MMA/UFC Discussion Thread MMA • Page 42

I just don't think you can hang with Conor on the feet unless you have a reach advantage. Everyone he's fought besides Diaz missed his chin by an inch and left theirs exposed. He's so good at that. He leaves his chin in the air as bait, slips the right hand, and then comes over the top with the left with scary accuracy. Only time it didn't work was against Diaz because he couldn't use his range correctly against the longer fighter.

 

Soooo Khabib or Ferguson vs McGregor for the title?

 

Lol, he's already talking about not wanting Khabib or moving up to 170. My guess is that he'll be on ice waiting for his kid and comeback in the summer against Diaz or some shit that I won't want to watch.

 

Willing to bet he has a title defense next year.

 

Probably a rubber match against Diaz at 170 lbs so they can classify it as a "Welterweight bout" (where there's no chance he can lose either belt) and then justify him getting a Welterweight title shot.

Or maybe not. He'll most likely have a 155 lb defense, but I feel like they're going to match up Khabib and El Cucuy to knock one of them out of contention (and still possibly do the Diaz rubber match). He might as well vacate that 145 lb belt now that he's officially grabbed two at the same time.

 

Yeah no way he drops down to 145 ever again right?

 

Not that he couldn't, he dominated that weight division so I think it's wouldn't. But who knows, the guy could disappear altogether cause he's not getting enough money.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing an Aldo/Mcgregor matchup. Aldo looked great his last fight. I just don't think it will happen though.

 

Think Khabib beats him and Ferguson has a great chance. I disagree that he's dominated featherweight. I think Aldo beats him in a rematch, it was so fast the first time that it almost feels like a fluke now. Holloway hasn't lost (9 in a row!) since he dropped one to Conor in 2013. Frankie is quick enough that he could make it interesting and Pettis is down there lurking.

Lightweight, in addition to Khabib and Ferguson, has Barboza who was amazing his last fight (those kicks), Cerrone chilling out ready to comedown whenever and obviously Diaz at his natural weight.

Thing with "money" fights is that he loses nothing if he loses them. As long as you don't have to defend a belt you can still sell extremely well. It's a (semi) clever strategy, which is why you saw Bisping make a desperate grab at it, because he wants nothing to do with the rest of the division.

I like Conor as a fighter, and even talked myself into his lightweight title fight, but start defending the belt(s) or drop them altogether. I rarely side with UFC in anything, but they're going to have to start drawing a line in the sand.

 

These are my general feelings on the guy. The run he had at Featherweight as well as his wins over Aldo and Eddie were amazing, but this talk of him being the GOAT for having two belts just doesn't sit well with me. They've obviously given him special opportunities based on his popularity, but that's not to say his fighting ability hasn't enabled that, as well.

They've still, for the most part, kept him away from people that could wrestle him. Chad Mendes is still the only one who's even tried, and he was successful the times he did it but was super gassed (not sure why Eddie did not try more clinch/wrestling work as he even said afterwards he tried boxing way too much...obviously). There's still PLENTY of terrible match ups for the guy out there.

You have guys out here like Aldo (lost once in the last 10 years), Max and Tony (9-fight win streaks), and Khabib (24-0) who would love to get a crack at him, but I can just see them prolonging his championship reign however they need to in order to avoid these match ups.

 

In fairness to Conor he has had a few fights canned on him in the last 24months that might have poised a wrestle/BJJ threat (RDA)

But yeah. Next fight needs to not be 170 unless he vacates 145. He just looks to gaunt to get back there. Although Aldo does deserve another crack after 10yrs

 

Definitely true. I was not accusing him of ducking or anything, the guy fights anyone they put him up against (which is why I don't get why people say he's overrated in that regard).

I think if Khabib can get by a few of Conor's punches, it's going to be a nightmare for McGregor. That one is still a toss up for me just because Khabib looked hitable during the first round against Johnson. One or two minutes of being hitable spells the end if you're fighting Conor. Probably a very one-sided fight either way (either McGregor early TKO or complete domination from Khabib).

El Cucuy, on the other hand, has the frame and the skills to cause a lot of problems as well. Very crafty with a similar frame as Diaz but with one other variable: offensive wrestling. Diaz obviously has a better ground game than Conor, but he lacks the wrestling to get it to the ground when he wants. Ferguson actually has that ability if things go south on the feet. Going to be really interesting no matter who Conor fights next. He's running out of favorable match ups.

 

Part of me wants Conor to stick to 155 and be this normal champ and fight all of those guys, the other part of me is like this guy is special why put him in a box? I wanna see him vs Khabib then like Pettis or Holloway then a catch weight with GSP, because why not?. Does it follow the normal pattern for a UFC champ? No way but he isn't a normal UFC fighter, he transcends the sport so I wanna see him fight all the big names he reasonably can (still don't want him to fight at 170 because he'd get smoked I think).

 

True
I was listening to a general sports show yesterday on the radio and the 3 hosts who weren't big MMA fans declared him the most interesting sports star in the planet

 

Connor and Mayweather trading shots lol

Connor said he wants 100 mil for the fight. Would it be as big (or bigger) than Mayweather-Pacquaio? I know to us it seems like an easy yes, but I think a lot of people underestimate the boxing crowd because it isn't covered much in the states. I don't know how much the die-hard boxing fans would care about this one.

 

Mayweather is so scared of losing, the only way he'll agree to fight McGregor is if he suddenly ages from 28 to 48.

 

Didn't Mayweather/Manny do like 5 million PPV buys? Don't think Conor is recognizable, or good enough, to match that. And that was for two dudes well past their primes.

Speaking of primes, it'd be a terrible fight. As old as he is, Floyd is still worlds ahead of Conor with his hands. He'd box Conor up something quick.

I'd have to believe that the UFC wouldn't want to do this. Co-promotion has always been a no-no for them, and maybe it's changed with the new ownership, but I really doubt that.

 

I don't think so man. Conor's striking ability has literally put many great fighters on their ass with that look of surprise. I think it'd be a great fight for sure, but I don't believe Mayweather would by any means take him.

 

Boxing and boxing for MMA are two different sports. Only way Floyd would consider this is if it's a straight up boxing match, a sport he hasn't lost in since the 1996 Olympics. Not saying he'd knock Conor out, but he'd box circles around him.

 

You mean he'd do exactly what he did for the last few years of his fights, and tag and run around the ring. Essentially put on another snoozefest. There is no denying Mayweather's talent and record, but the guy is too safe and boring and hasn't given himself a real challenge in years. I think Conor would absolutely connect. Not having to wrestle at all and just going for striking, Conor would not relent or get tired, and would absolutely catch Mayweather enough to knock him out.

 

Pretty sure the last time I was ever impressed by Mayweather was when he defeated my favorite boxer at the time, Arturo Gatti. And that was a decade ago.

 

But Floyd also had Manny with him. Which I know at least in the Southern Hemisphere at least here. That Manny is actually more well known at least 8/10 of the last years and more popular than Flyod.


Maybe they'd have to make it kick boxing (no take downs/wrestling) but I couldn't see FM agreeing to anything but pure boxing which I agree with the majority. He'd snooze us out of it with his superior points boxing game

 

I don't even think he'd get away with doing that. He could try, and I wouldn't even say he couldn't hit McGregor, but McGregor is seriously impressive to a point where I absolutely think he could knock Mayweather down. It's definitely hard to like him with how cocky he's become, maybe even to Money Mayweather level, but he backs it up. Everyone has said oh wait till he fights this person or that person, gets grappled, blah blah. Conor is not only winning, but he's killing his competition and is still young. I think we're looking at a few years of Conor being the best unless there is a surprise upset.

 

Conor is kind of like Anderson in that there are obvious holes in his game (wrestling), but no ones really been able to exploit them because of how sharp his striking is. It took people forever to figure out Anderson until the point where he thought about retiring (of course he did come back and is still fighting, but that's not the point).

We're going to really see what he's made of in these next few fights. The only fights where people really picked against him were Mendes and Aldo. Mendes gassed and went for a stupid leg lock, otherwise he was doing as expected. Aldo, well...you know. I just think once we see him fight people that don't just try to brawl, it will be a lot different.

Edit: also, Conor does not have the best gas tank, so going full force against Floyd wearing non-MMA style gloves is not how I would think he could approach the fight.

 

I actually like him the cockier he gets. I've watched that mink coat presser at least 5x now and laugh harder each time.
I'd love Conor to do that sexy 4 hit combo on floyd