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Conor McGregor thread (MMA Talk Only - Read 1st Post Before Posting)

Axwell

With the recent addition of the Off-topic discussion thread, I am closing the current McGregor thread so that chat going forward can be located in the correct threads. This thread is for MMA related discussion only - any other gossip/showbiz type stories are to be discussed in the off topic thread.

Please make sure to review the updated charter before posting - there have been some amendments made in light of these changes and in posting here you are at all times expected to follow those rules and guidelines.

As before there is a strict rule on no chat to be had here about legal issues or court cases as per the charter - this is a strict no go regardless of where it has or hasn't been posted in the media it is not allowed on boards.ie at all. This is not up for debate and it has been said multiple times now.

Axwell

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AbusesToilets

He really didn't do badly. Made the wrong choice in the 1st to try and engage instead of backing away, got fooled by the overhand in the 2nd.

Homelander

AbusesToilets wrote: »

He really didn't do badly. Made the wrong choice in the 1st to try and engage instead of backing away, got fooled by the overhand in the 2nd.

He was beaten pretty soundly but I hate this mass opinion that he was knocked around the ring or made look bad. He put up a fair defence against Khabib all things considered. It was one-sided but not embarrassingly so. That style of fighter just does not suit McGregor. No shame in that. People act like he's the only fighter to ever be undone by a stronger disicpline. I remember all the posts on FB that claimed he was "exposed" or "found out", total nonsense. Even saw people claiming that he'd been fed crap fighters and 'cans' his whole career. I think it's the problem when someone is that famous for good and bad reasons. There are great fighters on massive losing streaks that no-one bats an eyelid at, but once McGregor loses it's like he's some sort of phoney that's been exposed.

sonofenoch

Remember watching that fight through open fingers ...my feeling at the time was he's getting battered........but I'd be the first to admit I don't understand the finer points of 'wrestling' in fact I know nothing

but then seeing reaction of some fighters who clearly do, Sonnen (not everyones cup of tea opinion wise) but knows his wrestling and was full of praise for McGregor and of the view at the time a rematch could go the other way .....and another whose name escapes me, trained with Khabib....was more impressed with Conor's performance than Khabibs.....was positively glowing about his defence in fact

BDI

Homelander wrote: »

He was beaten pretty soundly but I hate this mass opinion that he was knocked around the ring or made look bad. He put up a fair defence against Khabib all things considered. It was one-sided but not embarrassingly so. That style of fighter just does not suit McGregor. No shame in that. People act like he's the only fighter to ever be undone by a stronger disicpline. I remember all the posts on FB that claimed he was "exposed" or "found out", total nonsense. Even saw people claiming that he'd been fed crap fighters and 'cans' his whole career. I think it's the problem when someone is that famous for good and bad reasons. There are great fighters on massive losing streaks that no-one bats an eyelid at, but once McGregor loses it's like he's some sort of phoney that's been exposed.

I honestly think he was good at cutting weight. Could hit a fella 6 inches shorter than him and look like a rockstar.

When he went up weight it was only a matter of time.

I can’t see him cutting to the early weights again.

Homelander

Yeah McGregor was an artist at FW. How many people have a 90% KO rate at FW? I always though going up a weight class was not going to go well for him. His KO ability lessens as he goes up. Plenty of KO artists at MW and LHW.

[Deleted User]

If a referee was watching for glove grabbing, shorts grabbing, fence grabbing and an illegal knee to the head then I think the fight becomes even more one-sided.

Homelander

Deleted User wrote: »

If a referee was watching for glove grabbing, shorts grabbing, fence grabbing and an illegal knee to the head then I think the fight becomes even more one-sided.

Yeah in fairness can't dispute that McGregor played very dirty in R2 I think it was. Especially with that knee to the head.

Mellor

Homelander wrote: »

I remember all the posts on FB that claimed he was "exposed" or "found out", total nonsense. Even saw people claiming that he'd been fed crap fighters and 'cans' his whole career. I think it's the problem when someone is that famous for good and bad reasons. There are great fighters on massive losing streaks that no-one bats an eyelid at, but once McGregor loses it's like he's some sort of phoney that's been exposed.

You have to remember that most general sports fans, don't actually know what they are talking about. What wat one or two boxing/tennis/golf tournaments a year and feel suitably ready for pub-debates.
Even among football fans who watch the sport week in week out. They spout pure drivel. The best striker in the world is suddenly shite when he transfer.

That aspect, combined with the nature of big spectacle fights, lends itself to weak, and fickle "bandwagon" opinions.

Same thing happened when Aldo lost. Suddenly he was a shame at FW. Eddie was a fraud too.

sonofenoch wrote: »

but then seeing reaction of some fighters who clearly do, Sonnen (not everyones cup of tea opinion wise) but knows his wrestling and was full of praise for McGregor and of the view at the time a rematch could go the other way .....and another whose name escapes me, trained with Khabib....was more impressed with Conor's performance than Khabibs.....was positively glowing about his defence in fact

He did very well to prevent Khabib advancing in the first. I really didn't expect that. It's extremely hard to hold back a superior grappler.
I think people who haven't been in that position, have some notion that'd they'd just get up is somebody had them on the ground.

Man Vs ManUre

I don’t think Conor did badly either, and I’m one of the few hoping for a quick rematch and think he would go into it with little less than 50/50 chance.
However ref did come very close to stopping the fight late in round 2, and had he done it would have been classed a very one sided and dominant win for Khabib.
I guess I would also give Dustin the same chance this wknd.

Man Vs ManUre

It all depends if you can avoid being taken down by him. With the way khabib locks your body under him, and then either pounds you to oblivion or squeeze the life out of you, he seems pretty much unbeatable when he gets on top of you.

The Mig

Will he turn up Saturday?

Effects

The Mig wrote: »

Will he turn up Saturday?

Of course he will. He’s sorted out his cutting issues.

derfderf

I think Khabib would have been a bit worried after the first round. Barbosa was smashed from bell to bell almost, and nobody gives him grief for it. Conor shut Khabib down in round 1 as good as anyone I've seen, but he's called a sham.

The first two rounds are always Conor's best though. Even though the defense in round one was impressive, his chance to win was gone by round three. He had nothing in his strikes.

ElBastardo1

Effects wrote: »

Of course he will. He’s sorted out his cutting issues.

i Presume he means Mcgregor:pac::pac::pac:

[Deleted User]

After the first Nate fight you got the sense that the result could be different with some gameplan & cardio tweaks.

I didn't get that sense after the Khabib loss. Whether his coaches gave him a bad strategy, whether he success in the third round or "didn't do as bad" on the ground as some think etc is largely academic. I don't see any area where he can get a little bit better and it turns the fight around.

He would need to do some major, major improvements, evolution, skill acquisition for me to think it would go any other way.

Do I believe he is capable of doing that? No I don't. He has had periods of rapid evolution and skill acquisition in the past but those days are long behind him. He's been pissing around for years, rarely training outside of scheduled camps, hanging around with bad crowds, getting into trouble. His head seems to be more into boxing than MMA. There's no logic reason for me to think he would do better in a rematch. If fouls were dealt with properly I can see him doing worse.

yourdeadwright

derfderf wrote: »

I think Khabib would have been a bit worried after the first round. Barbosa was smashed from bell to bell almost, and nobody gives him grief for it. Conor shut Khabib down in round 1 as good as anyone I've seen, but he's called a sham.

The first two rounds are always Conor's best though. Even though the defense in round one was impressive, his chance to win was gone by round three. He had nothing in his strikes.

Conor won round 3 ?

BigMo1

Deleted User wrote: »

After the first Nate loss you got the sense that the result could be different with some gameplan & cardio tweaks.

I didn't get that sense after the Khabib loss. Whether his coaches gave him a bad strategy, whether he success in the third round or "didn't do as bad" on the ground as some think etc is largely academic. I don't see any area where he can get a little bit better and it turns the fight around.

He would need to do some major, major improvements, evolution, skill acquisition for me to think it would go any other way.

Do I believe he is capable of doing that? No I don't. He has had periods of rapid evolution and skill acquisition in the past but those days are long behind him. He's been pissing around for years, rarely training outside of scheduled camps, hanging around with bad crowds, getting into trouble. There's no logic reason for me to think he would do better in a rematch. If fouls were dealt with properly I can see him doing worse.

I think this is a more than fair assessment. The perceived lack of training makes the gap even wider.

I'd imagine the UFC are praying for Dustin to win on Saturday. If that happens, they could do Dustin-Conor 2 for the LW belt. I can't see it though personally. Khabib feels completely on another level to everyone else.

derfderf

yourdeadwright wrote: »

derfderf wrote: »

I think Khabib would have been a bit worried after the first round. Barbosa was smashed from bell to bell almost, and nobody gives him grief for it. Conor shut Khabib down in round 1 as good as anyone I've seen, but he's called a sham.

The first two rounds are always Conor's best though. Even though the defense in round one was impressive, his chance to win was gone by round three. He had nothing in his strikes.

Conor won round 3 ?

He won the round alright, but that changed nothing. It was a striker vs grappler fight. The whole third round was standing, and Khabib took no damage.

It was the opposite of round 1. Khabib won round one, but i doubt he was happy with Conor shutting down all his offense.

AbusesToilets

If I was a theoretical Conor, I guess the best strategy could hope for is working to maximize energy conservation through rounds 1 and 2 and hope for a third round , similar to this fight, where he would have more energy to put power behind his punches.

Tazzimus

AbusesToilets wrote: »

If I was a theoretical Conor, I guess the best strategy could hope for is working to maximize energy conservation through rounds 1 and 2 and hope for a third round , similar to this fight, where he would have more energy to put power behind his punches.

It was a bit of a catch 22 for him though.
He pretty much took no damage in round 1 and stopped Khabib from advancing far enough to start pummeling him.
Round 2 he also negated a lot of the damage, but not as much.
Round 3, he was ****ed and couldn't really mount any offence.

If he hadn't done that in the first two rounds, he'd have been hammered into the mat for 10 minutes.

An option would be to go on the attack immediately and try hurt him as fast as he could, punish him for trying to go for a takedown so he becomes hesitant.
Only problem with that is if he gets caught at any stage, he's on the ground.

AlmightyCushion

Tazzimus wrote: »

An option would be to go on the attack immediately and try hurt him as fast as he could, punish him for trying to go for a takedown so he becomes hesitant.
Only problem with that is if he gets caught at any stage, he's on the ground.

He tried walking him down in the first round and it didn't work. I think he should have done what he does best, keep his distance, wait for Khabib to come at him and then hit Khabib on the way in. Walking Khabib down was just making it easier for Khabib to land the takedown as he had less distance to bridge and less time for McGregor to react and land something.

Tazzimus

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

He tried walking him down in the first round and it didn't work. I think he should have done what he does best, keep his distance, wait for Khabib to come at him and then hit Khabib on the way in. Walking Khabib down was just making it easier for Khabib to land the takedown as he had less distance to bridge and less time for McGregor to react and land something.

He did, but he didn't really do much with it. He needed to be on the attack, keeping Khabib busy defending himself.

That's the main problem when facing him, that fear of the takedown is always there, unless you know your wrestling is good enough to stop it.
It makes strikers hesitant to engage.

chopperbyrne

https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/cygum7/my_whole_country_thinks_im_a_prick/

xtal191

Conor didn't do as bad as I originally remembered in that fight but at the same time it was really easy victory for Khabib, he never looked in trouble.

Still cant get over how much Conor cheated in it though

pastorbarrett

Purely speculative, but even his physique looked markedly different from the Eddie/ Mayweather fights. Maybe something to do with the cut?

He looked drawn before the fight began, not out of shape by any means, but almost like he didn't rehydrate fully.

And no, I don't think it would've changed the course of the fight.

Effects

derfderf wrote: »

Barbosa was smashed from bell to bell almost, and nobody gives him grief for it.

Because people don't care as much about Barbosa getting beaten than they do about McGregor. And he lasted the whole fight rather than tapping out.

Man Vs ManUre

Effects wrote: »

Because people don't care as much about Barbosa getting beaten than they do about McGregor. And he lasted the whole fight rather than tapping out.

If your face was being squeezed so hard that your jaw would eventually crush or maybe even worse, what is the problem with tapping out?? Intelligence of knowing when to quit and live to fight another day is just one part of a professional prize fighter.
I can understand all the criticism of Conor lifestyle and behavior of recent years, but I would never criticize his heart and bravery.

rob316

pastorbarrett wrote: »

Purely speculative, but even his physique looked markedly different from the Eddie/ Mayweather fights. Maybe something to do with the cut?

He looked drawn before the fight began, not out of shape by any means, but almost like he didn't rehydrate fully.

And no, I don't think it would've changed the course of the fight.

I heard from a friend who knew someone in that camp that basically he turned up in terrible shape and spent most of it detoxing. Conor wanted to do 8 weeks, John wanted 12 weeks. It ended up about 6 weeks and they sparred so heavy trying to get him up to speed he got injured.

Not an excuse just what I heard and shows how committed he really is.

Man Vs ManUre

Assuming it was real Proper 12 in the bottle, even drinking couple of shots at the pressers in week leading up to the fight cannot be the right preparation. It’s as if Conor was so confident of winning he thought he still would with this wild man rockstar behavior. I know he has spoken a few times about how he only drinks spirits as it does minimal damage for athletic performance compared to beer, but still surely you would perform better without the spirits also, even if just for the duration of the camp.

lola85

Man Vs ManUre wrote: »

Assuming it was real Proper 12 in the bottle, even drinking couple of shots at the pressers in week leading up to the fight cannot be the right preparation. It’s as if Conor was so confident of winning he thought he still would with this wild man rockstar behavior. I know he has spoken a few times about how he only drinks spirits as it does minimal damage for athletic performance compared to beer, but still surely you would perform better without the spirits also, even if just for the duration of the camp.

He was beaten weeks before that fight and he knew it.