The UFC thread

No way this is bad for UFC.

I get the aura of Connor being this mini-mike tyson was fun for a while but this is the fight business. Everyone gets beat, everyone gets humbled if you are booked against tough fighters. Floyd would have been humbled too if he took on all comers too.

It doesn't destroy Connor either, he's still going to be a huge draw unless he just starts losing then he'll just be that guy that had a nice little hot run.

Edgar or Aldo is still going to be a huge draw.

I think this does put in perspective though how dominant some fighters were. Like GSP and Silva. There can be dominant fighters but the UFC shouldn't go out of its way like Boxing to create them. Put them up against the best and live with the results.

 

I agree, and I think part of what killed boxing is that they would artificially create dominance like they did with Mayweather.

With the UFC, there's no ducking fighters for a decade, and ANYONE can go down hard if they aren't careful. You can't win by hugging people either.

 

With those chokes they happen so damn fast. It's not like you are losing air. You are losing blood to your brain. When they are applied properly you have seconds to tap. You think you are alright then a second later you are seeing stars. Holly was certainly trying to tap at the end, but I've been there before when you are trying to tap but you simply can't get your limbs to move lol. I don't think she was trying to be too stubborn and not tap. It's just that a blood choke happens very fast.

 

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="6" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAAGFBMVEUiIiI9PT0eHh4gIB4hIBkcHBwcHBwcHBydr+JQAAAACHRSTlMABA4YHyQsM5jtaMwAAADfSURBVDjL7ZVBEgMhCAQBAf//42xcNbpAqakcM0ftUmFAAIBE81IqBJdS3lS6zs3bIpB9WED3YYXFPmHRfT8sgyrCP1x8uEUxLMzNWElFOYCV6mHWWwMzdPEKHlhLw7NWJqkHc4uIZphavDzA2JPzUDsBZziNae2S6owH8xPmX8G7zzgKEOPUoYHvGz1TBCxMkd3kwNVbU0gKHkx+iZILf77IofhrY1nYFnB/lQPb79drWOyJVa/DAvg9B/rLB4cC+Nqgdz/TvBbBnr6GBReqn/nRmDgaQEej7WhonozjF+Y2I/fZou/qAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BCoCsjbLztN/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">I stormed in and put it all on the line. I took a shot and missed. I will never apologize for taking a shot. **** happens. I'll take this loss like a man. I will not shy away from it. I will not change who I am. If another champion goes up 2 weights let me know. If your tired of me talking money, take a nap. I'll still be here when you wake up with the highest PPV and the gate. Still talking multi 7's. Thank you to the true support and **** the hate that came out of the woodwork. I love it all. Its still steak for breakfast. I've been here many times in my life in some form or another. I'll eat it all and come back stronger. Aldo you are a p***y. Dos anjos you are a p***y. When the history books are written, I showed up. You showed up on Twitter. To the fans! Never ever shy away from challenges. Never run from adversity. Face yourself head on. Nate I will see you again.</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by Conor McGregor Official (@thenotoriousmma) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2016-03-06T20:52:13+00:00">Mar 6, 2016 at 12:52pm PST</time></p></div></blockquote>
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I agree 100%. I thought it was great and a great fight. Conor didn't have to take the fight, but he did. Anyone criticizing him needs to rethink things. He talked a lot of **** and hyped the fight and it was a great fight. McGregor was really hammering Diaz early, but Diaz had the reach advantage and it caught up to McGregor and the style of fight he was fighting. The thing with McGregor is he is very accurate and has very heavy hands, but his defense isn't as good as he thinks. He fights very aggressively and he leaves openings. He gets hit a lot and I thought he would start getting hit if Diaz could survive. It's great for the fans to watch, but he really needs to tighten his game up a ton. I thought he was ******* nuts in the first round when he was thinking about going to the ground with Nate. I was waiting for the arm bar or triangle. He was nearly walking right into it.

It was pretty awesome how fast Diaz sliced thru him once Conor was stunned. I was going for Conor, but I loved watching Nate dismantle him on the ground. He had no chance. I thought Diaz was gonna go for the arm bar once he went to knee on belly, but he correctly went to mount and started pounding the **** out of him. Conor had to try to roll over and turtle because there is no way he was escaping Diaz's mount. Once he did Diaz flattened him out and it was all over. Conor does need to continue to work on his ground game, but he will never be on the same level as Diaz on the ground.

I just wish I was in Vegas for this event I would have ****ing cleaned up. I thought McGregor was gonna take the fight, but Diaz was way too big of a dog. I liked Tate as a dog also. That parlay would have been huge.

 

I also know how it feels to get my ass handed to me with an arterial choke. The choke was in deep while she was standing. It was over at that point, given Tate's hand positions and the hooks. The clock was ticking well before they went back down. Holm admitted she thought she could get out but just ran out of time. (That the choke happens fast was my point. I only expect a fighter of Holm's caliber to know when the jig is up.)

 

Pretty much and all they got out of it was Floyd being the ONLY big draw in Boxing for a while.

In UFC it's only a matter of time before two hot fighters meet. To me that's much better. When Jon Jones was tearing through the LHW division that made his dominance great. When GSP and Silva dominated their divisions for a long time that made it all the better.

Boxing does a lot of fluffing records stuff. Hard to create rivalries like that too. Diaz vs McGregor II would be interesting down the line, I doubt McGregor would avoid that fight and Diaz as well, but he has to obviously defend his title.

I think this loss will help him more than hurt him. It has humbled him and hopefully will force him to realize his weaknesses. Yeah, Diaz was just bigger and it's very likely that he couldn't defend against the choke because the shot he took dazed him but the ground game has always been his weakness. Usually the all time great strikers at least have good ground defense to prevent that from happening. I mean as soon as it went to the ground it was done with.

I root for him though, he's one of my favorite fighters, especially if he goes up against Aldo...

Used to be a big Aldo fan and wanted him to stop the hype but now I'm all on the McGregor train personally. Seems a ton more likeable and Aldo is proving to be a guy that can't handle a loss or two. I think this loss has humbled Conor, he's going to work on his game more and come back better for it. At least he's saying all the right things and not whining about the loss

 

CM had a chance but he blew it with overconfidence

 

Its not just boxing, people love dominant athletes. Look at Steph Curry and Cam Newton this year. Fans love watching somebody or team run through everyone. And in turn, fans are also intruded by seeing the unbeatable get beat. We've seen dominant athletes carry an entire sport. So of course it hurts UFC in terms of what they could of had with Ronda and Connor.

I don't think it matters to the true MMA fans but for casual fans it could have an effect. They tuned in to see Ronda and Connor and in turn, some were exposed to other fighters/fights. That is huge. Plus we all know how much of bandwagon riders some fans are. Its more of a missed opportunity than anything. Their next fights aren't going to be as interesting to casuals, as it would be if their invincibility kept rolling.

 

McGregor stopped respect Diaz and just stood in front of him. Not sure what he was thinking. Not to mention he wasted so much energy in a first round. He had already won the round and was controlling the octagon, no need to perpetually advance on the guy and burn up all your energy.

 

Help me understand this. I am a boxing fan, but enjoy watching MMA as well. I understand that the rounds are longer, and that grappling/ground game is extremely tiring, more so than punching I would think.

These guys are amazing athletes. You saying, McGregor in the first round chasing a KO would have had him winded to the point where he burns up all his energy? I'm genuinely asking b/c I don't get it. I did hear him say as much in a post fight interview (can't remember if it was in the ring or afterwards). He just seems like he would be well-conditioned to do so for many rounds.

 

It's hard to fathom how much energy it takes to endure these fights, but the amount of energy that they use with every punch thrown, takedown, etc is enormous. I remember being in pretty good shape a few years ago and sparring (with gloves) with someone, and I was absolutely spent after three two minute rounds - and that was us going lightly. I wasn't in this kind of shape by any means but I was used to fairly intense exercise.

Then throw in the grappling and taking some blows and I can't even imagine. So yeah, I totally believe that short term fatigue was a factor.

IMO both Holm and McG did not act with much sense. As justtxyank said, McG stopped respecting Holmes and got too cocky once he was ahead. Holm seemed to get greedy at the end and wanted to try for the KO when she likely had the fight won, thus risking the takedown by Tate.

 

I honestly don't think he punched himself out so much as he was used to really destroying people when he hit them and that simply didn't happen. He hit Diaz and Diaz just took it. The guys in the smaller weight class would have been either out or greatly diminished by getting hit by McGregor. He didn't realize that Diaz was still just fine despite bleeding a lot and once Diaz finally hit McGregor solidly, it drained him like McGregor is used to doing to others.

Basically McGregor was completely exposed in this match as a guy that needs the size advantage to do anything special. Fighting someone at his normal walk around weight will probably never happen again as a result.

 

This is what I kind of gathered from it as well. Am I mistaken or did McGregor try to go up two weight classes? If so, I think it's premature to say he's been exposed yeah? If he is dominating at featherweight because he's cutting so much weight and is the naturally much bigger fighter, I would think he can compete at lightweight and see what's up. I wouldn't rule out welterweight either. I think, yes, size was a factor, but so was his bravado.

 

It was very much his bravado that did him in. He was definitely going for the KO or atleast I'd like to believe he was after all these whiffs he put all his energy behind. And to do that he had to get in range (nate had reach adv) and ate a crapload of punches to do so. He also tried to lure Nate in to doing stupid things by putting his hands down and not guarding.

And those awful wheel kicks he tried omg....

Disappointing for conor bc IMO he won that first round and if he had chosen to do so could've outpointed nate

 

Except Conor was never a Steph Curry or Cam Newton or anything close. Conor was almost pure marketing hype. He was a huge FW with great striking but have never really been tested anywhere else. This loss was going to happen sooner or later, hell 10 day notice Mendes took him down so easily and was beating him until Mendes gassed.

Nothing was lost with Conor, people finally realized how flawed his fighting actually was and it was mostly artificial hype and trash talk that made him feel invincible to the casuals.

The actual Greats like GSP, Jones, Anderson were well rounded and battle tested and defended their titles for years and years.

Conor have zero defense, his greatest win was a 13 second knockout over Aldo, and his second best win was over a out of shape mendes. And people were talking about him fighting Lawler and GSP and 170, give me a ****ing break.

 

he didn't move up 2 weight classes.

This was basically a lightweight fight when neither fighter cut weight. Conor put on size in anticipation for RDA at 155, he weighed around 174 when they announced Nate as an replacement. Nate probably walks around 180 out of shape and 170 ish while in fight shape.

McGregor is a natural 155 fighter just like Nate. McGregor looks like a holocaust victim every time he cuts to 145

 

https://streamable.com/it1l?t=11.9

Cool highlight vid watch it while you can.

 

But they knew who he was though. He was a celebrity. Wasn't Conor on Conan or something?

 

Yeah, and I don't think that ends with one fight. I think both he and Ronda will still be huge draws. People will see if they can redeem themselves.

They are intriguing personalities and there are still matches to make for Conor. The only way his drawing power drops is if he continues to lose. He still dominates the FW division and may very well continue to do so as long as he's able to make the 45lb weight cut he has to do every time.