Ground fighting is fine in small quantities, I do appreciate the whole skill behind it but it just doesn't make for good viewing. Nothing like a good ground and pound or slamming take down but on the other hand you have Chad Mendes vs McGregor, where one guy has no other plan but to do take down repetitively.
It's called mixed martial arts, not UFC and if you want to watch stand up fighting only then try boxing, kickboxing, muay-thai or any of the other multitude of combat sports that cater exclusively for that.
If you think that it's your opinion and you're perfectly entitled to it. Just seems it's the wrong sport to watch and you would prefer stuff like kickboxing than MMA as it will always have a wrestling element. I think you're doing Mendes a massive disservice there to. He's hugely entertaining to watch and has as many KO wins as he does decision wins. His 2nd fight with Aldo is probably the best featherweight fight ever.Ground fighting is fine in small quantities, I do appreciate the whole skill behind it but it just doesn't make for good viewing. Nothing like a good ground and pound or slamming take down but on the other hand you have Chad Mendes vs McGregor, where one guy has no other plan but to do take down repetitively.
Again I can appreciate it. Jiu Jitsu for example, it's an incredible fighting style. Just leave it at home and go in a thump the heads off each other in the octagon.
Yep, either buy the ppv, stream it (reddit mma streams) or download it the day after.
Cheers, I'll stream it in that case. I don't bother with the other fights usually, now I think I'll get up around 5am and catch the Ferguson fight to get in the mood.
The hatred and animosity between them - do you honestly think Khabib won't destroy Conor within a round if he gets him down? In fact, if Khabib has his way, he'll probably torture Conor in there so absolutely batter him every round to make him want to quit, which would be the ultimate humiliation. The standing up then will be redundant because Conor will be slow and exhausted.
It probably is slightly but he does have issues with it.
Plus as I remember the second Diaz a big part of his recovery after he dipped was down to him leg kicking the shit out of Diaz to keep him at bay? Don't think that will work against Khabib.
Conor is far too dangerous on his feet to play with. If he gets him down and has a chance to finish he will take it, no way he risks it getting stood up at the end of the round.
You're assuming Khabib cannot submit here, though, which, I would bet is definitely not the case and if he does get Conor down he's going to want to really damage him, and not just in terms of winning the fight, imo. If Khabib is having his way, then we'll see just what he puts Conor through. I'd expect it to be the worst beating he's given anybody since being in UFC, personally.
I’m sure he said in the Mendez fight he went in to the fight injured and couldn’t move like he wanted to. Diaz fight he went out there and threw bomb after bomb at Nate and he seemed to have this fascination with that spinning cartwheel like heel kick. Basically think he overestimated his power and underestimated how much Nate could take and just blew himself out. Got to figure in the carrying an extra 15lbs on top of that from what was intended a 155 fight and Nate being somewhere in the region of 190+ so he was giving away something like 20lbs since Conner said he was struggiling to maintain 170.
Trouble is his opponents are extremely gassed and demoralized in later rounds to where they no longer have the stamina to use their striking after Khabib has spent the entire round probably punching them on the face from half guard.
Correct.
I think the whole Diaz and McGregor cardio is a bit of a myth to be honest. McGregor absolutely hammered Diaz in both fights with huge shots over and over. Only for Diaz is brain dead or a zombie and took them. Had McGregor fought any other fighter in 155 and hit them with the same shots, they'd be dead. He obviously gassed because of the punches he was landing. Source: Diaz face both fights.
Khabib hasn't had many 5 round fights if I recall so he's going into unchartered waters too once we go into the 4th and 5th. Al Iaquinta in his last is the only one I can recall, and that was a fighter who took that fight very late. Like Conor hasn't faced someone with the wrestling pedigree of Khabib, the same can be said about Khabib and his opponents in regards to striking. Maybe Barboza but his striking is more kick related and that's negated somewhat by the treat of Khabib's takedowns. Khabib's last 4 wins have been Horcher, Johnson, Barboza and Laquinta. None of them have that 1 punch ko that Conor has. For a guy who cuts a lot of weight, going into a 4th and 5th round, could be a bit more taxing that people realise.
That's all true but Conor has only been in a 3rd round or beyond twice ever, so it stands to reason that if he gets taken down against a great grappler then he is not likely to retain his punching advantage past round 1 or 2. He faded very quickly in Nate Diaz 1 and will be even more demoralized if Khabib takes him down early. His only chance therefore will be to knock him out early.
could very well be that what is exciting about this.
That's because Mendes is a far more explosive/fast twitch type fighter who is prone to gassing. He took Conor down with ease and would've finished him in round two if he had better cardio. Khabib is far more efficient and suffocating once he gets his opponents down (although Mendes is probably a more explosive puncher).
Opinions and all that but if you appreciated the work that goes into the ground game and the technique -- you'd have a different outlook on it.Ground fighting is fine in small quantities, I do appreciate the whole skill behind it but it just doesn't make for good viewing. Nothing like a good ground and pound or slamming take down but on the other hand you have Chad Mendes vs McGregor, where one guy has no other plan but to do take down repetitively.
Again I can appreciate it. Jiu Jitsu for example, it's an incredible fighting style. Just leave it at home and go in a thump the heads off each other in the octagon.
No. He isn't. He doesn't have the same intensity, power or gnp game. Khabib is a different beast.
last min change of opponent again for Conor. Prepped to fight Aldo who pulls out, then replaced 2 weeks out by a wrestler in Mendes. Would have required a totally different training camp to prep for each fighter. Kudos on both men for taking that fight and saving that card. Woodley's last fight, he categorically stated had Till not made weight, which was a legitimate concern, that he wouldn't have faced Usman who made it be known he was prepared to step in last min and fight. Is Woodley scared of him, no, in fact I think he beats him, but it would take a different training camp to prep for each fighter
Likewise Mendes was literally on a fishing trip days before he fought Conor. He was completely out of shape and nearly managed to beat him. So the idea that Conor somehow adjusted for Mendes is generally outweighed by the fact that Mendes didn't have a camp and took the fight with little to no training.
he wasn't completely out of shape, that's a stretch. he wasn't fight ready fit, that's for sure. His mistake in that fight was going for the guillotine, so fight IQ came into it a lot more than people credit that loss for. Would he have gone for that with a full training regime, maybe, we don't know. We certainly know that Conor would have had a more extensive wrestling focused training camp for that fight. It is interesting that the 2 fights people use to highlight Conor's weakness are 2 fights he took late change of opponents on
Pretty much how I see it. Conor doesn't have the cardio to take this into the later rounds because Khabib will simply keep him on the ground and continue punching him until he either does a Nate Diaz choke on him or simply wins on points by dominating the rounds on the ground. Conor therefore has to knock him out since that is his only weapon.
Yep same.
I don't think it goes the distance either way. Conor T.K.O him or Khabib slaps the feck out of him for 3 rounds then Kimura's him or something as I can't see Conor throwing a towel in but I can't see him lasting 5 rounds wrestling either.
Yep, same here. Actually him, Jon Jones and the Diaz brothers.
What about mcchicken ?
Still waiting on him, Anthony Pettis, Volkov and Ladd.
