For months it was like

Joe Rogan: 155 is the killer's division

Eddy: Conor can't handle the 155 boys he's a fraud

Then on fight night Eddy barely touched him, Conor pounded him the whole match. What a joke Eddy is, if anything he's a fraud. Acting like he's some superstar and Conor is just pushed by the media. I think Conor has something special, and his ego and antics make the other fighters doubt him.

Mendez is much closer representation of Woodley but 2-3 weight classes smaller.

Nice

Reach, timing, speed, and accuracy

God Alvarez is awful. He's so bad at judging distance that Conor can pull counter without having to pull. Woof

For reference this is what a pull counter looks like against a person that's not **** at striking:



Conor can do this FYI he did it against Nate a few times, Alvarez is just bad

Wow, Eddie actually sucked harder than I thought he would. The dude literally brought ZERO.
That's got to be one of the biggest title shot shut outs ever. Up there with Conor Aldo, Silva Ace Franklin, Holm Honda, and Machida and Shad.

It's basically exactly Holm/Honda. Just 1.5 rounds of the champ getting their **** pushed in

CM did very well against a lightweight at 155 but when he fought one at 170 he was pushed to the limit. Woodley is a big 170 pounder with huge power with the same reach. You're just overlooking the quite obvious difference in size and strength.

Nope.

You're ignoring his post. He's saying Conor has a shot and that's something he never would've thought possible in the past. He's not saying Conor is the favorite.

Kind of annoying how binary so many people think.

"Hey, you could make an argument for Conor having a shot. He's not necessarily the favorite but the case can be made."

"You fool! There is zero case for something to happen. It's a lock that woodley beats him. You ignore the other argument!"

Cool, nice nuanced take. Why does saying there's two arguments mean that you're neglecting one of them?

Johnny could easily argue your side too.

yeah it's mind-blowing how Eddie and the likes of Mark Henry and others acted before this fight. you think they're just trying to get into his head, but nah, go out there Eddie and bang out with him, what can go wrong?

Also, I don't see how Conor goes back to fighting anytime soon after what he said in the press conference last night. He said he wants big money from the company if they want him to stick around and he also said he wants to spend time with his baby to see how he feels about it. Also, has other things he can do outside of fighting. Just quit man, you have all the money in the world, f this. He always said "get in, get rich, get out".

I don't understand that line of thought.

What if PBF got out after two or three paydays. That's all the money in the world?

Not the way Conor lives.

He's had a pretty good year. Beat Aldo and Eddy, had a great 5 round war with Diaz. Idk what is next but he's certainly earned whatever it is. I'm really curious to see who he fights next whether it's Khabib, Aldo, Diaz or....Mayweather lol.

Curious to see how Ronda does in her return but I don't think i'm gonna watch it, just catch the replay.

Eddie is a bad fighter imo but became UFC LW champ and just made a couple of mega versus Conor. I think when he looks back he can be satisfied with what he achieved on a very limited skill set. Must be the most unlikely UFC champ ever. Up there with Jens Pulver and Tim Slyvia.

RDA beats him 9/10, so does Melendez. Cowboy, Khabib, El Cucuy, and Edson absolutely leather him, while I think he also loses to Michael Johnson, Dustin Poirier, Trinaldo, and Michael Chiesa.

Edward won't be near the title again. He could even go back to Bellator and fight Benson.

As for Conor I think he's crazy to sit back. Milk it while you can. Seeing as he came through unscathed he can fight again in a month. I'd love to see him against Ferguson or Khabib or rematching Aldo

+1

If conor quits now, i'll have mad respect for him. He doesn't have to prove anything, he's got the money, he can do as he likes. And if he wants to quit, more power to him.

I think you're overstating it slightly. That was a very close fight by any measure you'd like to use.

No, Woodley was never "in trouble," as in about to be stopped. And he sure shouldn't have been, since he was on the defensive for 80% of the fight. The first 2:00 of the fight he did quite literally nothing (WB didn't do much besides stalk either). At the 3:00 mark he caught the leg and executed a very nice takedown, but didn't land a ton besides the short elbow that clipped WB's nose (I'd argue that this damage was largely superficial as well but that's a minor quibble). Clean win 10-9 for TW, and I'll credit him with 3:00 of "being on offense" even though that's pretty generous.

Rounds 2-3 are best considered collectively in my opinion because they were so similar. Other than about a minute of wall jostling early in Rd 2, these two rounds were almost entirely composed of Thompson walking Woodley down and clipping him with shots. TW countered with single shots exclusively, landed very little flush, and when he did land it was usually with a shot that he hadn't committed full power to. When I saw that one judge had given a 48-47 score I assumed that he'd been impressed with TW's knees in the clinch and given him Rd 2, but in fact it was Rd 3. I find that pretty shocking.

Round 4 was more of the same for the first 1:30. Rogan is practically begging Woodley to do something different -- leg kicks, takedowns, anything. In Rogan's words, "whatever you do, you cant just stand there doing this." On cue WB leaves his chin out there and TW blasts him....

***Let's pause for a second to point out that this broke up what was essentially 11:30 in a row (of a possible 25:00) of fight time during which Woodley did not throw a combination, hold the center of the cage, or press the action other than a token, half-hearted burst here or there.***

...So WB is now hurt. He pops immdiately back up, but has way too much faith in his ability to trade in this state and he's down again maybe 20 sec later, and is forced to play D and tie up for half a minute before TW wastes another half minute on the standing choke. Right around 2:00 TW drops down for the guillotine, which he flat out failed to execute. By 1:30 it is clear that WB is safe, and at 1:00 he's out and on top (at which point I agree that he does very little damage himself).

Rd 4 is a round I am comfortable scoring 10-8. But in the big picture let's remember exactly what it amounted to: one big shot followed by a second big follow-up, followed by one of those "please stop it" swarms, an entire sequence that lasted ninety seconds. (Admittedly, how to score the submission attempt is difficult, and how much credit to give WB for "finishing on top" is too).

I'll also pause to point out that an important factor for me in viewing the fight holistically is that Thompson was NOT saved by the bell. It's not like having rounds bailed him out. He survived and turned the tide entirely on his own (or with the help of Woodley, but since the scoring of a fight is essentially the comparing of the two performances it doesn't make much difference.)

Round 5 is all Wonderboy. He cracked Woodley several times, and was landing cleaner and cleaner shots down the homestretch. That's another full 5:00 of fight time that goes easily to WB.

Let's break down the 25:00 as one mass of fight time...

If I give Woodley credit for the entire time he was on top, the entire time WB was hurt, and the first 0:30 of the choke (before it becomes obvious he doesn't have it and is gonna end up gassed and on the bottom) that gets him to about 5:30. They spent another 1:00 jockeying in the clinch. That leaves about 18:30 of standup time that ranges from WB stalking TW without much action to WB picking him apart.

Let's break down the impact the five bells had...

The first bell allowed WB to get up. The fourth bell allowed TW to get up. The other three allowed TW to go back to his corner and regroup after rounds that he clearly lost.

The bottom line for me is that you can't count damage TWICE. You can't say, "Thompson won the volume but Woodley did more damage so it's close.....and Woodley did more damage so that breaks the tie."

The damage has to be pretty extreme to overcome 18 minutes of looking like the tentative, inferior fighter. And for me at least, when the opponent responds to the best you got by decisively winning the very next round (and in the second case turning it around before that even) your damage didn't rise to the necessary level.

He hasn't proven he is one of the GOAT, if he wants to retire that's fine. He will just be a what could have been and a bright flash in the UFC history.

Conor's not retiring

I agree, it's all talk. Conor needs the UFC just as much as they need him, he needs the spotlight.

One things for sure tho, Gay Jesus is on some good gear:

Agree with you guys about Khabib. It's the fight I want to see, but it's not the fight Conor will accept. (His excuse about not showing up though...meh. Put another big LW fight on the same card = risk averted).

Khabib is doing all the right things though: (1) smashing faces; and (2) dropping great sound bites.

"I want your Irish chicken."

"Dana, I want to beat your son."

"This is between me and these two bull**** guys (Dana + Conor)."

Descending into an intimidating rant in Russian in the cage was simply brilliant. I would've liked to see him throw in a few terrifying Allahu Akbars for good measure.

Don't overlook that last line I quoted either. There's a BIG difference in the way Khabib is playing this and the way everyone else has played it -- Khabib is bringing Dana into it. It isn't just another boring "hey I wanna shut this guy up for all of you, thanks for the opportunity Dana, need your lawn mowed afterwards?" It's not enough to go after McGregor anymore. He has too much charisma and he's too good. The crowd reaction at MSG to Eddie told you all you need to know about that angle.

Those other guys tried to play the face versus the heel, the shining knight who would save the company from the evil villain. Not gonna fly. Khabib is playing the counter-culture angle -- much more interesting.

These

Eddie gonna go the way of Pettis. Next fight he'll lose to someone like Michael Johnson, then to someone like Brooks, then he'll drop down and lose to Edgar.

Khabib is getting KO'd by Conor inside 1 because the Cavs and Cubs are World Champs, Trump is President, and there is no justice

I don't blame Conor for taking a hard line here, but the end goal needs to be getting back in the cage soon. The second post I quoted said it best. I don't think people appreciate just how expensive it is to live life at the most expensive levels. Everything from cars and hotel rooms to food and clothes include options that are priced to allow self-indulgent pigs to blow their money. I bet he makes a lot more than people think, but since they overlook taxes and professional fees too it's probably a wash.

Conor has protections that Floyd doesn't though. For one he's an action fighter. He could go 0-2 next year against Nate and Khabib and I'll still drop $60 to see him fight Aldo or Holloway. Mayweather's bankability is much more tied to his invincibility. We wanted to see him lose that 0. Conor also has charisma for days, whereas Floyd can't make it through a radio spot. Hollywood, talk shows, hell he could probably start angling for Dana's job if he wanted to, it's all there. His personality is gonna have diminishing returns to some extent though, so he needs to keep fighting.

The good news is that, ironically, he has become like Floyd in a way. He can choose his fights now. This multi division thing provides so much protection. Think about how easy it would be for him to duck Khabib if that's what he wants to do. Nah I'll fight Nate again, make him fight Tony. He won and he's healthy? Okay I'm gonna defend against Aldo. He's gonna wait? Okay I need a few months off, make him fight Barboza. That signed? Okay I want the WW champ. I got beat? Who cares, it was a crazy challenge. What's going on at LW? Khabib blew his knee out and Barboza beat Chiesa for the interim belt? Okay, he's chinny, let's do it.