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Official Conor McGregor thread (part 4) *Updated Warning in 1st Post Re:Boxing match

Axwell

Official Conor McGregor thread (part 3) *Updated Warning in 1st Post Re:Boxing match
The last thread was nearing the 10k post limit so here's part 4.

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.

**Upate with Mayweather vs McGregor announced**

Lads consider this the one and only warning - big fight with a lot of hype around it. It brings new fans to the forum as well as the regulars so try and get along. Any trolling or nonsense and people will find themselves on a break from the forum and that applies to everyone.

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Inviere

walshb wrote: »

Charmer!

It's true, I've avoided the forum for the few days since the fight for fear of the scutter being posted. Pleasantly surprised to see some neutral and genuine breakdowns

normanoffside

walshb wrote: »

Anyone catch the full fight on youtube? Excellent feed. Far cleaner and crisper and soundier than the Sky feed last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjntT8tMbwM

I re-watched the fight.

Few points. I enjoyed the fight/spectacle a lot more than when I watched it live

1. Conor didn't do very well for a novice. He did extremely well

2. Floyd was shutdown for 1st 3 rds. He tried. He was shutdown. It's bull to suggest he allowed those rds to Conor.

3. Floyd did better than I thought and fought better. I was too harsh on him. Slightly slower than a few year ago, but only slightly. Part of the reason I believe that Conor gets upgraded for me.

4. To say Conor was 5-0 up is not a stretch. Watch the rds. 3-0 I had him after 3. rd 4 and 5 were very close and competitive.

5. Conor gassed late, not early. He fought very well and hard for 8 rds. He then gassed noticeably. He was tiring alright up to 8, but not gassed.

6. One single rd Conor was outgunned. Rd 9. The rest (barring rd 10) he was either competitive or victorious. He may have lost a few, but he was fighting and competitive.

7. Conor gave Floyd more bother and hassle than a whole heap of other pro boxers, some elites.

8. Ray Leonard, unless I missed it never once gave a score of a rd or rds. He never gave a card. He's a fence sitter. Always has been.

I'd pretty much agree with all this.
Conor was excellent. Showed great boxing skills and was very hard to work out.
Even if Mayweather says he was coasting/trying to tire Conor out in the first 3 he would really not have planned to lose those rounds.

I'd only disagree with tounds 4-5 being close- looking at the final all access; even Conor's corner gave Floyd those rounds. If 4-5 were tight then so was 3.
Conor tired but didn't gas until round 9 at which point heavy head shots added to the gassing.

Anyway it was actually a pretty decent fight and I think everyone comes out of it happy with their reputation in tact.

Al that said I still don't want to see either Floyd or Conor in a boxing ring again.

bur

Stopped reading at 'Floyd was shutdown for three rounds'.

Anyone that can't see Floyd was just getting the measure of Conor is those first three rounds and letting him tire himself out. Sorry, delusion on an epic scale.

walshb

bur wrote: »

Stopped reading at 'Floyd was shutdown for three rounds'.

Anyone that can't see Floyd was just getting the measure of Conor is those first three rounds and letting him tire himself out. Sorry, delusion on an epic scale.

Here is one for you. Why did the career great pro need to get the measure of the novice pro? Did the novice not need to? Because it looked like Conor got his measure perfect, as well as winning the 3 rds..

And, if he did need to get the measure, was it planned to lose the rds? Could the career great pro not have got the measure and also won the rds?

Delusion is right, in making out Floyd deliberately gave the rds to Conor. Suits the boxing fan narrative, but it's just not true, and kind of disingenuous.

Inviere

bur wrote: »

Stopped reading at 'Floyd was shutdown for three rounds'.

Anyone that can't see Floyd was just getting the measure of Conor is those first three rounds and letting him tire himself out. Sorry, delusion on an epic scale.

walshb wrote: »

Here is one for you. Why did the career great pro need to get the measure of the novice pro? Did the novice not need to? Because it looked like Conor got his measure perfect, as well as winning the 3 rds..

And, if he did need to get the measure, was it planned to lose the rds? Could the career great pro not have got the measure and also won the rds?

Delusion is right, in making out Floyd deliberately gave the rds to Conor. Suits the boxing fan narrative, but it's just not true, and kind of disingenuous.

See Walshy, this is what you used to look like to us

GerryDerpy

I liked walshey even when he was annoying. Always knew others would get him eventually.

12gauge dave

I watched fight again as watched fight live in strip club in vegas so it was hard to concentrate at time as u can imagine. Heres my scoring after 9 rounds.

Conor:85 floyd:87

And thats being generous to conor giving him the 3rd round and having round 8 a draw.
When i first seen fight i though conor done well but now watching it sober its very obvious he was outclassed from the get go. Floyd just walked him down let him tire himself out then pick him off and floyd never boxes like that and i havent missed a floyd fight for 10years.
Conor done well to last you could say but floyd let him last.
Conor was out of breath in corner as early as 3rd round his fitness is something that is concerning he is gassing every fight now i dont see him fighting for much longer.
Conclusion: floyd said he would be aggressor and he done exactly that pressure pressure pressure untill he tired floyd was smiling in there. Conor is lucky floyd didnt fight as he usually does or it would of been a humiliation.

normanoffside

12gauge dave wrote: »

Conclusion: floyd said he would be aggressor and he done exactly that pressure pressure pressure untill he tired floyd was smiling in there. Conor is lucky floyd didnt fight as he usually does or it would of been a humiliation.

I disagree with that. Floyd didn't fight like he usually does because he couldn't. Floyd is a counter-puncher and Conor kept him at a range he couldn't counter from.
Floyd had to become the aggressor to make inroads. He probably saw this coming (hence the pressure/KO comments beforehand) but if he could have jabbed and countered countered Conor he would have done it all night.

This fight was weird in many ways- Conor turned out to be the rangy slick boxer lacking power and Floyd turned into the powerful, pressure in fighter.

.ak

Watching it again Conor made Floyd look damn average at times, some of Conor's dodges and feints were phenomenal. I don't think Floyd has fought anyone like that before.

Yes, Conor didn't have the conditioning to make it last. Yes, Conor didn't have the power or didn't load his shots to make it count. Yes, Floyd outclassed him especially in the mid and late rounds, but people trying to paint a picture of Floyd letting Conor dodge his shots and eating counters and awkward jabs just to 'tire' Conor out is pure rubbish and is confirmation bias working at it's best. If Floyd wanted to do anything in the early rounds it would be to make Conor miss, and or hit his guard, and frustrate him, sting him with the odd counter, and make him lash out - the gameplan was certainly not to eat his traps and punch at shadows.

12gauge dave

normanoffside wrote: »

I disagree with that. Floyd didn't fight like he usually does because he couldn't. Floyd is a counter-puncher and Conor kept him at a range he couldn't counter from.
Floyd had to become the aggressor to make inroads. He probably saw this coming (hence the pressure/KO comments beforehand) but if he could have jabbed and countered countered Conor he would have done it all night.

This fight was weird in many ways- Conor turned out to be the rangy slick boxer lacking power and Floyd turned into the powerful, pressure in fighter.

Maybe your right but for sure it was weird fight i will agree with you there 100%. Conors lack of power really suprised me considering he drops people with the smell of his glove in ufc. Floyd suprised me with the wya he fought wether he choose that way or was forced due to conor to fight that wat i dont know but the fight had a whole strange feel to it.
Anyone know why conor gasses so early he gassed early in both diaz fights aswell?

12gauge dave

.ak wrote: »

Watching it again Conor made Floyd look damn average at times, some of Conor's dodges and feints were phenomenal. I don't think Floyd has fought anyone like that before.

Yes, Conor didn't have the conditioning to make it last. Yes, Conor didn't have the power or didn't load his shots to make it count. Yes, Floyd outclassed him especially in the mid and late rounds, but people trying to paint a picture of Floyd letting Conor dodge his shots and eating counters and awkward jabs just to 'tire' Conor out is pure rubbish and is confirmation bias working at it's best. If Floyd wanted to do anything in the early rounds it would be to make Conor miss, and or hit his guard, and frustrate him, sting him with the odd counter, and make him lash out - the gameplan was certainly not to eat his traps and punch at shadows.

But floyd was just walking to him with his head up no slipping or sliding floyd wasnt worried about anything conor had to offer? It was his strategy he knew conor couldnt hurt him he let conor beat himself. Floyd couldnt of made it any easier for conor to hit him and hurt him and he still couldnt. It looks like he was poor to the untrained eye but it was ring mastery by floyd in a way he doesnt normally do it.

.ak

12gauge dave wrote: »

Maybe your right but for sure it was weird fight i will agree with you there 100%. Conors lack of power really suprised me considering he drops people with the smell of his glove in ufc. Floyd suprised me with the wya he fought wether he choose that way or was forced due to conor to fight that wat i dont know but the fight had a whole strange feel to it.
Anyone know why conor gasses so early he gassed early in both diaz fights aswell?

On the power thing, that sort of surprised me too.. I was atleast expecting to hear that snap of a glove you'd hear from the likes of Canelo atleast a couple of times. Either he was pulling punches in order not to repeat the Diaz I fight, or he just doesn't have that boxer's power and in the UFC he relies solely on accuracy. Ever get punched proper around the ear? It'll rattle you like nothing you've ever felt before. I'd take a full shot to the jaw before I'd take a half hearted strike to the boney part behind your ear.

Gassing thing has already been discussed, but I fully subscribe to the idea that Conor is conditioned to be a sprinter and not a long distance runner. He works best when he goes all out assault (and I don't mean a frenzy of strikes, he could be setting up traps and moving backwards fencing as well) and look to finished it in the first few rounds. When it goes on he struggles because he's not used to it.

However, the gassing thing is being made far more of a bigger thing than it is, just like his wrestling or grappling skills were also used as a stick to beat him with before, people sniff something and they use to belittle him.

For me the gassing thing is easily summed up:

Diaz 1: Weight and conditioning wasn't worked on properly as he needed to hit 170 over a very short time frame - he was in line for a 155lb championship fight.
Diaz 2: Had a bit of tiredness in round 4. Find me a fighter who does a 5 round war where both fighters are trying to move forward and doesn't gas a bit at one stage.
Floyd: I think people underestimate what conditioning you require to go toe to toe with an elite level boxer for 12 rounds. You don't get that conditioning in 3 months, 6 months, a year .. it takes years IMO. There's so many things like how far you put your head over the lead foot, the calculation on output, lost shots, how far you make the opponent miss by, etc. etc. All small things but the percentage builds. He did incredibly well to get to 10 rounds considering his output.

Outlaw Pete

bur wrote: »

Anyone that can't see Floyd was just getting the measure of Conor is those first three rounds and letting him tire himself out. Sorry, delusion on an epic scale.

Mayweather for sure went into those early rounds with a plan to let Conor unload, tire himself, and yes, try and get the measure of him.......as he has done with many opponents of course....... but Floyd will usually throw much more jabs whilst doing so and he wasn't able to here. Conor's stance switching was clearly making it awkward for him to do that and his range didn't help either. Even Paulie (of all people) made the remark during commentary that Mayweather had started to come forward and walk McGregor down but retreated almost immediately as soon as McGregor began successfully countering the few punches that Floyd was managing to get off.

Even if we just look at that counter upper cut it's clear that Mayweather wasn't simply just trying to get McGregor's measure in the early rounds as you can see that Floyd totally and utterly misjudged where Conor was going at that moment and the punch he threw at McGregor hit him flush in the shoulder............ which is damn shame as I feel that punch hitting McGegor in the shoulder did just enough to take a lot of the torque (and some of the precision) away from the counter upper cut and in the end it just touches off Floyd's chest and only half the glove connects right under the corner of the jaw.

In the following clip you can see two angles, the second of which it appears as if the shot landed flush but it's clear from the first angle that it unfortunately didn't.

https://twitter.com/TheSportsJunky1/status/901660603458228224

Either way, flush or not, there's no chance Floyd Mayweather would deliberately put himself in such a position in order to try and get the measure of a fighter. There are other, far less risky, ways of doing that.

.ak

12gauge dave wrote: »

But floyd was just walking to him with his head up no slipping or sliding floyd wasnt worried about anything conor had to offer? It was his strategy he knew conor couldnt hurt him he let conor beat himself. Floyd couldnt of made it any easier for conor to hit him and hurt him and he still couldnt. It looks like he was poor to the untrained eye but it was ring mastery by floyd in a way he doesnt normally do it.

What? That's revisionism at its best. Watch it again and tell me Floyd isn't trying to slip or dodge him. He absolutely is, even on his output he's moving his head down to avoid shots, he's slipping on his trail foot to avoid jabs, he's turtling up on the ropes to avoid shots from the bell FFS!

He got lit up in the first few rounds, and if it was an amateur fight Conor was a clear winner on points for those rounds. But the one thing we can agree on is Conor didn't do much damage, I do think he hurt him at times but Floyd didn't really get phased by it, but he did start to smarten up and defended better in later rounds because he probably knew he couldn't eat them all night.

12gauge dave

Conor was akward in there for floyd no doubt but he knew conor couldnt hurt him so was alot more open and careless than he normally is.
There is many ways of looking at it because we dont know how serious floyd took the fight but ill agree with everyone conor deserves so much credit to last as long as he did with floyd either way.

Outlaw Pete

.ak wrote: »

On the power thing, that sort of surprised me too.. I was atleast expecting to hear that snap of a glove..........

Personally I don't think he was trying to punch with everything he had and even Megan brought that up after the fight when she asked him:

Megan: "Was there any part of you that was a little bit hesitant when you were throwing in those early rounds, trying to conserve power, saying 'Maybe I'm not going to throw as hard as possible'?

Conor: "Yeah, because I'm thinking of 12 rounds, of course"

normanoffside

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Personally I don't think he was trying to punch with everything he had and even Megan brought that up after the fight when she asked him:

Problem here is that Conor got tired despite not throwing @ 100% early in the fight.
I think that it was lack of experience of which punches to throw with power and which to throw as range finders. Instead of throwing a mixture of 40% and 100% punches he just threw them all at 70%.
All the same, Conor is the much the bigger man. In boxing terms Conor is naturally at least 2 weight divisions above floyd (remember floyd started at 130lbs and even at 147 he was generally outsized) so I definitely expected more power from Conor.

.ak

normanoffside wrote: »

Problem here is that Conor got tired despite not throwing @ 100% early in the fight.
I think that it was lack of experience of which punches to throw with power and which to throw as range finders. Instead of throwing a mixture of 40% and 100% punches he just threw them all at 70%.
All the same, Conor is the much the bigger man. In boxing terms Conor is naturally at least 2 weight divisions above floyd (remember floyd started at 130lbs and even at 147 he was generally outsized) so I definitely expected more power from Conor.

He may not have been putting 100% power into his shots or throwing with venom but he threw out a LOT of shots. The 114 stat is important, because it for me is the reason he gassed. How many of those punches after round 4 were thrown at his gloves? He needed to dial back on the output a bit.

normanoffside

.ak wrote: »

He may not have been putting 100% power into his shots or throwing with venom but he threw out a LOT of shots. The 114 stat is important, because it for me is the reason he gassed. How many of those punches after round 4 were thrown at his gloves? He needed to dial back on the output a bit.

He needed to pick his shots. Agreed. That comes with experience.
114 in 3 rounds is not massive. Wayne McCullough used to throw 114 punches/round!

El Caballo

.ak wrote: »

What? That's revisionism at its best. Watch it again and tell me Floyd isn't trying to slip or dodge him. He absolutely is, even on his output he's moving his head down to avoid shots, he's slipping on his trail foot to avoid jabs, he's turtling up on the ropes to avoid shots from the bell FFS!

He got lit up in the first few rounds, and if it was an amateur fight Conor was a clear winner on points for those rounds. But the one thing we can agree on is Conor didn't do much damage, I do think he hurt him at times but Floyd didn't really get phased by it, but he did start to smarten up and defended better in later rounds because he probably knew he couldn't eat them all night.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EshvzDhc7qY

Subcomandante Marcos

El Caballo wrote: »

Click baity title but the points it raises are very valid.

DuffleBag

Crazy one of the lads forgot his gearbag and jockstrap before the fight

12gauge dave

Everyone should just take off the rose tinted glasses and realise that the fight went EXACTLY as floyd had planned and the way he fought like that was to make the fight last a bit for fans sake. Did he get caught with a few shots in opening rounds? Yes because he was walking to conor it was his plan. Mayweather had a plan and his plan was executed to perfection like any fight he has ever had. Did conors plan work? No was conors fitness a joke? Yes. Everything went off to a tee for floyd it couldnt of gone much better to be honest.

Gamebred

Aye his plan was to let his head get snapped back with Conors jab pmsl.

12gauge dave

Unfollow thread selected.

jcd5971

12gauge dave wrote: »

Unfollow thread selected.

well thank **** for that, you'll be missed

Eyes Down Field

All Access Episode 5 is the best one. Behind the scenes footage from fight night, new camera angles and unheard audio. New footage and audio of the corners and close family reactions at ringside.

ardinn

DuffleBag wrote: »

Crazy one of the lads forgot his gearbag and jockstrap before the fight

I almost cried watching that!!! Fúck sake!!!

wonderfullife

hewhoscares wrote: »

Its testament to the UFCs marketing that when Nate Diaz asks for a fair price for his time that its instantly shot down as ludicrous.

If we work on the Meltzer numbers (as sketchy as they are) Diaz adds 300k PPV buys to a McGregor card and means an increase in the live gate.

Ignoring VAT (or the US equivalent) compared to Alvarez who brought a belt to the table, as well as a much stronger card and the added MSG prestige - thats $18m additional PPV revenue.

According to the documents prepared by Deutsche Bank before the WME/IMG takeover, the UFC are tied into a 50/50 split with their PPV provider (which was NeuLion until the Floyd debacle). Nate bringing 300k additional buys is indeed $18m but that still only means an extra $9m gross revenue.

There's 100% no question the UFC underpay the entire roster compared to most mainstream American sports and the most underpaid athlete in the UFC (by a country mile) is Conor McGregor. Conor has brought in roughly 6.75 million PPV buys in his last 5 UFC fights and his disclosed pay for those events only totaled $12.5 million. Even if we assume his cut of the PPV's went to $5 after the Aldo fight, that's still only something like $40 million total.

Paying Conor $40 million when he's making the UFC $200 million gross is crazy. Compare that to Mighty Mouse who made $450,000 for his last fight on a card that barely broke even. It's scandalous but on the plus-side it does mean the UFC have a lot of leeway in negotiations with Conor to greatly increase his pay and keep him happy.

Conor v Nate 3 - let's say it does close to 2 million buys (reasonable guess): That should leave a pot of $55 million on the UFC side of things after staging the event. Anybody suggesting Nate should be paid $30 million is smoking too much weed. For Nate to even get $20 million means Conor would have to get more, say $30 million, which means the UFC walks away with ... $5m.

That is not happening. Bottom line, the UFC know they can put on Conor v A Broomstick and there's no way the event does less than 1.4 million buys and they can also pay the broomstick less than $4 million all-in.

TL;DR - Nate is living in la-la-land if he thinks he a) deserves b) has a chance of getting $20/$30 million to fight Conor. We had this A-side/B-side debate with Floyd for a month but I'm guaranteeing the UFC knows the A-side here and will not be paying the B-side over $10 million.

Lukker- wrote: »

He doesn't but the tax office would have to prove otherwise. I've seen on some fight payouts that he's listed as a resident there, probably why he purchased a house in the first place.

EDIT: IT was actually the NSAC hearing over the Diaz monster can thing. He was asked where he resided, and he responded California I believe. It's why his community service was in the States.

J.K has said himself the reason Conor won't fight in Ireland again is tax.

Conor's pretty blonde lawyer said "Mr. McGregor is a resident of California and is in the process of purchasing a property in Vegas" during that hearing and I think that led to a bit of confusion over where he would be doing his community service. I was sort of surprised Eddie Alvarez didn't throw that in his face during the UFC 205 build-up because Conor is always saying his home is Ireland.

Speaking of which, 5 out of his last 10 follows on Instagram are famous American estate-agents who flog houses to celebrities, so that probably reflects where his head is at with his new money.

walshb wrote: »

I re-watched the fight.

Few points. I enjoyed the fight/spectacle a lot more than when I watched it live

4. To say Conor was 5-0 up is not a stretch. Watch the rds. 3-0 I had him after 3. rd 4 and 5 were very close and competitive.

6. One single rd Conor was outgunned. Rd 9. The rest (barring rd 10) he was either competitive or victorious. He may have lost a few, but he was fighting and competitive.

7. Conor gave Floyd more bother and hassle than a whole heap of other pro boxers, some elites.

8. Ray Leonard, unless I missed it never once gave a score of a rd or rds. He never gave a card. He's a fence sitter. Always has been.

People will be thinking I hacked your account

It's lovely when someone is open minded enough to change an opinion. I'd just add one thing - I've rewatched Round 8 in particular countless times now and to my mind it's the second most impressive thing Conor has done in his entire career, only 2nd to Round 4 against Nate.

Floyd was 100% going all-out in Round 8 and some of Conor's boxing was phenomenal in that round. He landed some really hurtful body shots, used some great shoulder rolls and slips and was strong enough in clinch range. He also ate some clean shots and didn't panic. To throw 59 punches in round 8 against an unbeaten boxer, to land 27% of his power punches that deep in the fight and, most importantly, to still have the ability to make Floyd miss (Floyd only landed 42%) was incredibly good stuff.

normanoffside wrote: »

He needed to pick his shots. Agreed. That comes with experience.
114 in 3 rounds is not massive. Wayne McCullough used to throw 114 punches/round!

Wayne used to fight between 115lbs and 126lbs. There's a physical reason why a McCullough or a Mighty Mouse can throw far more volume than heavier fighters. Conor's volume stacks up extremely well to Berto/Canelo/GGG.

I feel one thing that hasn't been addressed (at least in public) is a possible communication issue between Conor and JK/Roddy during fights.

In the Diaz 2 fight, he was told in between rounds to basically relax with the low percentage stuff and low-and-behold Conor comes out and almost immediately throws a low pecentage spinning back kick, prompting John to shout at him. In the Floyd fight, John advised him not to throw when Floyd was shelling up because he was wasting his energy unnecessarily and, yep, Conor went straight out and unloaded on a shelled-up Floyd.

To me, that's a blatant communication issue because both incidents came at the beginning of a round where the advice should be fresh in the mind, as opposed to the middle of a round where all fighters can forget advice in the heat of battle. It might not be a problem in future contests because Conor is brilliant at ending fights early.

In particular, I didn't like how Conor was looking to the big screen in between rounds. I know he does it at times in MMA but this was different. It was as if he was giddy with excitement at how well he was doing against one of his idols. He had the expression of a man thinking "OMG I'm ACTUALLY in Vegas beating Floyd 3 rounds to 0 in a boxing ring".

I'd have preferred if he was a bit more focused on what Owen/John were telling him and I definitely think the lads got lost in the moment too. On the whole, the corner advice was decent (I'd grade it B-) but early on they looked to be just as giddy as Conor at how well things were going.

Conor paced himself really well rounds 1-3 and that's reflected in the punch stats. But then he went hell-for-leather in rounds 4 and 5 throwing the same amount of punches in those rounds as he did in the 3 previous rounds. Hindsight is 20-20 but sudden explosions in activity are always going to be costly on your energy levels down the stretch. Conor threw 39 punches in round 3 and spiked to almost double (65) thrown in round 4.

Someone needed to get hold of him at the end of the 4th and communicate firmly that this is looking like a 12-round fight and implore/beg Conor to lower his work-rate to a more sustainable level.

Primarily, I was disappointed that Conor responded to Floyd's forward-pressure by throwing more volume. In boxing (and in MMA), the clinch is a vital tool to deal with waves of oncoming pressure and we saw that to good effect in the Diaz 2 contest where Conor was able to tie Nate up for long periods against the fence. Conor's instinct against Floyd was to throw in response, I'd have much preferred strong corner advice for him to clinch - especially as he was strong in the clinch and Robert Byrd was a) slow separating them and b) allowing Conor to get away with murder with the rabbit punches.

Overall, the fact is this - Conor threw more punches in rounds 5, 6, 7, 8 than he did in rounds 1, 2, 3, 4. That alone should shatter the myth he gassed early because his output was increasing as the fight went on, not dropping off, his power (to the body) looked just as solid too. It should also underscore they paced the fight wrongly given we know he faded badly from the middle of round 9 into round 10.

I felt Owen/John could have done better but it was a tough learning experience for them too. It should have been extremely obvious after 3 rounds that knocking Floyd out wasn't happening and they should have drilled that into Conor's head - "this is going the distance, 9 rounds to go" - in order to pace himself physically and mentally. I agree with Firas Zahabi's point when he said Conor copes much better when he expects a war and he panics a bit when he expects an early finish that doesn't come.

Anyway, criticism is extremely easy with the benefit of hindsight. I hope they all sit down and address the communication issues though because part of improving is problem-recognition. Coaches can't make their fighter listen to them (e.g. Henri Hooft screaming at Rumble to no effect, Mark Henry being ignored by Eddie Alvarez etc) but they can at least sit down afterwards as a team and try improve.

Conor has spent his entire career stopping people in rounds 1 and 2, so the delivery and receipt of corner advice in between rounds is something they never really needed to work on. I think they do now and that can only be a good thing

I hope we see John on the MMA Hour this week too. He doesn't owe the public any explanations but it'd be nice to hear what he made of the experience because, in my mind, the positives far outweigh the negatives. Conor did brilliantly well and I'm sure they're proud of him, just like I am

wonderfullife

ardinn wrote: »

I almost cried watching that!!! Fúck sake!!!

I'm a softie but Dana giving Conor a kiss was a moving moment.

Also, Conor apologizing to him and clearly being devastated should convince all the cynics that he wasn't taking the fight *just* for the money. He clearly believed he was going to win and was heartbroken at losing the fight.