This is part of my thinking why he'll try to stand and throw with McGregor. His pride might get in the way. It'd be a much better gameplan for Mendes if he avoided getting into exchanges and immediately looks for the takedown. While he's more than capable of doing so, I don't think it's in his DNA to do so. Especially if McGregor and the crowd get into his head.
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I think Mendes' weakness coming into this is the fact that he only had a couple of weeks of prep, whereas Conor has been in full training mode for months. That's why I think Chad will want to wrestle as much as possible to neutralize Conor's striking, whereas Conor will obviously want to keep things standing up as much as possible. Despite Mendes have decent striking skills, he'd be an idiot to attempt to box it out with someone with that great a reach advantage.
Btw don't know if this has been posted yet but Dan Hardy did another one of his excellent breakdowns for this. Speaking of Dan, I wish he's stay retired and continue this good analyst thing he has going on rather than risk a comeback.
Yup, couple weeks to get ready for a 5 round fight is no joke. However, Mendes looks like the kind of guy who'll stay in shape even between fights. This is probably the most excited I've been for a UFC fight since GSP vs Hendricks.
Heavy hands podcast is great if you like really technical breakdowns and stuff. There's an hour long one just for McGregor vs Mendes.
Great podcast. Never listened to these guys before. My only thing with these over analytical discussions on the fight is that although they do a great analysis of the fighters styles and traits they never take in to account the atmosphere, occasion and feelings of the fighters going in to the fight. Skill level and ability is only half the fight. This is gearing up to be one of the UFC's biggest events, the noise from the fans, the adrenaline that the fighters will or will not feel and the actual motivation of the fighters is the other half of the fight. This could probably be the bigger part of the fight.
Who'd they predict would win? Thinking about putting some dough on McGregor myself.
I think Mendes stops McGregor in the 4th. Would love Conor to win though.
Kinda feel Mendes has handled McGregor's shite talk better than Aldo did too. Seems like the sort of guy who genuinely gets a big buzz from all the attention the fight is getting.
As a McGregor fan I'm quite happy for the focus of the fight to be on the wrestling aspect, I don't think Mendes will have an answer for Notorious' left.
They both pretty much said Mendes would win.
Reminds a bit of the GSP vs Koscheck fight, and GSP destroyed him with the jab and counter wrestling. Koscheck was actually a division one wrestling champion as well.
You should hope he isn't a Chuck Liddell. Chuck is one of the most over hyped manufactured champions in MMA history. The guy was basically best buddies with Dana and the Fertittas, and they made sure they signed top quality talent that were round holes for the round peg that was Chuck. Guys who couldn't strike and were not good enough wrestlers to exploit him on the ground.
On the other hand, your comparison is basically dead on so far. Connor is best buds with the owners and management. So far he has been fed a steady diet of guys who are not wrestlers. So pretty accurate.
On the other hand, Chuck got starched by every single legit striker he fought with the exception of pre-horsemeatreem.
Conor has trained for a completely different fight(er) though, regardless of what he says.
Its a classic line, took Mendes off his stride completely."I can rest my balls on your forehead"
Im talking mainly about mental and physical fitness. As far as I know Mendes was largely in hibernation between fights whereas Conor has been preparing for a title fight for months. Altering strategies between Aldo and Mendes can be accomplished in a few weeks. ...whereas getting fit to fight a title fight takes significantly longer. ..which is why Conor has the advantage going in. But you never know. Cormier for example, managed to use it to his advantage.
Thought McGregor looked a little gaunt at the weigh in.
feck me, I'm actually considering forking out for a UFC PPV for the first time in ages.
feck me, I'm actually considering forking out for a UFC PPV for the first time in ages.
Yes, same here. Although I think it's going to be a short fight between McGregor and Mendes but the other fights on the card (Lawler vs macDonald especially) are very good as well!
Every second you spend talking to or about me on mma is a second wasted.
McGregor is still a cnut though
That was nice tbf.
Anyone betting tonight? I'm thinking of betting on every fight just for the craic, doing a multiple and putting a tenner on it. Already checked and for £10 I'd win £642 if I guessed every fight correctly. Better chance winning the lottery!
The amount of people hopping on the bandwagon is insane.
Genuinely, the amount of people I know, who have flown to Las Vegas, who have never even watched a UFC fight in their life, is astonishing
Genuinely, the amount of people I know, who have flown to Las Vegas, who have never even watched a UFC fight in their life, is astonishing
Yea the amount of people I see on my facebook talking about the fight now when they've never mentioned MMA before is crazy but...I don't really care at all, if it makes MMA more popular then it's a good thing in the end.The amount of people hopping on the bandwagon is insane.
Genuinely, the amount of people I know, who have flown to Las Vegas, who have never even watched a UFC fight in their life, is astonishing
I'm not sure how much of an impact Mendes only having a couple of weeks to prepare, especially as this is a 5 round fight. Can see him possibly gassing out and getting caught if he doesn't wrestlefeck Conor in the first couple of rounds.
I'm sitting up near the front of this bandwagon and I'm having mighty craic. Apart from the odd tear up I do get myself into outside Supermac's on a Saturday night I can't say I know much about fighting or the MMA at all. I'm a fetac level 5 job at the moment.
I'm actually delighted about thatThe amount of people hopping on the bandwagon is insane.
Genuinely, the amount of people I know, who have flown to Las Vegas, who have never even watched a UFC fight in their life, is astonishing
It would be great for the sport to be recognised more widely and not seen as some kind of freak show type thing
Are you watching the whole event?
We have 3 Irish guys including McGregor on the card
1st up will be Neil Seery, he is a flyweight (125 pounds) his record in the UFC is 2-1
Later in the card will be Cathal Pendred who incredibly is 4-0 in the UFC is a welterweight (170 pounds). He hasn't overly impressed dispite his fantastic record.
Good man, it's gonna be a hell of a night!I am, all subscribed and paid up to. I've even bought a years subscription to fight pass on UFC.TV! I thought it was mighty value for 6 euro a month especially for the entertainment that's involved. I'd know a fair bit about all the Irish lads now and I've been watching all the past fights of Mendes, McGregor and co on Setanta there for the past few nights so between that and reading what ye lads do be saying on here for a fair while now I'm on the road to getting to know the in's and out's of this UFC job. I think it's fecking brilliant!
Everyone I know is routing for McGregor -- which makes me want Mendes to win. Half of these people, like myself, know feck all about MMA but are suddenly experts since McGregor came on the scene. I just keep thinking, "feck off".
Do you work at Cisco ?
Time to start up the War wagon! I am fecking excited, just watched Aldo vs Mendes 2 again.
Hah feck. Rooting ffs.
Hmm, I'm not sure. Aldo is one of my favourite fighters and Mendes had him in trouble at some points, and if Mendes can do it to Aldo I think there is a pretty good chance he's going to run through McGregor. So hard to call though because we just have no idea of Conor's wrestling defence. Eddie Bravo said he had very strong hips, which I think will be very useful for getting back to his feet but who knows if he can stop an elite wrestler like Mendes. I also am curious how much the reach will have an effect on the fight, I think Mendes is a great counter striker and McGregor gets into exchanges and doesn't always protect his chin but maybe that reach will mean he isn't there to hit.
And McGregor has great power in his left hand, I can't see Mendes fighting 5 rounds and not getting hit with it at least once or twice, maybe it's a game changer?
In essence, I have no fecking idea!
But that's why it's fascinating anyway regardless of whether you think McGregor is all hype or not, so many questions still with his wrestling/grappling ability that makes it impossible to call.Hmm, I'm not sure. Aldo is one of my favourite fighters and Mendes had him in trouble at some points, and if Mendes can do it to Aldo I think there is a pretty good chance he's going to run through McGregor. So hard to call though because we just have no idea of Conor's wrestling defence. Eddie Bravo said he had very strong hips, which I think will be very useful for getting back to his feet but who knows if he can stop an elite wrestler like Mendes. I also am curious how much the reach will have an effect on the fight, I think Mendes is a great counter striker and McGregor gets into exchanges and doesn't always protect his chin but maybe that reach will mean he isn't there to hit.
And McGregor has great power in his left hand, I can't see Mendes fighting 5 rounds and not getting hit with it at least once or twice, maybe it's a game changer?
In essence, I have no fecking idea!
I think that's pretty much spot on. No one has a clue because we don't know what sort of tactics Mendes will employ tonight. We more or less know Conor will want to box and kick, but we don't know how Conor will fare if Mendes takes him to the mat and attempts to wrestle him into exhaustion.
Feckin hell!!! What a 24 hours!! United sign confirm 3 signings and now.... THE FIGHT!!!
Starting to get the jitters for this, can't wait!!!
Starting to get the jitters for this, can't wait!!!