UFC 246 McGregor vs Cowboy..

[Memnon]

It's not hate, he's a great fighter he's just a tad bit overrated by his hardcore fans.

I'll give'em all the props in the world if he beats Masvidal, but I'm sorry can't do that for beating an old on the doorstep of retirement Cowboy Cerrone.

Tried to tell yall...

 

[Memnon]

Cowboy was starched in the first round pretty **** bad in his last fight vs Gaethje too & Ferguson handled him easily in the 2nd round too.

You could argue part of the reason he went down so quick in this fight was because of the damage he took in the last two.

You guys are selling the Dana White hype train a little too high on Conor, I acknowledged he's a great fighter but you can't overlook his bad performances against equal level talent either, he was dominated by Khabib & needed a second fight to beat Nate Diaz.

I apologize I'm not as big a fan of him as you guys are, but I'm not going to be in awe of him for beating a clearly damaged worn out Cerrone.

If he beats Masvidal I'll wave the Ireland flag on his behalf.

 

[BoxingRobes]

I don't think Conor wants any of the top guys right now. He's in a spot where he's a big ticket fighter regardless of who he fights...so jumping in so Masividal or Usman can get paid...if I were McGregor, I'd pass on those, too.

MF'r called out PAUL FELDER in the post-fight lmfao ... he doesnt want legit smoke.

me and @Liberty City El deserve all the likes rn.

Listen, when you get famous famous, in the fight game, you no longer have the dawg in you. Conor has the skill...he's in shape. But he doesn't have the heart of a savage anymore. He gets legit touched up, he's dropping.

He's Ronda Rousey now.

Imagine if this man really had Khabib. Khabib might legitimately murder him in the Octagon and in the post-fight presser, in true Russian cold-bloodedness in that thicccc Dagastani accent "he committed suicide."

 

[Memnon]

me and @Liberty City El deserve all the likes rn.

Listen, when you get famous famous, in the fight game, you no longer have the dawg in you. Conor has the skill...he's in shape. But he doesn't have the heart of a savage anymore. He gets legit touched up, he's dropping.

He's Ronda Rousey now.

Imagine if this man really had Khabib. Khabib might legitimately murder him in the Octagon and in the post-fight presser, in true Russian cold-bloodedness in that thicccc Dagastani accent "he committed suicide."

Connor was always a good Irish brawler, but he never had the killer instinct, he’s not a dedicated technician, he’s not a gym rat that eats, sleeps & lives fighting, he doesn’t really work on his craft that hard, he’s just a great showman who understands how to sell & get himself over with a rabid fan base.

Like I said after the Cowboy Cerrone fight, he’s dominated all the guys that were much smaller than him that he had a decided power advantage over, he dominated Jose Aldo & Chad Mendes at Featherweight & beat Eddie Alvarez at Lightweight, but whenever he went up against someone that he wasn’t significantly bigger than he usually struggled.

He beat up on a shot Cowboy Cerrone & everyone got all hot & bothered over it but Cowboy is basically a retired fighter who’s still in it because he has a newborn baby & needs the extra cash.

But Poirier is a bad man, he’s big for 155, he’s really a Welter fighting at 155 & he throws pure bombs with his stand up game. You don’t wanna get into a boxing match with Poirier, he completely outclassed Max Holloway, I mean beat him senseless & Holloway is one of the toughest fighters in the game, but Poirier was just too **** big for him & gave him a beating that completely changed the trajectory of Max’s career.

Taking Poirier at this stage in his career was a bad idea for Connor, he had no shot because if he thought he was gonna stand up & trade shots with Diamond Dustin Poirier he found out the hard way that this ain’t 2014 no more.

Far as the Khabibi talk, I’ve said in countless MMA threads that Khabib is by far the greatest P4P fighter in UFC History, never lost a round in his career. McGregor never stood a chance with Khabib, he talked all that trash about his family & his religion & didn’t understand how serious the fight game is to the Dagestani Sambo guys, it’s not just a sport, it’s their life. Khabib would strangle McGregor to Death if he was ****ed off enough, he’s a different breed of Animal & it takes a lot more than just chest pounding bravado & trash talk to get the best of someone like Khabib, you have to take this thing serious for life & death & for Connor this is all just a paycheck.

 

[SSCane]

me and @Liberty City El deserve all the likes rn.

Listen, when you get famous famous, in the fight game, you no longer have the dawg in you. Conor has the skill...he's in shape. But he doesn't have the heart of a savage anymore. He gets legit touched up, he's dropping.

He's Ronda Rousey now.

Imagine if this man really had Khabib. Khabib might legitimately murder him in the Octagon and in the post-fight presser, in true Russian cold-bloodedness in that thicccc Dagastani accent "he committed suicide."

Agreed, I do respect that he steps in there, when he’s worth over 100 million. Portier is a tough fighter too. He got some good wins on his resume

 

[DMoney]

Conor is properly rated. He’s the only person to hold titles in 145 and 155 - the two most difficult divisions - and he did it at the same time. He’s been Top 10 all time for a while, and any argument otherwise is just a reaction to the hype.

He looked diminished last night. Don’t know if it’s the inactivity, being too rich, or both. This was his 3rd fight in 4 years. When he was active, he was running through fighters like Poirier.

 

[KingRon2]

Conor is properly rated. He’s the only person to hold titles in 145 and 155 - the two most difficult divisions - and he did it at the same time. He’s been Top 10 all time for a while, and any argument otherwise is just a reaction to the hype.

He looked diminished last night. Don’t know if it’s the inactivity, being too rich, or both. This was his 3rd fight in 4 years. When he was active, he was running through fighters like Poirier.

Other fighters in the UFC had asked to fight for additional titles in other weight classes before Conor. They were denied the opportunity and told they could only hold one title. Conor was allowed the opportunity to do so because he was/is a cash cow to the UFC. The UFC let him fight Alvarez for the 155 title without ever fighting at 155 before that fight. A business decision for UFC because they had never seen the PPV numbers he was generating. They gambled and it paid off when he beat Alvarez (who, let’s face it, may be the worst 155 champion ever).
Conor is 1-2 at 155. With 2 bad losses. All his good wins were at 145 where he was a giant physically. Not even mentioning how Diaz worked him in fight one and arguably beat him in fight 2 at 170.
He’s a really good fighter with phenomenal timing and a powerful left. He will be regarded as top 10 because of how he changed mma regarding salary, points, ppv numbers, boxing money, the spectacle and events that his fights produced. Not for his skill and ability.
Plus, his chin is not great. Whenever some one punches him in the mouth it changes his fight game. Geesh, Khabib even dropped him.

 

[DMoney]

Other fighters in the UFC had asked to fight for additional titles in other weight classes before Conor. They were denied the opportunity and told they could only hold one title.

Who? If any of them did, it’s a short list. Mighty Mouse never wanted to jump weight. Khabib showed no interest. Aldo stayed at 145 until McGregor KOed him in 13 seconds. They let BJ Penn try it and he got smoked. Holloway (who McGregor beat easily) didn’t jump until the Poirier fight, where he got beat by another guy McGregor demolished in his prime.

And as for Alvarez, McGregor actually jumped to 155 when Dos Anjos was a feared champion. Dos Anjos got hurt before the fight. That is McGregor’s style- he seeks the toughest challenge. When Alvarez beat RDA, McGregor destroyed Alvarez. He didn’t wait for a weak champion like GSP did at 185.

The guy beat Aldo, Poirier, Holloway, Alvarez, Mendes and others with ease. Only Khabib has a better resume at the lighter weights.

 

[NC_Canes_11]

Connor is a showman first, fighter second. He’s always been great but was never as good as his fans made him out to be. Add that to him getting PAID and not being in the ring for 2 years and last night is what you get. He’s gonna have to take a long look in the mirror and decide if he still has the stomach for this. Bc he looked off from his walk out to the post fight interview. You could see the doubt in his eyes from a mile away.

Side note, Dustin is one of my favorite fighters and getting him at +260 was a gift from God.

 

[Dude]

Connor is washed... but he carved up Diaz in #2.

 

[P-Tizzle]

UFC 259 is looking like a fantastic card.

 

[KingRon2]

Who? If any of them did, it’s a short list. Mighty Mouse never wanted to jump weight. Khabib showed no interest. Aldo stayed at 145 until McGregor KOed him in 13 seconds. They let BJ Penn try it and he got smoked. Holloway (who McGregor beat easily) didn’t jump until the Poirier fight, where he got beat by another guy McGregor demolished in his prime.

And as for Alvarez, McGregor actually jumped to 155 when Dos Anjos was a feared champion. Dos Anjos got hurt before the fight. That is McGregor’s style- he seeks the toughest challenge. When Alvarez beat RDA, McGregor destroyed Alvarez. He didn’t wait for a weak champion like GSP did at 185.

The guy beat Aldo, Poirier, Holloway, Alvarez, Mendes and others with ease. Only Khabib has a better resume at the lighter weights.

With all due respect brother... I get that you are a mcgregor fan. And I like your takes and info on may things. And again mcgregor is a very good fighter. But you can easily find articles and interviews where Couture, Aldo, and Silva all have talked about where they begged to fight in other weight classes and were all told they had to forfeit the belt because they did not want one person to lock up 2 divisions. You can also find Dana talking about how he would not allow it and it was better to have more champions to promote to grow the business. If one champion that doesn’t move the needle (Aldo, for example) becomes champion in extra weight class then it is not good for business.
That changed with mcgregor because he could fight a tree stump and people would buy PPVs. I’m not saying I blame the UFC. Again...business decision.
And he did not beat all those guys at 145 because he was necessarily a superior fighter. He had a great shtick of getting in people’s heads and getting them to fight his game. He beat Aldo because Aldo turned into Nuke Laloosh with a 10 cent head and sprinted across the ring to strike with a bigger, stronger superior striker to defend “his honor”. If Aldo fights his fight, different outcome. He stays at range and picks Conor apart especially in later rounds. And why did Aldo not get an immediate rematch as a very long reigning champion who got caught early? Because it was better for the mystique, the brand, to just say conor destroyed the best 145er of all time (which he did). Any other long time champ losing to anyone else would have been immediate rematch.
Conor lost badly to Diaz (and I love Diaz, but at 170 he is “just a guy”. A .500 fighter) and then immediate rematch because they can’t have the franchise lose to a guy who was on a boat getting high 2 weeks before the fight. Then Conor won a disputed decision (majority, not unanimous) that many feel he did not win. But they (UFC, conors fans, Conor) talk about it like he crushed Diaz in the rematch when in reality he turned and literally RAN from him multiple times in that fight. And still barely won. And again Diaz is “just a guy”.
Conor is:
1-2 at lightweight
2-1 at welterweight, with the wins coming against cerrone (who was coming off multiple losses) and the controversial win over Diaz
So 3-3 outside of featherweight where to borrow a phrase from Diaz he was “beatin up in midgets.”
Very good fighter, who will be remembered in 15 years for the way he changed the game including the pay structure, the excitement he generated, some big knockouts, and the way his mouth (chin?) couldn’t cash the checks he was writing. Not one of the greatest of all time. And that’s ok.

 

[DMoney]

So 3-3 outside of featherweight where to borrow a phrase from Diaz he was “beatin up in midgets.”

So that run doesn’t count because he was big for the division? Do we do the same thing for Jon Jones? GSP? Silva? Those guys were huge. People only use it against McGregor because of the hype.

He went 7-0 at 145 with 6 KOs. The only fight he even got touched was Mendes. The rest were blowouts. That’s an all-time run, and he followed it up with the 155 title win.

But you can easily find articles and interviews where Couture, Aldo, and Silva all have talked about where they begged to fight in other weight classes and were all told they had to forfeit the belt because they did not want one person to lock up 2 divisions.

Couture lost to Liddell at 205 and immediately got a title shot at HW. That’s how it is with all top fighters. They get more opportunities. McGregor asked for RDA after Aldo. That’s when RDA was in his absolute prime. The easier fight would’ve been an Aldo rematch.

I’m not even a Conor fan like that. I’m a fan of the sport. I respect you and @Liberty City El takes, but this strikes me reacting to the hype. When you strip all that stuff away, you have a fighter who accomplished things nobody had done before and never took the easy fight.

 

[Memnon]

So that run doesn’t count because he was big for the division? Do we do the same thing for Jon Jones? GSP? Silva? Those guys were huge. People only use it against McGregor because of the hype.

He went 7-0 at 145 with 6 KOs. The only fight he even got touched was Mendes. The rest were blowouts. That’s an all-time run, and he followed it up with the 155 title win.



Couture lost to Liddell at 205 and immediately got a title shot at HW. That’s how it is with all top fighters. They get more opportunities. McGregor asked for RDA after Aldo. That’s when RDA was in his absolute prime. The easier fight would’ve been an Aldo rematch.

I’m not even a Conor fan like that. I’m a fan of the sport. I respect you and @Liberty City El takes, but this strikes me reacting to the hype. When you strip all that stuff away, you have a fighter who accomplished things nobody had done before and never took the easy fight.

I don’t think the size issue comes up for Jon Jones because he wasn’t that much bigger than the rest of the division, I mean with guys like Reyes, Anthony Smith, Gustafsson, OSP, Teixeira & Cormier those are guys who are legit 205’ers who were big enough to fight Heavyweight as well, Gustafsson is actually bigger than Jon, so he really didn’t have that much of a size advantage over most of this weight class except for Cormier but Cormier is legitimately one of the greatest & toughest fighters in both LHW & HW divisions.

Same with Spider Silva, he wasn’t significantly bigger than the rest of his weight class at 185 he was pretty much right along the same line as everyone else he fought & proved he’s without doubt one of/if not the greatest 185 champ of all-time.

I’d make the same argument for GSP as well, the 170 Welterweight division is probably the most competitive weight class in terms of parity & depth because you have guys who are dropping down from 185 & guys who are moving up from 145-155 as well, it’s like a holding station & transition center for all the worst inmates before they get sentenced. GSP dominated 170 mainly due to his high class BJJ & elite fighting IQ, he didn’t really have a size advantage over the weightclass because most of the guys at 170 are all bigger anyway & once GSP finally did make the leap up to Middleweight he RNC’d Bisping.

The difference with Connor is that he’s without doubt a 155-170 fighter that made his bones dominating 145, I do give him credit for his meteoric rise & the accomplishments he had in his career, he definitely changed the fight game for the better in terms of being the top draw in the business. But the problem is that he gets talked about & hyped up as if he’s an Elite fighter that dominates everyone & that’s just not the case. Once he moved up to his rightful weightclass it was regression to the mean, he fell to the middle of the pack & has been pretty much outclassed against every good fighter who he doesn’t have the punching power over like he did for most of the 145 division.

Same thing happened to Holloway, he was dominating 145 when he became Featherweight champ, as soon as he moved up to 155 he got brutalized by Poirier because Max while being an incredibly tough fighter doesn’t have the same power advantage like he does over the Featherweight division & the extra 10 pounds does matter not just from a weight cut standpoint, but from a physical makeup standpoint, being that you have a lot more Welters in 155 than you would at 145 which has more Bantam’s who moved up & are just naturally smaller dudes.

I get where you’re coming from, it’s just that you have to look at what’s happened since Nate Diaz RNC’d him, he won the rematch, had a good fight with Eddie Alvarez, got mangled by Khabib, beat a completely shot Cowboy Cerrone & just got bombed on pretty bad by Poirier, not to mention the whole Mayweather spectacle. He’s basically teetered off towards the tail end of his career now that he can’t brawl his way out vs his opponents, he looks pedestrian because he’s not really putting much into his training, he’s getting these fights off trash talk & the UFC needing to have a top draw salesman since Jon Jones has become more of a pariah than he’s been during the top of his run & the company doesn’t have many stars aside from Stylebender Adesanya.

To use WWE terms, he’s getting over with the fans & then getting squashed in shoot fights, at 155 who’s he gonna beat? He can’t compete with Khabib, Justin Gaethje would would punch his lights out almost as bad as Poirier did, maybe he’d catch Tony Ferguson if he can keep it on the feet, Charles Oliveira would embarrass him, so who’s left? Anthony Pettis?

At 170 he’d get killed by Usman, Burns, Masvidal, Leon Edwards, maybe he could make it a fight with Stephen Thompson & a fight with Covington would need Chael Sonnen as special guest referee for the kinda sideshow that would turn into lol. Khamzat would literally murder him in the Octagon.

Basically, he’s getting to that point where he’s becoming a man without a home if he can’t beat anybody at the top of 155 & would get ragdolled by most of 170, unless he decides to move back to 145, which at this stage in his career would be too difficult of a weight cut.

 

[Empirical Cane]

Connor was always a good Irish brawler, but he never had the killer instinct, he’s not a dedicated technician, he’s not a gym rat that eats, sleeps & lives fighting, he doesn’t really work on his craft that hard, he’s just a great showman who understands how to sell & get himself over with a rabid fan base.

Like I said after the Cowboy Cerrone fight, he’s dominated all the guys that were much smaller than him that he had a decided power advantage over, he dominated Jose Aldo & Chad Mendes at Featherweight & beat Eddie Alvarez at Lightweight, but whenever he went up against someone that he wasn’t significantly bigger than he usually struggled.

He beat up on a shot Cowboy Cerrone & everyone got all hot & bothered over it but Cowboy is basically a retired fighter who’s still in it because he has a newborn baby & needs the extra cash.

But Poirier is a bad man, he’s big for 155, he’s really a Welter fighting at 155 & he throws pure bombs with his stand up game. You don’t wanna get into a boxing match with Poirier, he completely outclassed Max Holloway, I mean beat him senseless & Holloway is one of the toughest fighters in the game, but Poirier was just too **** big for him & gave him a beating that completely changed the trajectory of Max’s career.

Taking Poirier at this stage in his career was a bad idea for Connor, he had no shot because if he thought he was gonna stand up & trade shots with Diamond Dustin Poirier he found out the hard way that this ain’t 2014 no more.

Far as the Khabibi talk, I’ve said in countless MMA threads that Khabib is by far the greatest P4P fighter in UFC History, never lost a round in his career. McGregor never stood a chance with Khabib, he talked all that trash about his family & his religion & didn’t understand how serious the fight game is to the Dagestani Sambo guys, it’s not just a sport, it’s their life. Khabib would strangle McGregor to Death if he was ****ed off enough, he’s a different breed of Animal & it takes a lot more than just chest pounding bravado & trash talk to get the best of someone like Khabib, you have to take this thing serious for life & death & for Connor this is all just a paycheck.

For those who don't know, its hard to convey to them life and philosophy in Dagestan and Chechnya.

There are very, very bad men in that region. Tough life.

 

[DMoney]

To use WWE terms, he’s getting over with the fans & then getting squashed in shoot fights, at 155 who’s he gonna beat? He can’t compete with Khabib, Justin Gaethje would would punch his lights out almost as bad as Poirier did, maybe he’d catch Tony Ferguson if he can keep it on the feet, Charles Oliveira would embarrass him, so who’s left? Anthony Pettis?

He can beat those guys (not Khabib) if he gets back to his peak form. Are those days gone forever? We'll see. I agree with his assessment that he needs to be more active. He fought 11 times in 4 years before winning the LW title, and only fought 2 times in the following 4 years.

 

[BoxingRobes]

To be honest...he's one of MMA's biggest stars...did a lot for the sport...I'm not sure I'd say he is a Top 10 fighter of all-time bell-to-bell. I don't even think thats a hot take tbh. I wouldn't even put him in the Top 10 p4p among his contemporaries bell-to-bell...and I think he's a good fighter...but Top 10 all-time is way rich for my blood. Selling that take.