The MMA thread

Raoul said:
I think he'll wind up running the show for the UFC at some point and also do a bit of movie acting. Heard he turned down the role of a Bond villain recently.
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I'd say you're right. Dana might be thinking this too and that's why things are fairly frosty between the two lately. The new UFC owners know who's making them the big bucks these days. Dana is practically a dieing wasp flying around the place now. As McGregor said the other night, shits gonna hit the fan now.
 
Earthquake said:
He definitely is. Constant calling out and bantering at wrestlers, tweeting/teasing about WWE events when they're on. Hell, Saturday night he done Vince McMahon's "powerwalk" around the octagon before Diaz arrived.
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I think its something he will do eventually

Wonder what size he would be compared to some of the others. I reckon he would be if similar build to a Jerricho or Shawn Michaels
 
When people say running the show they surely don't mean do Dana's job? Where is the logic behind this besides him being able to talk. Dana may be a bit of a dick at times but he is clearly very good at what he does. He's one of the key reasons the UFC got sold for huge money.

Just curious as to where it comes from more than anything. I seriously doubt Conor has that much interest in anything but himself and his brand which is fair enough.

Pogue Mahone said:
Be a hell of a way to tarnish his legacy if he ever did join that pantomime.
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Agreed, I think it'd be shite if he went to something like the WWE. Can see it happening unfortunately though.
 
Oggmonster said:
When people say running the show they surely don't mean do Dana's job? Where is the logic behind this besides him being able to talk. Dana may be a bit of a dick at times but he is clearly very good at what he does. He's one of the key reasons the UFC got sold for huge money.

Just curious as to where it comes from more than anything. I seriously doubt Conor has that much interest in anything but himself and his brand which is fair enough.



Agreed, I think it'd be shite if he went to something like the WWE. Can see it happening unfortunately though.
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I'm sure Conor would do it if the situation presented itself. Dana could then move into the shadows as part owner or just move on to something else. He was never destined to do this for the rest of his life and the new UFC owners, who are steeped in the entertainment industry, may look at Conor's brand as being the ideal face and voice to represent the UFC going forward.

As for what are Conor's qualifications ? He brings in far more money to the UFC than Dana does, which is pretty scary considering where he was as a fighter just two years ago. Dana's legacy is the past and he deserves a lot of credit for that, but he's become a bit of a poster child for the old Fertita/White owned UFC at a time when they have just been sold.
 
Oggmonster said:
When people say running the show they surely don't mean do Dana's job? Where is the logic behind this besides him being able to talk. Dana may be a bit of a dick at times but he is clearly very good at what he does. He's one of the key reasons the UFC got sold for huge money.

Just curious as to where it comes from more than anything. I seriously doubt Conor has that much interest in anything but himself and his brand which is fair enough..
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It's a weird suggestion, I agree. Dana White is a savvy business-man. McGregor has huge charisma but has shown nothing to suggest he could run a billion dollar business. Not sure he would want to either. His ego wouldn't let himself take the sort of role that White does in the UFC.
 
Oggmonster said:
When people say running the show they surely don't mean do Dana's job? Where is the logic behind this besides him being able to talk. Dana may be a bit of a dick at times but he is clearly very good at what he does. He's one of the key reasons the UFC got sold for huge money.

Just curious as to where it comes from more than anything. I seriously doubt Conor has that much interest in anything but himself and his brand which is fair enough.
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They probably just mean his on screen hype man shite, press conferences and the like, not actually running the business.
 
Oggmonster said:
When people say running the show they surely don't mean do Dana's job? Where is the logic behind this besides him being able to talk. Dana may be a bit of a dick at times but he is clearly very good at what he does. He's one of the key reasons the UFC got sold for huge money.

Just curious as to where it comes from more than anything. I seriously doubt Conor has that much interest in anything but himself and his brand which is fair enough.
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His constant praise for the association and the money it makes plus the money he says he makes it seems to me that he's angling towards getting Dana's gig at some stage or another. There's a lot more to McGregor than just talking too, he knows how to make money and could be considered a serious business man.
 
Raoul said:
I'm sure Conor would do it if the situation presented itself. Dana could then move into the shadows as part owner or just move on to something else. He was never destined to do this for the rest of his life and the new UFC owners, who are steeped in the entertainment industry, may look at Conor's brand as being the ideal face and voice to represent the UFC going forward.

As for what are Conor's qualifications ? He brings in far more money to the UFC than Dana does, which is pretty scary considering where he was as a fighter just two years ago. Dana's legacy is the past and he deserves a lot of credit for that, but he's become a bit of a poster child for the old Fertita/White owned UFC at a time when they have just been sold.
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I agree re Dana leaving eventually, I saw an interview with Jimmy Kimmel (I think it was him) where he's pretty content with life after making his shit load of money during the sale.

I think you can look at it two ways though, the fighter is always going to bring in more money than the promoter, but essentially that promoter helped make people like Conor McGregor, Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones etc, he helped make the UFC what it is and whilst I agree it's past achievements it's bigger now than it ever has been. Dana deserves a load of credit for it (as do the fighters such as Conor.)

Pogue Mahone said:
It's a weird suggestion, I agree. Dana White is a savvy business-man. McGregor has huge charisma but has shown nothing to suggest he could run a billion dollar business. Not sure he would want to either. His ego wouldn't let himself take the sort of role that White does in the UFC.
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yeah that's what I don't get, it's a business. The fighter suddenly having a directors role out of nowhere is like a WWE storyline if anything!

Earthquake said:
They probably just mean his on screen hype man shite, press conferences and the like, not actually running the business.
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He is a good hype man for himself, but for other fights I'm not sure. At the "go Big" press conference before Aldo he pretty much shit on every fighter on the stage. He's great at talking himself up for promotion but others I'm not so sure. Nor do I think it would interest him. He plays off fighters well. It would be a bit odd to have 2 fighters fighting and Conor in the middle in the Dana role acting as a mediator. To me his "persona" really doesn't lend itself to that kind of role.

The Black Pearl said:
His constant praise for the association and the money it makes plus the money he says he makes it seems to me that he's angling towards getting Dana's gig at some stage or another. There's a lot more to McGregor than just talking too, he knows how to make money and could be considered a serious business man.
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I definitely don't doubt he is a businessman and a very clever person as well. But what he does is completely different to Dana's role really. He's brilliant at hyping fights but it would just be a bit odd to have him take a role because he sold his fights well.

I dunno really, I do like the guy a lot and find him hugely entertaining but I just couldn't see him doing anything like that. The WWE route seemed far more likely for him.
 
Lastwolf said:
He had to wait around for a year just to fight Aldo the first time, Edgar just lost, Mendes is looking down the barrel of a 2 year ban, already beat Holloway.

After an Aldo rematch, I'd go Holloway vs Edgar winner but you can see it from a McGregor point of view, almost none of these guys are draws and they either just lost or he already beat them.

He needs to fight Aldo before the end of the year or vacate the title though, enough is enough with this 170 shit.
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All true but Diaz had already beat him before Saturday night.

Who exactly is the massive draw from the other divisions he wants to face? We have a situation where each of the FW, LW and WW division champions have yet to defend their titles. The belts have interchanged regularly in recent years at both LW and WW and no one in either division comes close to having Conor's profile or pull.

You are right he needs to make his next fight a title defence (hopefully against Aldo) or step out of the division and let them sort it out. Holloway is a genuine threat despite the original defeat (21 at the time and 9 straight wins since) and Edgar is an ex LW champion and a more than respectable opponent.

In a time where belts are being exchanged every other fight I think Conor would be missing a trick not to cement his status at FW, potentially become the longest serving active champion and cash in on the acclaim and attention that such an achievement brings.
 
Badunk said:
Nate, like his brother, throws high volume, but it's more of a pap-pap-pap style. They hit you with 50% power every time and they can do that for 25 minutes. But Conor was never hurt in that fight. Tired? Yes, undoubtedly. But even in the third round, which was Nate's best, Conor was intelligently defending himself at all times and was bobbing and weaving, so a lot of Nate's attempts were glancing blows. I think a 155lb Conor destroys Nate at the same weight. His cardio will be better, plus he's shown that he's more effective with his striking, so it wouldn't be as close as this fight.
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I don't know why people say this. If we believe McGregor, he was 167 in the cage on Saturday. If he's fighting at lightweight he's still going to be walking around at the same weight, if he cuts to 155 he's still going to be able to get back up to 167 on fight night.
 
FWIW the UFC have released Conor's post fight presser now...

 
Feeky Magee said:
I've always thought the scoring system of this and boxing was a bit bizarre. Taking, say, the 1st and 4th rounds, the first round was all Conor from start to finish and then the 4th round he definitely edged but not nearly as dominant, yet both are a 1-point advantage on the scorecard.
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Definitely. I think anyone can argue that round 1 is 10-8 Conor and round 3 is 10-8 Nate. I've rewatched the fight once and I remember Conor defending a takedown, reversing a clinch, and not looking out of his depth in round 3, so I'm not entirely sure I would have it 10-8 Nate (purely because it wasn't pure domination IMO), though I'm happy to concede that if given evidence.

Fwiw, This is the criteria:
A round is to be scored as a 10-9 Round when a contestant wins by a close margin, landing the greater number of effective legal strikes, demonstrating effective grappling, and utilizing other effective legal techniques.

A round is to be scored as a 10-8 Round when a contestant wins by a large margin, by effective striking and or effective grappling that have great impact on the opponent.

A round is to be scored as a 10-7 Round when a contestant totally dominates by effective striking and or effective grappling, which put the opponent in great danger throughout the round. In a 10-7 round referee stoppage may be eminent. This score should rarely be used.
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facund said:
All true but Diaz had already beat him before Saturday night.

Who exactly is the massive draw from the other divisions he wants to face? We have a situation where each of the FW, LW and WW division champions have yet to defend their titles. The belts have interchanged regularly in recent years at both LW and WW and no one in either division comes close to having Conor's profile or pull.

You are right he needs to make his next fight a title defence (hopefully against Aldo) or step out of the division and let them sort it out. Holloway is a genuine threat despite the original defeat (21 at the time and 9 straight wins since) and Edgar is an ex LW champion and a more than respectable opponent.

In a time where belts are being exchanged every other fight I think Conor would be missing a trick not to cement his status at FW, potentially become the longest serving active champion and cash in on the acclaim and attention that such an achievement brings.
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His coach reckons he can't make 145 anymore but I don't see why not since he claimed he struggled to maintain 170 (he said he was 167 before the fight).

In a crazy ideal world, He beats Aldo and Cowboy beats Alvarez, then you have a title bout super fight at 155.

Other than that, I think you are right Aldo into Holloway, but that's a bit long to ask Holloway to wait for a fight so I'd set him up with Frankie Edgar. There are people that are always gonna cry that Conor is ducking people like Edgar, so if Holloway beats him it removes him from the equation for a the next year or so, if he beats Holloway, he's reinvigorated for a title shot.

The fact that Diaz and Conor seem to want this Triology fight is beyond me, waste of time for the UFC.

Dominos said:
I don't know why people say this. If we believe McGregor, he was 167 in the cage on Saturday. If he's fighting at lightweight he's still going to be walking around at the same weight, if he cuts to 155 he's still going to be able to get back up to 167 on fight night.
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Yeah, but Nate's not getting back up to 177 or whatever he was in a night is the point, it'll suck more out of Diaz.
 
Dominos said:
I don't know why people say this. If we believe McGregor, he was 167 in the cage on Saturday. If he's fighting at lightweight he's still going to be walking around at the same weight, if he cuts to 155 he's still going to be able to get back up to 167 on fight night.
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He won't be walking round at 167 though. McGregor packed on a load of muscle so he could hold his own against a much bigger, heavier opponent. All that muscles sucks up a lot of oxygen, which took its toll on his cardio. If Diaz fights at 155 he'll have to slim down and McGregor can deflate to his more usual
physique. Plus, the cut will take a lot out of Nate.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He won't be walking round at 167 though. McGregor packed on a load of muscle so he could hold his own against a much bigger, heavier opponent. All that muscles sucks up a lot of oxygen, which took its toll on his cardio. If Diaz fights at 155 he'll have to slim down and McGregor can deflate to his more usual
physique. Plus, the cut will take a lot out of Nate.
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He didn't pack on muscle from the last fight with Diaz, he weighed in at 168 both times with no cut. He would have been heavier from his fight with Aldo, but any muscle he packed on from that time was to prepare him to fight RDA at 155.

A 12/13 pound cut is not a big cut, he makes a bigger cut than that to make FW. He can afford to get bigger than he currently is and still make 155 comfortably. At 168 he's giving up size to most 155ers. Alvarez says he weighs 173+ in the octagon and can walk around at 180, Tony Ferguson said in an interview the other week he weighed about 190 pounds sitting there.

I can't see him looking to lose weight if he decides his future fights will be at 155. I think the only thing stopping him from getting even bigger than he is now is he may need to make 145 again.
 
MoneyMay said:
Definitely. I think anyone can argue that round 1 is 10-8 Conor and round 3 is 10-8 Nate. I've rewatched the fight once and I remember Conor defending a takedown, reversing a clinch, and not looking out of his depth in round 3, so I'm not entirely sure I would have it 10-8 Nate (purely because it wasn't pure domination IMO), though I'm happy to concede that if given evidence.

Fwiw, This is the criteria:
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Like the way the system is now, Diaz's finish to the second round, where he put Conor under serious pressure, is not recognised on the scorecard at all. If he did absolutely nothing for the last 90 seconds of that round, the scorecard would have been exactly the same. But if he does it at the start of the 4th, he wins the fight.
 
Badunk said:
Nate, like his brother, throws high volume, but it's more of a pap-pap-pap style. They hit you with 50% power every time and they can do that for 25 minutes. But Conor was never hurt in that fight. Tired? Yes, undoubtedly. But even in the third round, which was Nate's best, Conor was intelligently defending himself at all times and was bobbing and weaving, so a lot of Nate's attempts were glancing blows. I think a 155lb Conor destroys Nate at the same weight. His cardio will be better, plus he's shown that he's more effective with his striking, so it wouldn't be as close as this fight.
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While I agree with your point about 155, you're not seriously arguing that McGregor wasn't in serious trouble at the end of round 3? That was close to a stoppage. Another 15 seconds and it could well have been.
 
Feeky Magee said:
While I agree with your point about 155, you're not seriously arguing that McGregor wasn't in serious trouble at the end of round 3? That was close to a stoppage. Another 15 seconds and it could well have been.
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But Conor explained what happened in the 3rd. He was exhausted and didn't want to counter swing back and kill himself more so he blocked with his shoulders and arms to see out the round. It was smart since Conor caught his second wind and came back to win the 4th.
This tiredness thing has people blinded to what actually happened.
Rogan is responsible imo. He saw Conor tire and started screaming he was in trouble when he wasn't doing what he was before, he wasn't in trouble because Nate was getting on top of him.
If you watch that back amid Rogans stupidity roaring through, Conor actually wins that fecking exchange.
It makes no sense.
 
cyberman said:
But Conor explained what happened in the 3rd. He was exhausted and didn't want to counter swing back and kill himself more so he blocked with his shoulders and arms to see out the round. It was smart since Conor caught his second wind and came back to win the 4th.
This tiredness thing has people blinded to what actually happened.
Rogan is responsible imo. He saw Conor tire and started screaming he was in trouble when he wasn't doing what he was before, he wasn't in trouble because Nate was getting on top of him.
If you watch that back amid Rogans stupidity roaring through, Conor actually wins that fecking exchange.
It makes no sense.
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Come on man. I'm a huge McGregor fan and that's post-fight spin. I've watched it back. He was getting battered.
 
Seems all a fix to me, easiest payday in history for Nate again for a third fight, why even truly go all out to win the second fight?
 
Great fight. McGregor barely squeaked by, nothing to brag about but self promotion, self promotion, blah, blah, blah.
 
Mick1991 said:
Great fight. McGregor barely squeaked by, nothing to brag about but self promotion, self promotion, blah, blah, blah.
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Actually thought it was McGregor's most impressive performance thus far. He had a lot of disadvantages to overcome and he found a plan to do it, he was calm when the pressure came on, he ate the damage that came his way, he lasted the five rounds, he managed his time better than Diaz did, etc.

It was certainly a close fight but I think it told us more about McGregor than, say, knocking Aldo out so quickly did.
 
Zen said:
Seems all a fix to me, easiest payday in history for Nate again for a third fight, why even truly go all out to win the second fight?
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It definitely wasn't a fix, it just didn't play out that way. Some fighter might (deep down) have the paycheck of a third fight in the back of their mind but most would forget all about that in the heat of battle. Diaz certainly doesn't seem like they type to think about money when he's in the middle of a fight.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Then how do you explain the miraculous recovery between the 3rd and 4th rounds?
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That sort of thing happens in fights. In the first fight McGregor hammered Nate's face for a round and a quarter then wound up getting submitted within the following 90 seconds.
 
Raoul said:
That sort of thing happens in fights. In the first fight McGregor hammered Nate's face for a round and a quarter then wound up getting submitted within the following 90 seconds.
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Big difference recovering from a beating in the opening round to doing the same after a beating in round 3. Once a fight gets into the championship rounds the only way to find some extra gas is by deliberately conserving energy.
 
sullydnl said:
Actually thought it was McGregor's most impressive performance thus far. He had a lot of disadvantages to overcome and he found a plan to do it, he was calm when the pressure came on, he ate the damage that came his way, he lasted the five rounds, he managed his time better than Diaz did, etc.

It was certainly a close fight but I think it told us more about McGregor than, say, knocking Aldo out so quickly did.
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I'm impressed too, he has shown that he can tough it out. Agreed re the aldo point but I can't help but feel that future opponents at 155 have learned alot about him over him the last two fights.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Big difference recovering from a beating in the opening round to doing the same after a beating in round 3. Once a fight gets into the championship rounds the only way to find some extra gas is by deliberately conserving energy.
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Well Conor was definitely in better shape this time. He went out of his way to conserve energy in the first two rounds by way of not jumping on Nate to ground and pound him after knocking him down 3 times between rounds 1 and 2. Had he done so and not succeeded, he would've found himself on the ground with an expert Jiujitsu practitioner, which could've resulted in either a submission or at a minimum, Conor exhausting himself on the ground and losing each of the first two rounds on points. Conor also did quite a bit of running away from Nate throughout the fight, which was both an energy saving tool as well as possibly a way for him to rest his shins a bit.

A pretty deliberate energy preserving strategy that paid dividends in the later rounds and also kept him fresher when Nate absolutely hammered him during the final minute of round 3. That flurry could've ended the fight in a similar way to how the first fight ended in round two had Conor wasted too much energy in the first two rounds.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Then how do you explain the miraculous recovery between the 3rd and 4th rounds?
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Aye, one of the Tristar coaches did a breakdown of the fight afterwards and he said McGregor deliberately cooled off in the third to save energy, which is why he was able to win the fourth. Of course that doesn't mean he wasn't in trouble towards the end of the round (I think he was) but managing the rounds in that way was why he was able to win ultimately. He fought to win more rounds better than Diaz did and winning more rounds is what it came down to in the end.
 
Feeky Magee said:
Come on man. I'm a huge McGregor fan and that's post-fight spin. I've watched it back. He was getting battered.
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Neither one had the energy to deliver the knockout at that stage imo. If that round went on for another 20 seconds then Nate would have waited 20 seconds more before his attempt at pleasing the judges.
It's a flurry of blocked punches off the arms and elbows. The danger isn't the punches but getting swamped because of it but Conor kept his composure.
If there isn't 20/30 seconds left of the round then Conor defends that attack in a different way.
 
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