some of you think Conor does actually be doing in the gym.

He works on absolutely everything. Striking, kicking, wrestling, BJJ, capoeira, karate, movement....

There's not a single fighter on the roster who doesn't try get better at everything. Conor is no different. He doesn't employ so many coaches for the craic. Sergei isn't there to drink vodka and have the craic!!

He's spent the last 10 years trying to get better at everything. It's a daily, weekly, monthly ...never-ending aim to improve all areas of his game.

The cold, hard truth is we have no idea how good his wrestling or Jiu Jitsu is. Not the foggiest notion.

People just want to point to Mendes as an example of bad Takedown Defence, despite the fact he showed in multiple fights excellent takedown defence and good offence.

McGregor is still an enigma in many aspects of fighting. We've no idea how good his MMA jiu-jitsu is. The largest body of evidence in the UFC runs were against Holloway, Mendes and Diaz.

He did great against Max, he showed a basic bottom guard against Mendes (he didn't do much other than a few elbows for offence and wrist control) and against Nate he had a high-point (modified X-Guard Sweep) and a low-point (failed Guillotine escape leading to RNC).

It's just guesswork.

Same with his wrestling. Mostly guess-work how good his offence and defence is.

We're just so used to him starching people with his left hand that all we can do is guess how good his other skillsets are.

That's why a match against Eddie will be brilliant. More questions, more answers. And if he gets past that, then hopefully we get to see him fight Khabib at some stage.

He's constantly improving and evolving and i believe the peak for a LW and FW is around 30-33. He's many years ahead to improve if he sticks at MMA that long.

People hating on his wrestling and BJJ are doing so from a position of hate and ignorance. You simply can't tell how good he is at either.

One thing we can say with absolute certainty is John Kavanagh didn't have the confidence to let Conor jump into Nate's guard. So we can fairly deduce that his top game in Jiu-Jitsu is deemed no match for Nate's guard work. That applies to most Lightweights!

how.gareth

wonderfullife wrote: »

I've no idea what some of you think Conor does actually be doing in the gym.

He works on absolutely everything. Striking, kicking, wrestling, BJJ, capoeira, karate, movement....

There's not a single fighter on the roster who doesn't try get better at everything. Conor is no different. He doesn't employ so many coaches for the craic. Sergei isn't there to drink vodka and have the craic!!

He's spent the last 10 years trying to get better at everything. It's a daily, weekly, monthly ...never-ending aim to improve all areas of his game.

The cold, hard truth is we have no idea how good his wrestling or Jiu Jitsu is. Not the foggiest notion.

People just want to point to Mendes as an example of bad Takedown Defence, despite the fact he showed in multiple fights excellent takedown defence and good offence.

McGregor is still an enigma in many aspects of fighting. We've no idea how good his MMA jiu-jitsu is. The largest body of evidence in the UFC runs were against Holloway, Mendes and Diaz.

He did great against Max, he showed a basic bottom guard against Mendes (he didn't do much other than a few elbows for offence and wrist control) and against Nate he had a high-point (modified X-Guard Sweep) and a low-point (failed Guillotine escape leading to RNC).

It's just guesswork.

Same with his wrestling. Mostly guess-work how good his offence and defence is.

We're just so used to him starching people with his left hand that all we can do is guess how good his other skillsets are.

That's why a match against Eddie will be brilliant. More questions, more answers. And if he gets past that, then hopefully we get to see him fight Khabib at some stage.

He's constantly improving and evolving and i believe the peak for a LW and FW is around 30-33. He's many years ahead to improve if he sticks at MMA that long.

People hating on his wrestling and BJJ are doing so from a position of hate and ignorance. You simply can't tell how good he is at either.

One thing we can say with absolute certainty is John Kavanagh didn't have the confidence to let Conor jump into Nate's guard. So we can fairly deduce that his top game in Jiu-Jitsu is deemed no match for Nate's guard work. That applies to most Lightweights!

Lots of common sense and some good points, cheers

EagererBeaver

[Deleted User] wrote: »

That doesn't mean much, i remember wonderboy called out woodley while interviewing him after the fight while working for fox at ufc 199.

He was specifically talking about the McGregor-Diaz fight and offering his analysis. "I don't think McGregor's style let's him go 5 rounds" does not scream "give me a McGregor fight". It wasn't a dig, just analysis.

Zero-Cool

how.gareth wrote: »

Lots of common sense and some good points, cheers

Far far too much common sense for this thread.

I hope the next fight is him vs Eddie, most interesting matchup with biggest prize imo. If it does get announced, i expect him to keep his FW belt so they can advertise it as a fight between champs.

Paully D

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Far far too much common sense for this thread.

I hope the next fight is him vs Eddie, most interesting matchup with biggest prize imo. If it does get announced, i expect him to keep his FW belt so they can advertise it as a fight between champs.

I'd expect him to keep hold of it too, and almost immediately vacate it if he beats Alvarez.

I think Conor just really wants to be able to have those two belts around his shoulders and be written into the history books as the first ever consecutive dual-weight UFC champion and the UFC will give him that opportunity considering what he generates.

wonderfullife

Eddie is potentially a good style match-up.

He gets hit in every fight and dropped far too easily. His chin simply isn't good. Pettis rocked him, Amade dropped him, Chandler dropped him, Cerrone dropped him, Melendez rocked him, i read somewhere he's been dropped 9 times in his pro career. Conversely, Conor has never been dropped in his whole career and has a granite chin.

Eddie leads with his head first (and low) when punching. We saw what Conor does against that head out-and-down style (KO v Aldo, Brimage).

I just can't see Eddie taking Conors punches unless he alters 2 decades of boxing technique.

Also, his go-to-shot is the overhand right and Conor has repeatedly shown excellent timing with his counter lefts.

The clear question marks are:

How does Conor deal with Eddies wrestling? Can Eddie even get his hands on him?

Does Conor return to the spinning attacks? Must be noted that Alvarez took Pettis down twice off spinning back-kicks (something Conor is fond of), yet struggled massively against Cowboys body kicks.

So i think the blueprint to beat him is to make him pay when he steps in with his right and attack the body. If Conor is going to revert to one of his best weapons (spinning back kick) he really has to time it well and use it smartly.

Honestly can't see this going beyond 3 rounds. Eddies chin is just not good enough to stand in there 15 mins with Conor and not end up unconscious.

It's a fight, so Eddie can obviously win, but i see less clear paths to victory for him.

CatFromHue

joshrogan wrote: »

http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/9/5/12791026/eddie-alvarez-shows-off-humble-beginnings-talks-winning-ufc-belt-and?utm_campaign=mmafighting&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Interview with Alvarez walking around Philly, last 10 minutes is McGregor talk. How he talks about him leads me to believe he will fight him at 205.

When you watch stuff like that, and the one with Frankie Edgar, it really made no sense for the UFC to take his credentials away like they did. Between these vids and the MMA Hour Helwani does a huge amount of promotion for the UFC.

JoeyJJ wrote: »

Putting a few quid behind Ariel to do these pieces again.

Who do you think is putting the money up for these vids?

wonderfullife

CatFromHue wrote: »

When you watch stuff like that, and the one with Frankie Edgar, it really made no sense for the UFC to take his credentials away like they did. Between these vids and the MMA Hour Helwani does a huge amount of promotion for the UFC.

Who do you think is putting the money up for these vids?

VOX Media (owners of MMA Fighting) obviously stumped up. I can't see it costing that much. Esther and Casey (the videographers) are a married couple and brilliant at their job. Ariel is great at what he does.

Given they all live in NY, it's hardly much expense to set that up. Philly is an hour and a half drive at worst.

I'd say they could put that whole thing together including wages, petrol, interview fee for less than $15,000 for one day of filming.

I will say one thing, perhaps a conspiracy theory - Ariel is so well connected. He's really close with Kavanagh, he's close with Conor, he's close with Mark Henry, he's close with Frankie Edgar, he's close to Glenn Robinson ....

I really think for him to do an hour-long Walk and Talk, he MUST have got the inside track that this fight is definitely going down.

As great as this was, the timing can't be a coincidence.

Looked a tough little neighbourhood he had in Philly. Wonder what the comparison areas of Dublin/Limerick/Cork would be?

There's not too many places i'd be afraid to walk down during the daytime in Dublin. Even some of the dodgier ends of it.

It looked to me like the protection was needed for the camera crew. Eddie didn't look too scared walking around.

CatFromHue

Ah yeah I get you, I wasn't sure if you meant the UFC or Alvarez paid for it.

It was funny looking at the Cops as a couple times you could see them fall a good bit behind Helwani and Eddie to deal with stuff there and then on the street.

CurryFlavoured

Paully D wrote: »

It's so annoying listening to Alvarez spouting absolute and utter bollocks in the hope of cashing in on the back of a fight with McGregor.

I had no issue with Nate getting a big pay day as he deserved it due to what he had put in over the years, now we have Eddie ****ing Alvarez who has gone 3-1 in the UFC with 2 split decisions wins cashing in.

Ugh.

LOL! I mean he's only beaten Pettis, Melendez and RDA to become champ in his last 3 fights. How dare he think he's worthy of fighting Conor!!

Mellor

Saipanne wrote: »

Was his ttd not greatly improved in the last fight? I recall him stuffing quite a few attempts, until the last one.

His clinch defence against the cage was good. Apparently there was a video on him working on this with Danis in the build up (I didn't see it). The other posted were more referring to his defence in regards to an expolosm shot from a wrestler. Completely different type of take down imo.

wonderfullife wrote: »

The cold, hard truth is we have no idea how good his wrestling or Jiu Jitsu is. Not the foggiest notion.

McGregor is still an enigma in many aspects of fighting. We've no idea how good his MMA jiu-jitsu is. The largest body of evidence in the UFC runs were against Holloway, Mendes and Diaz.

I think most people who know a little bit of BJJ have an some sort of an idea how good his BJJ is. I'd feel pretty confidant that Conor has decent BJJ. Not an elite black belt but miles ahead of your average hobbyist.
I might not be able to pinpoint his abilities in the same extent as Maia, Charles Oliveria, or Gunni. But I've seen nothing to suggest that he isn't anything other than a legitimate brown belt. In that regard we have some idea of how good his BJJ is.
A randomer on the street, is where we have absolutely no clue.
As you said, people talking it down are doing so from a position of ignorance or distain. Which is fine, but if they actually believe what they say, it's a little odd.

wonderfullife

Mellor wrote: »

His clinch defence against the cage was good. Apparently there was a video on him working on this with Danis in the build up (I didn't see it). The other posted were more referring to his defence in regards to an expolosm shot from a wrestler. Completely different type of take down imo.

I think most people who know a little bit of BJJ have an some sort of an idea how good his BJJ is. I'd feel pretty confidant that Conor has decent BJJ. Not an elite black belt but miles ahead of your average hobbyist.
I might not be able to pinpoint his abilities in the same extent as Maia, Charles Oliveria, or Gunni. But I've seen nothing to suggest that he isn't anything other than a legitimate brown belt. In that regard we have some idea of how good his BJJ is.
A randomer on the street, is where we have absolutely no clue.
As you said, people talking it down are doing so from a position of ignorance or distain. Which is fine, but if they actually believe what they say, it's a little odd.

1. 115.36 / 1 hour 55 mins 36 seconds.

2. 134.14 / 2 hours 14 mins 14 seconds.

3. 221.24 / 3 hours 41 mins 24 seconds.

The above numbers are 1. Conor McGregors entire time spent in a cage in his career in his 23 fights and 2. Eddie Alvarez time spent in cage in his last 10 fights and 3. Jose Aldos time spent in the cage in his first 23 fights.

When we analyse Conor, in terms of his wrestling and BJJ in an MMA setting, we've so much limited evidence to look at. Plus, a lot of the evidence is old footage and it stands to reason he has improved every area of his game since when.

Whereas with Alvarez and Aldo, we've got huge chunks of evidence for their abilities in every aspect of MMA, simply because they're not finishing guys fast like Conor.

Any discussion on whether Conor has an answer for Eddies wrestling is hugely guesswork. Conor will be the slightly bigger man in this fight - heights are similar but he has a pretty substantial 5 inch reach advantage. If he arrives in the same shape as he did for the Buchinger fight, i really believe he'll be strong as an Ox.

Pretty sure Kavanagh said it on the MMA Hour and i'd have to agree - the Buchinger fight was Conor looking at his absolute best physically. It might have been the lack of tattoos etc but he just looked fit as a fiddle and built like a tank.

If i had to sum up his wrestling and BJJ i'd say:

"He's a lot better than most people think, and not as good as he wants to be".

Which is why he's constantly trying to improve and evolve in the gym.

There's only a handful of people who have actually executed any sort of X-Guard Sweep in MMA in the last 5 years. One of them is Conor. Not many people have escaped Chad Mendes clutches when he has a fully wrapped neck, Conor did it.

Whichever way it's spun, it shows he knows what he's doing.

For the longevity of his career i'd be more than happy for him to keep knocking people out with his left hand and not answering the wrestling or BJJ questions in 5 round wars!

Mellor

Conor has less fight time than other champions, and less than the average ratio of that was grappling.
But that doesn't really change what I said. You don't need hours and hours of footage to from an opinion on somebody's abilities. The more time you have, the more accurate that opinion becomes perhaps, but I strongly disagree that we have no clue about his abilities. I reckon I've a fairly decent idea of where he's at tbh.
There's a match online from euro nogi's when he was a purple belt. Between that, the training videos, the few grappling exchanges we have seen, and considering progression it's not hard to get a rough idea.

People making out he's a white belt have no clue what they are talking about.

newbbieb

CurryFlavoured wrote: »

LOL! I mean he's only beaten Pettis, Melendez and RDA to become champ in his last 3 fights. How dare he think he's worthy of fighting Conor!!

I mean i wouldn't say he is not worthy of the fight but you probably should rewatch a couple of them fights.

Pettis fight was just embarrassing,he showed a lot of heart in the Melendez fight but both of them fights had he lost the decision there wouldn't have been many complaints and he got absolutely schooled by Cowboy in the fight before that.

Subcomandante Marcos

He's the champion at 155, Conor is talking about fighting at 155 and wining the belt, Eddie has the belt... He has every right to talk **** back.

Wrongway1985

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

He's the champion at 155, Conor is talking about fighting at 155 and wining the belt, Eddie has the belt... He has every right to talk **** back.

Options for Eddie...Khabib tough fight if loses...he was iffy to give a shot before annouced v RDA clearly he'll be well behind....Conor again if he loses tough spot but he'll have at least banked Mcgregor effect money

newbbieb

Wrongway1985 wrote: »

Options for Eddie...Khabib tough fight if loses...he was iffy to give a shot before annouced v RDA clearly he'll be well behind....Conor again if he loses tough spot but he'll have at least banked Mcgregor effect money

Whatever fight happens,time is ticking away 205 is getting closer by the day surely they gotta announce something very soon no?

9 weeks or thereabouts till 205,they gotta advertise some fights soon.

Wrongway1985

newbbieb wrote: »

Whatever fight happens,time is ticking away 205 is getting closer by the day surely they gotta announce something very soon no?

9 weeks or thereabouts till 205,they gotta advertise some fights soon.

203 is the platform to get the ball rolling for it surely

wonderfullife

The Main Card or at least Main Event surely needs to be announced during 203 week.

An ideal scenario would be a "Go Big" style presser for the UFC205 card, in which you had all the stars on the stage. I can't see that happening though.

The current inside track from sources usually on the money - is that the UFC are still pushing Aldo v Conor and that Conor is basically saying not a prayer unless you pay me ridiculous money.

But that's the track they are still trying to lead Conor down. Which on one hand is not surprising but it's still a confrontational approach.

The smart money, therefore, is on Conor v Eddie headlining either MSG or the New Years Eve card.

From all available "inside" reports - the UFC desperately want Conor to headline MSG but are trying to appear not desperate in their negotiations.

Outlaw Pete

One YouTuber has a McGregor vs Aldo II promo up anyway, just in case:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFxRff-rkug

Fromvert

It's probably a case of what ever fight the UFC offered McGregor at MSG he was going to say I'll do it but get the cheque book out. That's why he never commits to anything when asked about potential fights.

He probably wants to fight at MSG but won't if he doesn't get the terms he wants as he knows he'll get paid whenever he fights.

Also nothing wrong with fighters calling him out, they want to get paid in a sport that a lot of them don't make retirement money.

We probably won't see Nate again until a McGregor rematch. He was willing to sit out when he was making $20k/$20k he'll be hard to negotiate with now that he supposedly made $10m for that second fight. No idea if that figure is true but saw somewhere saying that's what he got, we know he got a $2m purse plus whatever PPV cut he negotiated.

wonderfullife

Conor does hold a lot of the Aces but he'd be wise not to underestimate Ari Emmanuel (new co-owner). I'm sure most of you are familiar with Jeremy Pivens portrayal in Entourage based on the real guy.

But he's far more ruthless in real life. And, to be fair, Lorenzo Fertitta proved himself pretty cut-throat too.

Conor is far and away the biggest draw in the sport but his leverage is reduced for milestone events.

UFC 200 and UFC 205 are milestone events that the UFC probably feels does 1 million PPV buys irrespective of Conor headlining - purely by virtue of the historic element of the cards.

The real question is do the UFC want a landmark 2 million+ PPV event at MSG.

I think it's very possible if they stack the card roughly like this:

Conor v Eddie (Champion v Champion match - Conor retains FW belt)
Joanna v Karolina
Lawler v Cerrone
Weidman v Romero
Rockhold v Jacare

That, to me, is about the best they can do with the available, fit talent.

You could re-jig that order somewhat, but with those fights i'd definitely want Conor headlining and the all-Polish title fight co-headlining, for a number of reasons. A chance to further enhance womens MMA on a global stage and the fact that NY has a simply massive Polish population.

That would be the highest selling PPV of all time and come very close to pushing through that 2 million barrier.

DC v Rumble wouldn't look out of place on that card either or Cruz v Cody but it's doubtful.

The Middleweight tournament with Weidman, Rockhold, Romero, Jacare would be pretty epic and then have a fun fan fight with Cowboy and Robbie, leading into the 2 title shots at the top of the card.