I will say this, McGregor's grappling game is pretty slick. Kept his guard closed and when he opened it Mendes thought he had the chance to pass, wonder if McGregor baited him into taking the pass to side control and knew it'd give him a chance to get off from bottom. Either way, the gator roll out was sweet.
The MMA thread
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I know the meniscus is, thanks. McGregor had an ACL reconstruction a year or two ago. If the graft is failing then the joint will become unstable. An unstable joint is more likely to pinch the meniscus than a stable one. If the graft is failing that is, obviously, very bad news.
The only wrestlers who could probably beat him are Mendes or Edgar. But every round starts on the feet. And Conor has a left hand that is like Henderson's right hand. Conor would knock the likes of Faber or Lentz out before they even thought of a takedown.
Conor certainly wouldn't have been beaten with relative ease at all. Mendes is the best there is in that division. Conor was always getting taken down.
What an epic finish that was. McGregor is a warrior and after he got out of the hold he knew he had to finish the fight and he did exactly that. This fight will only make him a better fighter and I would wager he would be better prepared for Mendes if theres a rematch.
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Nobody.
Exactly!
Some of you should have got some sleep, some of the shit said in here after that fight would make you think McGregor was dominated in wrestling by Kimbo Slice 
Mendes is a world class wrestler. McGregor might not have incredible defence but believe me, there's no shame in getting put on your back and kept down by a guy as good as Mendes. McGregor took that, got back to his feet and knocked him out, bizarre that people in here were actually trying to take something away from the guy after a massive win like that.
Hopefully we get Aldo/McGregor now. Mentioned how open McGregor is defensively before the fight and it was there again. He has such an open style at times. In fairness to him he showed he can eat shots and still come, still will need to throw up much better defence if he goes against Aldo. Massive win though.
My predictions were awful Think I got one or two right on the main card. TUF Finale tonight, Mir/Duffee on Wednesday and then Bisping at the weekend 
Mendes is a world class wrestler. McGregor might not have incredible defence but believe me, there's no shame in getting put on your back and kept down by a guy as good as Mendes. McGregor took that, got back to his feet and knocked him out, bizarre that people in here were actually trying to take something away from the guy after a massive win like that.
Hopefully we get Aldo/McGregor now. Mentioned how open McGregor is defensively before the fight and it was there again. He has such an open style at times. In fairness to him he showed he can eat shots and still come, still will need to throw up much better defence if he goes against Aldo. Massive win though.
My predictions were awful
Think I got one or two right on the main card. TUF Finale tonight, Mir/Duffee on Wednesday and then Bisping at the weekend Question is, who does Lawler face next?
It would be hilarious if Nick Diaz gets another undeserved title shot. He is the only person to have KO's Lawler almost 11 years ago!
It would be hilarious if Nick Diaz gets another undeserved title shot. He is the only person to have KO's Lawler almost 11 years ago!
A few points.
I'm stating the obvious but McGregor needs to improve his wrestling. He was easy to take down. He was fighting the best in the division though. Saying that, as a result of this performance, McGregor WILL improve his wrestling significantly. He loves to learn and evolve and he will get better.
Mendes had only two weeks notice. He wasn't 100% fit. A fit Mendes could have went 5 rounds. At the same time, that's 5 rounds of being hit by McGregor. Who's to say it wouldn't have been the same result, albeit in a later round? The excuses for Mendes here are outrageous. Mendes didn't make excuses. He took the loss like that man that he is and he certainly gained my respect.
McGregor was not prepared for this fight in any way. In fact, one could argue that Mendes was more prepared. McGregor's media obligations are ridiculous. He clearly wasn't training as much as he should have. His weight cut was terrible, he looked absolutely gaunt in the weigh in and nearly as bad at the fight. He looked terrible. Before the fight, he didn't look right, he looked nervous. He knew he wasn't prepared. I don't think that'll happen again. I think he won't make that mistake again. It's always going to be a hard cut for him considering his size, but he looked shocking. The media obligations were just ridiculous. Clearly Aldo was suffering with it at well. He looked drained during it. Even Chael Sonnen said that it was terrible, and considering the amount of media obligations he was forced to do to sell a fight, he'd know.
The fight itself was what I expected. I thought Mendes would take him down repeatedly but McGregor had potential h-bombs that could do serious damage. I didn't know who to pick. I was slightly in favour of Mendes (51/49) as I would be with a rematch, but it's always going to be tight as the two of them are outstanding in their own right.
McGregor is absolutely legit. Sure his wrestling isn't up to scratch against the best in the division, but his striking is great. He will improve immensely with a proper training camp, as would Mendes. His grappling, wrestling and takedown defence would be far better. He didn't train for that, he trained for a slug fest. And his general preparation won't ever be put second to media obligations again. But people saying he'd get walked through and beaten easily by a good wrestler are wrong, in my opinion. Who are these wrestlers? Mendes and Edgar only. As I said previously, the likes of Faber or Lentz would be knocked out before even considering a takedown.
McGregor is only 26. In my opinion, he goes in second favourite against Aldo and rightly so. He has a lot to learn. I think he has a better chance of beating Aldo than beating either Mendes or Edgar. But I do believe Conor McGregor will be champion one day. And I do believe he has a serious chance of beating Aldo. He is the one striker who can probably hang with him. That fight should be unreal. McGregor will end up at 155 before he's 30 though.
In terms of people jumping on the bandwagon, who cares? It that not exactly how you bring new fans into the sport. Personally I've been following MMA for years and the UFC in particular. After seeing Shonie Carter's spinning back fist on Matt Serra, I was instantly gripped. But I'm delighted to see McGregor gaining all these fans and bringing them into the sport. It'll be hard not to get hooked, regardless of whether Conor ends up as a champion or ends up on the scrapheap after been sat repeatedly for 15/25 minutes by all the wrestlers.
And in relation to the GOAT, it is undoubtedly Jones. He beat everyone and all of them legitimate. Anderson Silva was in a terrible division. GSP bored a shit load of fighters into losing. Fedor was in a relatively weak division and beat the likes of Filipović and Nogeira who really only had one weapon. Jones annihilated world class fighters like Shogun, Rashad and Machida time after time. And none of them were ever the same after facing Jones. Even Sonnen said it. Jones was so superior to Silva. He couldn't believe how good Jones actually was/is.
Anyway, just my opinion on the stuff I've read over the last ten pages.
I'm stating the obvious but McGregor needs to improve his wrestling. He was easy to take down. He was fighting the best in the division though. Saying that, as a result of this performance, McGregor WILL improve his wrestling significantly. He loves to learn and evolve and he will get better.
Mendes had only two weeks notice. He wasn't 100% fit. A fit Mendes could have went 5 rounds. At the same time, that's 5 rounds of being hit by McGregor. Who's to say it wouldn't have been the same result, albeit in a later round? The excuses for Mendes here are outrageous. Mendes didn't make excuses. He took the loss like that man that he is and he certainly gained my respect.
McGregor was not prepared for this fight in any way. In fact, one could argue that Mendes was more prepared. McGregor's media obligations are ridiculous. He clearly wasn't training as much as he should have. His weight cut was terrible, he looked absolutely gaunt in the weigh in and nearly as bad at the fight. He looked terrible. Before the fight, he didn't look right, he looked nervous. He knew he wasn't prepared. I don't think that'll happen again. I think he won't make that mistake again. It's always going to be a hard cut for him considering his size, but he looked shocking. The media obligations were just ridiculous. Clearly Aldo was suffering with it at well. He looked drained during it. Even Chael Sonnen said that it was terrible, and considering the amount of media obligations he was forced to do to sell a fight, he'd know.
The fight itself was what I expected. I thought Mendes would take him down repeatedly but McGregor had potential h-bombs that could do serious damage. I didn't know who to pick. I was slightly in favour of Mendes (51/49) as I would be with a rematch, but it's always going to be tight as the two of them are outstanding in their own right.
McGregor is absolutely legit. Sure his wrestling isn't up to scratch against the best in the division, but his striking is great. He will improve immensely with a proper training camp, as would Mendes. His grappling, wrestling and takedown defence would be far better. He didn't train for that, he trained for a slug fest. And his general preparation won't ever be put second to media obligations again. But people saying he'd get walked through and beaten easily by a good wrestler are wrong, in my opinion. Who are these wrestlers? Mendes and Edgar only. As I said previously, the likes of Faber or Lentz would be knocked out before even considering a takedown.
McGregor is only 26. In my opinion, he goes in second favourite against Aldo and rightly so. He has a lot to learn. I think he has a better chance of beating Aldo than beating either Mendes or Edgar. But I do believe Conor McGregor will be champion one day. And I do believe he has a serious chance of beating Aldo. He is the one striker who can probably hang with him. That fight should be unreal. McGregor will end up at 155 before he's 30 though.
In terms of people jumping on the bandwagon, who cares? It that not exactly how you bring new fans into the sport. Personally I've been following MMA for years and the UFC in particular. After seeing Shonie Carter's spinning back fist on Matt Serra, I was instantly gripped. But I'm delighted to see McGregor gaining all these fans and bringing them into the sport. It'll be hard not to get hooked, regardless of whether Conor ends up as a champion or ends up on the scrapheap after been sat repeatedly for 15/25 minutes by all the wrestlers.
And in relation to the GOAT, it is undoubtedly Jones. He beat everyone and all of them legitimate. Anderson Silva was in a terrible division. GSP bored a shit load of fighters into losing. Fedor was in a relatively weak division and beat the likes of Filipović and Nogeira who really only had one weapon. Jones annihilated world class fighters like Shogun, Rashad and Machida time after time. And none of them were ever the same after facing Jones. Even Sonnen said it. Jones was so superior to Silva. He couldn't believe how good Jones actually was/is.
Anyway, just my opinion on the stuff I've read over the last ten pages.
MacDonald. But after a well deserved 9 months off each, at least.
Some of you should have got some sleep, some of the shit said in here after that fight would make you think McGregor was dominated in wrestling by Kimbo Slice
Mendes is a world class wrestler. McGregor might not have incredible defence but believe me, there's no shame in getting put on your back and kept down by a guy as good as Mendes. McGregor took that, got back to his feet and knocked him out, bizarre that people in here were actually trying to take something away from the guy after a massive win like that.
Hopefully we get Aldo/McGregor now. Mentioned how open McGregor is defensively before the fight and it was there again. He has such an open style at times. In fairness to him he showed he can eat shots and still come, still will need to throw up much better defence if he goes against Aldo. Massive win though.
My predictions were awful
To be fair to McGregor, he did show he had an incredible chin. Chad hit him with his best for two rounds and Conor took it whilst asking Chad "is that the best you have". Chad is a beast.
And as I said previously, McGregor was an unprepared as Chad. He will be much better prepared for Edgar and for the rematch with Chad. It'll be interesting to say the least.
Has to be Hendricks. Many would argue he deserved the decision against Lawler in the second fight.
Gassed lol, he looked that way in the first round. People talk as if it went to the 5th and fitness became a factor.
Nonsense
Every fighter worth his salt should go 2 rounds at short notice, after that it gets dicey but still.
If anything McGregor looked in worse shape than Mendes, Mendes had the natural game to take on Conor.
Not much prep would be needed for Chad since he would have replayed his stradegy every day in his head for the last year in preperation to shut this Irishman up.
He would never have taken this fight in such short notice if he wasn't prepared, I call bullshit. It wouldn't surprise me if he were informed of Aldo pulling out 5/6 weeks earlier. Let everybody book their flights etc and make it too late for them to cancel. 'Oh well might as well still go'.
Let the Aldo / Conor hype sell the date and get it engraved into people's minds before the bait and switch.
Nonsense
Every fighter worth his salt should go 2 rounds at short notice, after that it gets dicey but still.
If anything McGregor looked in worse shape than Mendes, Mendes had the natural game to take on Conor.
Not much prep would be needed for Chad since he would have replayed his stradegy every day in his head for the last year in preperation to shut this Irishman up.
He would never have taken this fight in such short notice if he wasn't prepared, I call bullshit. It wouldn't surprise me if he were informed of Aldo pulling out 5/6 weeks earlier. Let everybody book their flights etc and make it too late for them to cancel. 'Oh well might as well still go'.
Let the Aldo / Conor hype sell the date and get it engraved into people's minds before the bait and switch.
One of the best UFC's ever, great fights start to finish.
I really wanted MacDonald to win but he got fecked up.
I really wanted MacDonald to win but he got fecked up.
McGregor is such a gobshite that I'd love to see someone knock him out. He needs to stop slabbering and let his fighting do the talking
The mind boggles, 4th time rewatching this fight this morning and each time its more and more one sided for Mendes for me.
Took him down 4 times in 6 mins, at that point he absolutely smashed him with Ground & Pound, yes he was gassed but he was still working and Conor for some very strange reason kept complaining to Herb Dean requesting they stand again? Joe Rogan even said its ridiculous that Conor suggest they stand again.
At that point he worked his way out of the ground position when Mendes was completely gassed and with 3 seconds to go...hit his thunderous left. Conor was clever with his 1st round striking working his body to gas him. Other than that I really can't fathom how anyone could suggest his performance was good or even solid for that matter.
For arguments sake, IF Mendes survived those 3 seconds he would of been 2-0 I've absolutely no doubt. That should say it all and how the fight was going.
Took him down 4 times in 6 mins, at that point he absolutely smashed him with Ground & Pound, yes he was gassed but he was still working and Conor for some very strange reason kept complaining to Herb Dean requesting they stand again? Joe Rogan even said its ridiculous that Conor suggest they stand again.
At that point he worked his way out of the ground position when Mendes was completely gassed and with 3 seconds to go...hit his thunderous left. Conor was clever with his 1st round striking working his body to gas him. Other than that I really can't fathom how anyone could suggest his performance was good or even solid for that matter.
For arguments sake, IF Mendes survived those 3 seconds he would of been 2-0 I've absolutely no doubt. That should say it all and how the fight was going.
McGregor just beat the guy who was ranked number one (outside of the champion). Shit on his performance all you want, he went in there against the best wrestler in the division and knocked him out. McGregor clearly has areas he needs to brush up on IMO but I can't believe how some people are taking away from his win here.
Edit: For the record too, McGregor has been busting his ass for months, flying around the world and training. The amolunt of media stuff he's had to do has been ridiculous and clearly took it's toll, he even admitted to that after the fight, yet this doesn't seem to get taken into account while "but Mendes only had two weeks to prepare" does. Couple that with McGregor apparently having an injury yet still showing up to fight.
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Why should he? If he was quiet he'd still be fighting average guys in the undercard. Instead he made himself a big deal and talked his way up the card and made his fights the biggest thing going on. I bet Dana wishes he had a few more like him.
Rousey done the same thing, albeit more in Strikeforce, in incredibly similar fashion, after every win they found more excuses(can't ko, can't last 3 rounds, etc, etc) and the next challenge would be the one to stop her. Of course she's looked far more dominant in all her fights, to be fair.
Dare I say the L word, Lucky!
Some clever striking 1st round and caught him crisp right at the end of the 2nd. Other than that it was all Mendes.
Conor showed two things for me from that fight
- Yes his wrestling is as weak as everyone has been suggesting
- He has a chin and can eat up the abuse
Yes Mendes clearly dominated both rounds, but in the end the better fighter on the night won. Reminds me a bit of a shorter version of Silva-Sonnen 1. Conor will have to work on his take down defense against future wrestlers since he is likely going to have to face Edgar and Mendes again, although the wrestling game won't be as important against Aldo. The big issue for the latter 3 fighters is how to deal with McGregor's reach advantage and punching accuracy.
I'd argue that, but I thought Lawlor won the first.
His backs up his talking (which is to sell the fight only) with knockouts. He's the ideal man for the UFC to back.
Considering I'm not even one of his biggest fans and have been one of the people on here to pin point my feeling that he needs to improve his stand up defence more and not be so open, I'd say that line can't be used on me as yet another excuse.
It's just a bunch of excuses. As I said above, Mendes only having a few weeks to train is being highlighted for his cardio issues (he's had some issues in the past), yet no mention about the fact that McGregor has battered himself flying worldwide and doing the amount of training and media stuff that he has. It evens itself out. McGregor was picking him apart on his feet, not sure what you was watching if you disagree with that. Mendes is a world class wrestler and the best in the division, it's no surprise he managed to take Conor down. Being out wrestled by the best wrestler in the division doesn't suddenly mean your wrestling is shit. It might not be a strength for McGregor but it also isn't something to be ashamed of, way too much focus is going on that IMO.
McGregor smartly worked on the body of Chad and took his opportunities when they came. Deserved victory. Maybe they'll fight again and maybe the result will be different, but people shouldn't be taking anything away from McGregor for this victory, he just took out the number one ranked guy and proved he's the real deal.
McGregor was playing mind games with Mendes. That's why he kept talking. And it worked. Did you see Mendes' face when McGregor got up? He was beaten. He gave up.
Even if it went to the third, he was getting knocked out. He was finished. McGregor had some left in the tank despite not being in shape.
It's all well and good dominating, but realistically you'd really want to finish Conor, and that doesn't seem to be too easy. He'll always have time to get plenty of shots in.
I really hate the wrestling part of MMA to be honest. It bores me to tears. Give me a striker or BJJ guy all day long.
I don't think he was better anyway.
I'd say Mendes was, hence if he did survive those 3 seconds he was going to 2-0.
Yeah when Conor is back training he really needs to focus on his mat game and take down defence. He won't hold onto the title for very long you'd imagine going on what we saw last night.
I already said Conor was clever with his 1st round striking, he really hit Mendes cardio and by the end of Round 1 Mendes was exhausted. Mendes got some nice shots in standing as well, Conor took them though and pressed forward.
He completely over done it on the Media side of things, far too many obligations going on and his focus was clearly elsewhere and that weight cut looked seriously nasty on him. Health wise that was the worst he's looked for me to date. However Conor was still in better fighting condition than Mendes last night. As Nucks said earlier whilst the game plan changed for Conor, he was still physically prepared for an up coming fight, Mendes wasn't and it clearly showed.
Conor didn't train for a wrestler, he trained for a striker. Do you not think that he would have been much better defensively if he had trained for 6 months to fight Mendes? Wrestling would have been what he focused on the most. He would have done feck all for Aldo.
Can't really disagree with any of this. Hats off to both fighter though. They gave the audience one hell of a show.
Of course, but it's always been said of McGregor regarding his ground game and defence.
Look he won at the end of the day, I just don't think it was in anyway great or even particularly good a performance. There are obvious reasons of course, that Aldo injury fecked everything up for both fighters.
It was more a situation where Mendes gassed himself after elbowing Conor in the face for much of the 2nd, then momentarily switched off with the expectation he could glide into the corner in a few seconds to regroup. Conor managed one good shot, which set him up for the finish.
McGregor punished Mendes's body, and landed more than one good shot. So did Mendes get tired because of some great body work from Conor or because when he isn't fighting he puts on a lot of weight and isn't training hard?
Mendes also didn't clearly dominate both rounds. The first round he got a takedown and didn't do much to it, but McGregor was lighting him up on the feet and hurting his body a lot.
Take downs count for a lot in UFC, especially if it results in further blows on the ground to the fighter who was taken down. I don't disagree that McGregor did land a few good shots that fazed Chad in the first that probably contributed to him being a bit woozy throughout the fight.
Imagine how big McGregor vs Aldo will be now!
People are expecting perfection from him, what UFC fighter has ever been amazing at absolutley everything? fact is he survived some heavy shots in that fight and took the fight back to where he was comfortable because Mendes couldnt finish him off, you cant train for a punch to the chin like that, whether he was a sitting duck or not is a different story
The first UFC fight I've seen, so I'm pretty clueless. That Mendez lad seemed like nothing more than a glorified wrestler. His only tactic was to pin McGregor to the ground and wear him out with his elbows.
I dunno why people are knocking Mcgregor. He deserves alot of credit. He was taken down numerous time but he stuck in there, showed some heart and determination and then knocked out Mendes rather quickly as he knew he was losing the fight. It was an excellent performance.
Did anyone watch post fight presser? Was pretty funny, Mendes said McGregor didn't stop talking shot, every time he'd elbow him on the ground Donor would be asking if that's all he had.
And I hope Rory is okay, he was mangled after the fight. Didn't know what year it was, nose was turned to mush, and fractured his foot. His face was wrecked and it was hard to watch him just crumple at the end there. He's only 25 but I dunno, sometimes those kind of fights just change people. There is a gif of him sitting in the ring, covered in blood, face unrecognisable and John McCarthy is kinda try to get him to sit up and you can tell he is just gone, not there any more.
One big takeaway from last night is how desperate the UFC are for personalities who can draw more people in. They've lost much of that with the likes of Lesnar, Anderson Silva, GSP, Jon Jones no longer in the mix and are almost lopsidedly relying on McGregor to carry their water for them. If it continues this way, they will almost certainly lose viewership in events where they don't have the likes of McGregor performing, and will probably be incentivized to draw more fighters who can do a bit of WWE style trash talking to hype up fights.
No, Mendes is an excellent striker, if you can watch is title fight against José Aldo, you will see. McGregor killed is conditioning by targeting the body early in the fight, also McGregor has a great space control and a great reach advantage, despite that Mendes landed a fair amount of clean and heavy shots.