Conor McGregor is the man!

I dunno in my opinion he looks better than he ever did lately. I think he would shock everyone if they put him in there with McGregor soon. I also think that's why that fight didn't happen. Its more risky to the ufc cash cow Mcgregor . A loss to Edgar takes McGregor down a notch. A loss to Diaz in a much higher weight class is easier to let go if things go that way.

 

Gotta admit I'm a fan of McG. Saw his first fight against Brimage. Brimage was 4-0 at the time and getting some hype, and he's a decent fighter. McG made him look like an amateur. I DVR fights so I can go back and watch and freeze and slomo. The guy is legit...Brimage was punching air and McG was taking angles and nailing him with precision timing and laser like accuracy.

Then he's schooling an even better fighter on the feet (Holloway), blows his ACL, and just calmly takes him down and grapples him to a decision. Anybody who's blown their ACL (like me) can appreciate that even more.

His style seemed to change at this point, and he basically dared any featherweight to trade punches with him. Brandao, Poirier, Siver. Then I see one of the heaviest punchers in the division (Mendes) crack him over and over on the feet and on the ground, and McG just (literally) laughed in his face, gets to his feet, and KTFO.

Then the Aldo fight. People claiming he got lucky must not have seen how he was practicing that EXACT counter over and over before the fight. Or that he and Kavanaugh had talked about how Jose likes to throw that sequence and he's predictable and can be countered. Or some of his earlier fights where he KO'd guys throwing that same counter. That ain't luck, that's years of training backed up by sound tactics and strategy.

Then the guys immediately goes after RDA. RDA is a f'ing BEAST. The way he destroyed Pettis and Cerrone...wow. And McG goes straight for him. Then RDA pulls out...and supposedly UFC calls, wakes Conor up, tells him RDA is out and asks if he'll fight Diaz and he says (paraphrasing) "who cares, they're all the same".

The guy is a fighter to the core and a true martial artist.

As for his shtick...pretty obvious it's just part of the game and he uses it VERY well to get in the heads of his opponents. Poirier claimed over and over McG wasn't in his head. At the weigh-in staredown McG starts bobbing around, looking like he's acting the fool. Then they show him in his hotel room talking to his GF...he did it so he could watch DP's eyes and how he reacts. He tells his GF "he's emotional, his eye's weren't tracking me properly, and that's what he'll do in the ring". DP later admitted that McG did get in his head. There's a method to his madness.

And the troll job he did on Aldo? Holy hell...I'm an Aldo fan too but man McG got in his head big time. Aldo looked like he was about to explode when he came out. McG looked like he was on his way down the pub for pint with the boys.

From other things I've seen he looks like a good guy who's crazy like a fox. He's hooked up everyone on his team (even bought Gunnar a Harley), is very loyal, takes care of family, etc...

His smack talk most of the time is pretty ordinary but he does have some gems sometimes. Calling Nate Diaz a "little cholo" and saying he "makes gang signs with one hand and balloon animals with the other". Brilliant.

 

Tactically I'll be real interested how he fights Diaz and the rest of this fights at 155 or 170. He's stated that the featherweights can't hurt him (and it seems to be true), but has never stated that about lightweights or welterweights. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he went back to more the movement based style he used against Brimage and Holloway. Would be a sound strategy, esp. against Diaz. Nate's basically just a lesser version of Nick. If they can't get you to stand still and let them punch you 100x they don't really have any other plan. They have good jits usually it's the person they are fighting that takes it to the mat.

I'm betting McG goes back to moving and counter, taking angles, and generally just lights Diaz up. IF he's starting to buy into his own hype and stands and trades, then Diaz has a very good chance. But I think McG is too smart to buy into his own hype, I think he still understands that he's the man behind the myth, and leaves the myth outside the cage when the door closes.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_Ppo0EX7o

A nice short about Conor. I think he's great. UFC is part entertainment and part competitive fighting. Conor is pretty flawless at both. I don't really have anything bad to say about the guy. I don't quite understand where all the hate comes from towards him either. Ali was the king of **** talking and he is the legend of boxing. I think Conor will be remembered in the same way many years down the road.

 

Thanks DPSup! Yeah, I catch a lot of fights, been a fan of martial arts for years. When you get really elite level fighters going at it, it's fascinating to me to see the tactics and strategy involved. It really is a chess match at that level. Watch a guy like Machida or Silva and how they do almost nothing but recon initially...feint this, see how they react. Feint that, see how they react. Then once they've got them figured out, drop the hammer. When Machida crane kicked Randy into retirement, check out how many times he faked the switch kick first, or went to the body or leg instead. He had Randy 100% convinced that it was gonna be a roundhouse switch kick to the head, instead it come straight up the middle. Out came Randy's tooth, and down he went.

Look at how McG uses kicks to place his opponents right where he wants them for that ridiculous straight left.

 

Natural reaction to anyone who's brash and cocky, and backs it up. And Ali was far harsher in his smack talk. Conor keeps it to personal insults. Ali calling Smokin' Joe an Uncle Tom and convincing people he was fighting for "the man" was just wrong. I feel sorry for Joe, he was just a poor kid and none of that was true, and his family got harrassed and suffered because of it.

Ali ended up rich and famous, Joe ended up punch drunk, living in a room in the back of his gym, heating up beans out of can over a hot plate. He beat Ali, and if Futch had let him answer the bell for the 15th he would have beat him 2x. Ali had already quit and told Dundee to cut his gloves off. Think about that, he made The Greatest quit. History would have remembered Joe as the winner of the Thrilla in Manilla. Who knows how that would have changed his life?

For the record, I don't discount Futch's decision to not let Joe go back out. He was pretty much blind at that point, and he did the right thing looking out for his health. But man, what a crazy ending to one of the greatest fights of all time...and the what ifs and could-have-beens are fascinating.

 

The saying "Styles make fights" is very true. Good pressure fighters are a tough matchup for counter punchers. A good pressure fighter isn't going to rush in and get clocked, just going to keep cutting off the cage, taking away space, until they've got them trapped. Weidman vs Machida was a clinic in pressure fighting.

What you think of all these Brazzo fighters going into decline now that they've ramped up testing? Got to be tough going from having the guy who prescribes your meds is also the guy who verifies you are clean to having an independent agency testing. Vandy, Vitor, Silva, etc. all got popped and don't look near as scary as they used to.

 

my problem with Conor is that he acts like he's a legend of the sport when he hasn't even defended the ufc belt once. Anderson Silva defended it 10 times. Matt Hughes, GSP, Fedor.. those are the legends of MMA. Not Conor. Not to mention the way he talks **** to everyone and plays these stupid mental warfare games with them.
Is he a great fighter? Yes. But shut up until you have defended your belt a few times. Nothing wrong with a little cockiness that is backed up but he says racist **** and talks about peoples families. I want to see him drop.

 

I agree with most of this. I think the odds are surely in McG's favor. However every time a Diaz gets in the cage I get really excited because they have the toughest chins in the sport, and they just seem like real guys, no bs and politics with either of them. They just never seem to have a game plan. I think McG is going to take the same approach as Condit did with Nick.

 

Dude... You can't blame Aldo for not taking the fight on 10 days notice. That would be stupid. If you think that he should have that you'd also have to think that training camps are a waste of time.

 

Is Aldo the guy that's hurt?