They'll start talking about chimps next. Rogan is trolling.
The MMA thread
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
I'm just going to wait for the clips to come out so I can skip all that bs and just listen to what John Kavanagh has to say.
Kavanagh is a bit of a spoofer to be honest.
Neither are big draws per say. I’d imagine 800k to 1m would be the outer limits of what such a fight would draw. Compare that to 1.6m for Conor-Nate2 and you can see what a massive difference maker Conor is. His cards benefit everyone, especially the lesser known fighters on his cards.
Yeah but losing to Diaz was different.
He said the last minute change of opponent, the higher weight class and all that jazz is why he lost.
In this case, there can be no excuses. He got mauled by a far superior fighter.
Jesus Christ. He's on it for about 3 minutes and now it's some dude wittering on about weight cutting. Didn't think it was possible to talk about something for so long without pausing for breath.
But the casuals wouldn't know that. They saw him get destroyed in the middle of the octagon by a fighter who only trained for a week.
The fallout was exactly the same as this, he was exposed. Panic wrestling on the ground after losing the stand up. He's a weight bully etc etc.
They went in hard on Conor and we were told the rematch wouldn't draw because Conor lost his aura.
I don't think Kavanagh is even in the room any more. 
Wankers
WankersJust clicked the link and was able to handle only 20 seconds of that dude bro.
You have the coach of McGregor there after a crazy night and you're talking to dude bro about fecking pancakes?
I love how Joe takes nutrition so seriously that he rarely admits to how many "supplements" he takes that colours his results.
Oh elk meat is the best, I was on my third steroid cycle in 8 months last year and it really gave me energy..
Oh elk meat is the best, I was on my third steroid cycle in 8 months last year and it really gave me energy..
Maybe your right but to me, McGregor still looked competitive in that match whereas against Khabib, it was like a PE teacher giving his student a beating for being disrespectful.
Plus many people saw that crazy bastard Ferguson and I think that might get appetites rising for that.
I don't think Ferg is the stylistic nightmare for Khabib a lot of people do. I think the real threats to Khabib are Lee and Gaethje. I could be wrong, but Ferg to me, is just all spaz and energy, and he's been dominated by wrestlers before. He beat Lee, but Lee was DOMINATING him, and gassed, while fighting with a bad staph infection.
I don't believe Conor will ever draw again as high as he did at his peak. I believe he is clearly on his way down and people will slowly stop caring about him now. I believe his draw power will be lower for his next fight and start sinking after that. No fighter can maintain ppv pull power after they start losing.
Personally my prediction for headlines would be Ferguson-Khabib around 1.2 million and for a MCgregor-Lee/Poirer it would be around 900k-1.1M
Maybe I'm wrong and y'all can laugh at me but I just don't see Conor having the draw power in 2019 that he did in 2016
Joe can't function without some sort of mind/body altering substance. It's "sober" october, but on every podcast I've seen so far, he's been rocking the fattest dips ever. Can't drink/smoke weed? Lemme just pump myself full of nicotine! Oh and test, ALL THE test!
I don't have a problem with Joe doing all this shit, but man, he's like an idol to millions of man children out there some who are well into their 40's now, and Joe is a walking laboratory. I know he doesn't hide his TRT usage, but does anyone believe that's all he's on? I feel like he needs to be a little more transparent about his test/hgh/other extremely expensive supplement use.
Yep, I actually thought that he was winning the Diaz fight until that mistake happened. Against Khabib, it wasn't even fair. He clearly lost the first round, barely survived the second round, slightly won the third one and tapped in the fourth one. Total domination from Khabib, and really, it is hard to see a rematch being much different.
I urge people to go check out Luke Thomas break down the fight on the MMA Hour. Great breakdown.
Any way, in my opinion, if UFC want to think long term, they're be well advised to have McGregor fight either Diaz or Poirier next as those a winnable fights.
If he takes on Khabib or Ferguson, there's a big chance he'll lose again, then there's no coming back from that for him.
Ease him back.
He's still at his peak now - the only difference between this and previous fights is he just fought one of the greatest grapplers ever. Not a big deal given how good Khabib is. Some estimates have Saturday's card as getting somewhere between 2.5 to 3m PPV buys, which if true would smash the previous record of 1.6m for Conor/Nate 2. That's not a sign of someone who is losing his box office draw, but someone who is getting increasingly popular. Even the last time he lost in the UFC (Conor/Nate 1) resulted in him drawing 300k more PPV buys for the rematch. That's something White and the UFC will be well aware of as they plot a potential rematch.
Last edited:
That he's past his peak physically was evident from Saturday. Just from looking at social media, his star power is definitely waning after that. He still probably has one or two fights where he would be a decent draw but he is done setting records IMO. People thought he would be much better on Saturday than he was. He looked past it. He's lost 3 of his last 5 fights in three years. That's not the record of someone who will keep pulling in the top numbers.
Those people who thought he would be much better were deliberately downplaying Khabib's skills because they preferred Conor to win. Everyone knew that the fight could go one of two ways - an early Conor KO or a later round Khabib win by way of mauling. We got the 2nd option. That has no bearing on Conor's draw which is going to smash his previous record. As we saw last time with Nate, there is going to be a strong fan sentiment towards a rematch (perhaps in this case after Khabib fights Tony). Conor is the UFC biggest draw by a country mile and it isn't even close.
Past his best physically or just off his best physically? He's been on a two year break where, let's face it, he wasn't exactly living the monastic life. That doesn't mean he can't get it back though if he's actually determined enough.
Yeah just listened to the rest of it (he takes over from broscience about an hour in for anyone interested). Some really interesting stuff about the Khabib and Mayweather fights, training and what the plans are for the future. Looking forward to that Malignagi footage on the Netflix doc. Was pissing myself about Floyd in a hybrid leg kick fight scenario.
Kavanagh always comes across really well. Top bloke.
Anyone who knows anything about MMA knows a 30 year old fighter is just entering his prime. People are simply confused because Khabib outclassed him and was the better man on the night. Had Conor connected cleanly in the first round the narrative would be how Khabib had a weak chin etc.
Interesting listening to Kavanagh there, he said that although that's what everyone was expecting that's not how they were prepping the fight. They were okay with losing the early rounds and focusing on conserving energy as much as possible on the ground in the hope that they'd then take advantage when Khabib dipped. Which kinda played out in that they did win the third round but nowhere near to the degree they were hoping.
The big flaw in that strategy (imo) is that Conor's own cardio has never been particularly good, so expecting Khabib (whose cardio HAS been good in the past) to gas in the later rounds before Conor would, wasn't a good bet imo.
Thought Conor fought well, Khabib just fought better. The only thing that can challenge Khabib is something extraordianry, insanely bendy and has a resting heart rate of 1-7 i.e Tony Ferguson!
Lewis- what a fecking Knock Out!
Reyes - a genuine LHW contender!
Lewis- what a fecking Knock Out!
Reyes - a genuine LHW contender!
Really good break down on the technical aspects of the fight on sportsvice. I love stuff like this
https://sports.vice.com/amp/en_us/a...shed-conor-mcgregor?__twitter_impression=true
https://sports.vice.com/amp/en_us/a...shed-conor-mcgregor?__twitter_impression=true
Yeah just listened to the rest of it (he takes over from broscience about an hour in for anyone interested). Some really interesting stuff about the Khabib and Mayweather fights, training and what the plans are for the future. Looking forward to that Malignagi footage on the Netflix doc. Was pissing myself about Floyd in a hybrid leg kick fight scenario.
Kavanagh always comes across really well. Top bloke.
If that was the plan then McGregor needs to fire his entire backroom team
Even John Kavanagh doesn't think Khabib jumping the cage was a big deal and understood why he was emotional. Even admitted to Dillon Danis egging him on.
Except that's the exact opposite of what we are actually seeing. No one is calling for a rematch on social media. No one is talking about Conor vs. Khabib this time. That's why this is different. There is zero sentiment towards a rematch among the MMA fanbase that I have seen which is drastically different than after Diaz in 2016. Everyone I have seen wants Ferguson-Khabib. Literally no one wants McGregor rematch.
The bolded is what I mean. What I mean is I don't see the determination or focus in Conor to maintain that athletic peak condition for a decade like GSP, Silva, Couture, etc. I don't think Conor has that long term peak in him. Champions that have true long term dedication are the types to defend their titles multiple times. Conor just seems to lack that level of determination. Plus he already has 25 fights which isn't a small number. I can see him going on a losing streak like Liddell in 2007 (Liddell was 37 but had 25 fights at that point as well and I think Liddell was more dedicated).
I was impressed with Khabib's speed - both in how fast he shot on Conor as well as his punching speed. Far faster than i remember it in his past few fights.
That won't matter as its not the fans and pundits who decide these things. The power brokers here are the UFC, who desperately need money, and Conor - whose promotional skills are are better than most other fighters combined. That's not to say it would happen immediately, but if Conor wants it and the UFC are willing to pay Khabib what he wants then it will happen very soon.
Conor's fans always defend his xenophobic tendencies.
If that was the plan then McGregor needs to fire his entire backroom team
I can kind of see where he was coming from. Basically "look he's going to get the takedown, just don't exhaust yourself trying to get back up.. He'll get sloppier and slower like he did against Iaquinta and you can take him out on the feet in the later rounds."
The big thing seemed to be he felt they focused too much on being defensive and not enough on any offensive strategies.
It really does seem like Conor only wants the rematch too and if Khabib is up for it (and he isn't banned for too long) then it will definitely happen. The UFC will not turn down the money it would make. I wonder if Khabib is heavily fined that the UFC won't pay him on the sly with the proviso that he takes the second fight.
Yeah same. Usually Mcgregors trash talk makes his opponents sloppy and unfocused (Also, Alvarez). Seemed to have the opposite effect here.
I thought that the fight against Barboza showed that Khabib was an improved striker.
Yep, he certainly got into Khabib , just the opposite effect to what he wanted. Still, Khabib should not be able to get away with what he did. It can't be allowed to go unpunished as it sets an dangerous precedent imho.
If that was the plan then McGregor needs to fire his entire backroom team
I dunno. If this had been peak McGregor could he have done damage in that third round? Khabib was definitely there to be hit.
For that to work he would have to have been at his very best though, not coming of a two year burnout.
Listening to Kavanagh I think if he had those first three rounds again he'd play them in exactly the same way, he'd just focus more on their offence for that third round.
Basically though any rematch would require McGregor to pull a Rocky III on it and totally change the focus of his lifestyle. Does he even want it that badly?