they're running super late, dunno if they'll end up doing it but I assume so. I've never seen them cancel one. They're just boring as **** if Sholler or anyone other than Dana run them.

Not exactly what he said

I assume the youtube one will load but stream just went live

http://www.ufc.com/media/UFC-194--Po...ess-Conference

press conference stream is live on ufc.com

looks like they are about to start in a couple minutes.

theyre only an hour late!

lame, it's Sholler

presser is live.

Bonuses to Conor and Souza

Weidman is the only transport to the hospital

I'm not here for a long time, I'm here for good time you know I

dana raping mcgregor in the backroom somewhere?

wish i went to sleep

I keep making heaps betting yoel

Hope you enjoyed it, because there's no way he can last 5 rounds

Connor's perspective on fighting is fascinating. In one of the first interviews I heard from him he was talking about "traveling the world studying human movement." Who the hell thinks about the fight game like that, let alone articulates it in that way?

It's incredibly rare to combine his level of thoughtfulness and introspection with the singular focus necessary for achieving greatness. In my experience the intense tunnel vision required to make a person great at one thing usually makes them a rather boring person otherwise.

His bravado is funny, and it certainly creates a useful aura for him. It also masks what an interesting mind he has. You get glimpses of it when he takes those brief steps out of character. He'll be an amazing commentator once he's finished with fighting and has no more need for the mind games.

When are they going to get rid of Herb Dean?

Round 1 - Rockhold's working a guillotine and then he stands them up?!
Round 3 - Weidman not defending himself intelligently and getting beaten.

Then the Round 4 stoppage was much softer than Round 3, Herb knew he should have called it at end of R3.

At least Herb didn't knee Aldo in the head after the fight

He'd just woken up from his most humiliating nightmare ever to discover it was real. Personally I'm cutting him some slack. (I thought it was a little unnecessary for Rogan to correct him in the way that he did as well, considering the time, the place, and the likelihood that things were getting lost in translation. "Oh no, that was a fight alright, you just really sucked and got outclassed." All the kid said was that it wasn't much of a fight and he wanted to run it back, what do you expect him to say?)

Consider all the factors at play here that make this, in my opinion, the most devastating loss ever:

(1) He's probably been hearing from everyone he knows back home - from his best friend to his mailman - that they can't wait for him to shut McG up. Like it or not he knew he was going to war for his country's rep tonight.

(2) And it's not just any country. It's Brazil, and Aldo clearly has that Brazilian cultural machismo thing going on. Getting insulted and disrespected the way he did -- accused of being a coward, a bitch, a pussy -- win or lose, at the very least he needed to inflict some punishment.

(3) Despite all the pressure he brought with him from home, he must have felt incredibly alone in that octagon. The predominantly pro-Connor crowd was one thing, the weight of 20,000 people wanting to see you get smoked. But far worse must've been the strong suspicion that Dana and Lorenzo wanted to see it happen too. You've been their dominant champ for as long as they've had this division, and here they are holding their breath hoping you get smashed by their new poster boy. (I think this has been overlooked)

(4) Then of course there's the obvious - waking up to realize that your unconscious body had to be rescued from McGregor's assault like a helpless child by the referee...

(5) ....after the shortest fight on record....

(6) ....without landing a single punch of your own (that you were awake for)....

(7) ....creating countless memes....

(8) ....and an insulting catch-phrase that will haunt you all of your days ("13 seconds!!!")

(9) And not only did it go EXACTLY the way the taunting prick said it would....

(10) ....but you became the co-architect of your own downfall by rising to the bait.

I can totally understand the tears. Waiting for what must've felt like years to get your hands on this taunting, disrespectful prick, to avenge yourself, your camp, your family, your country......and you F it up and get starched before you can even hit him. And people say Weidman is gonna regret that wheel kick for the rest of his life? Yikes...

I don't know if anyone here saw the locker room footage but I found it to be very moving. I always feel bad for losing fighters. Pouring everything into this one night, then losing out on pride/money/health in one terrible moment. But this HAS to be the worst ever, and you can see from the footage just how much these guys invest in this sport. Even if Jose loses again I hope they rematch (some day), and he can at least bruise him up with some leg kicks or something.

mcgregor quick to avoid the rematch by moving up. i doubt dana will give the rematch to aldo because he needs to protect his cash cow.

the fight didn't really prove anything other than conor can punch which we already knew. aldo walked into it. mendes provided the blueprint for beating mcgregor.

mcgregor has always had the mindset of the underdog, with the verbal abuse he dishes out to opponents going into fights, and telling himself that everyone else doesn't believe in him. he's always had a chip on his shoulder and wanted to stick it to everyone. that won't work now that he's champ.

we'll see how good he is now without the same level of gamesmanship.

dean, bingsa,

regarding being translated incorrectly:

"The translator didn't do a very good job at all. First of, he translated " ele jogou o direto que eu tava esperando" (he threw a straight as I expected) as "he threw a cross which I wasn't expecting" and then he translated "A gente precisa de uma rematch porque tinha mais luta" ("we need a rematch because I feel there was more to the fight") as that." ['not a real fight']

[–]thepatientoffret 7 points 48 minutes ago
he was actually very humble in my opinion. He said he will train better and comeback for a rematch. Also, in the end he thanked all the people from Brazil and that he lost one battle but not the war.
He repeated several times "he throw a good punch", so he's actually praising McGregors victory, and give him all the credit for the win.

[–]CatoDarpa 161 points 6 hours ago*
Thats not actually what Aldo said, Translator was just ****ty.
Aldo said he wanted a rematch to get revenge because it wasnt much of a fight and that Conor hit him with a good shot. He also said he felt like their was more to the fight then what happened.

[–]Massena 39 points 6 hours ago
Translation was very poor on that, that was not what Aldo said. I'll have to look at it again but he said something to the tune of "I got caught and I need to go train and then we'll fight again".

Do you think if Aldo had of won in 13 secs by ko he would've called rematch or said "I told you so"?

(1) Both fighters tacitly consented to that standup in my opinion. Luke knew the choke wasn't there, but hanging on was the only thing preventing Chris from wailing on him. Chris would've loved to posture up or stand up, but he couldn't. It was a stalemate.

Weidman had already made the "he isn't doing ****, stand us up motion" that guys make when they're being dry-humped. And when Herb looked at Rockhold and gave him the old "let's work" instruction, he just shrugged at him.

Normally I'd agree with you - I HATED the standup in the Northcut fight for example. But in this case I felt he got it right.

---

(2) I think there's an important distinction between being unable to mount an intelligent defense because you're rocked, and being unable to escape a position like the mount or the crucifix. When it's the latter the ref has to weigh (1) how much time is left, and (2) how violent the beating is getting? He is also going to consider context, and ask two additional questions: (3) does it look like this guy really wants to continue, and (4) does he have a chance to turn this result around?

You made the assertion that Dean's relatively quick Fourth Round stoppage demonstrates that he knew he'd made a mistake in the Third. I don't necessarily agree. I think the ref was simply getting different answers to those questions I laid out between the third round and the fourth.

In the third round Chris was still scrapping and bucking to make it to the bell, which was less than a minute or so away. And we know enough about the (former) champ to know that he was capable of stealing the next two rounds against an exhausted Rockhold and winning a decision.

Then the Fourth Round came. Chris was taken down way too easily by a visibly fresher Luke. He was barely able to cover up, and showed no signs of being able to generate the stoppage he now probably needed. Both the will to win and the means to win were vanishing rapidly. He still wouldn't quit but Herb could see that he was ready to be done.

Don't get me wrong....I thought the situation in Round 3 was right on the borderline. Even 10-15 more seconds and Herb probably stops it. But I don't see his handling of those two rounds as incompatible with one another. Just like the earlier decision regarding the standup we saw a veteran referee being aware of what his fighters were communicating to him.

I'm not totally sure what you're getting at. Naturally the losing fighter is going to be the one who is salty about the result and hungry for the rematch (especially when he just had a long reign ended by a man who has been ****ting on him for twelve months). I thought it was great the way Connor was very respectful and humble about the possibility however.

If you're simply asking how I think Aldo would have responded to victory, I suppose my best guess would be roughly how Anderson handled Sonnen.

Can you rephrase your question?

(Also, you don't need to quote my entire long-ass post that most people probably didn't want to read once, let alone twice. If you delete everything after the first few words I'll know what you're responding to.)

I would like McGregor a lot more if he stopped trying so hard to be heel. He's not very good at it.

Refs should never be basing when or if they stop a fight on how much time is left. That is a recipe for disaster in regards to fighter safety and overall fairness.

Thanks Yeti
---
@lol69:

I think I mostly respectfully disagree.

Certainly, Aldo's reckless approach contributed to the nature of the defeat (how much credit you want to give to McGregor for using gamesmanship to encourage such an approach is up to you).

But many of us have felt for a long time that Connor would be a brutally tough matchup for Jose. Some of what Connor says is silly, but many of his cracks have at least a kernel of truth at their core. Saying that Aldo has made a career of beating up midget wrestlers wasn't completely off-base. Connor is HUGE for the division, and you saw tonight/yesterday that Jose has probably been a little fortunate to enjoy a height and reach advantage in so many of his fights. (Ironically Connor may get a dose of his own medicine in this regard when he moves to 155.....he's been beating up on Mini Mendes and Siver too).

I would like to see this matchup again some day. I think it would be a mistake to run it back right away with the wounds so fresh and McGregor's confidence and mental game sky high. But one day I hope they rematch, and when they do it'll be interesting to see how Jose would fare with an attack that focuses on the areas in which he enjoys and advantage (leg kicks, possibly grappling). That said, McGregor is built for featherweight like Rockhold is built for MW and Jones is built for LHW. He's gonna pose physical problems for anyone at 145, and that will always include Aldo.

To your "Cash Cow" comment: No, I don't think Dana is worried about Aldo crashing the cash cow, at all. (1) After this fight he is supremely confident that McGregor would win a rematch. (2) The absolute worst thing that could happen is that Aldo wins and sets up a lucrative trilogy rubber match....after which either or both might move to lightweight for some more incredible matchups. With the move to 155 now on the table, McGregor has at least 2-3 fights to go before he could be downgraded from an A+ draw to an A- draw -- and that's if he loses them all. The big hurdles were Mendes and Aldo.....passing those tests eliminated any chance of Connor being "exposed" and turned into a Kimbo Slice sideshow. Remember how big Chuck-Wanderlei was even after both had several losses? That's Connor's downside now -- Chuck Liddell with the ability to speak.


To you "Underdog" comment: I don't agree that McGregor benefited from underdog status. Underdogs thrive because they're playing with house money and feel no pressure. Whether he really was the favorite against Aldo or anyone else, Connor's mouth places the pressure firmly on his shoulders. There is no "fighting with nothing to lose" for him. Fans and fighters CANNOT WAIT for him to fall. You'd think that pressure would cause most fighters to wilt, but Connor truly does appear to be immune (I couldn't believe how loose he was after poking the bear for a year straight in Aldo). When I think it'll get interesting is once he loses and a hole gets poked is his bulletproof belief -- and he WILL lose, everyone loses. While I think he's actually humble enough to take it in stride underneath the character that he portrays, I can imagine it empowering his foes, who have to be second-guessing this Mystic Mac stuff at this point.

To your "Blueprint" Comment: I somewhat agree that Chad showed the blueprint for beating Connor. He clearly has a vulnerability to takedowns and ground and pound. We haven't seen him against a submission ace, but I imagine a 145 pound Demian Maia might give him fits too. But - luck of the Irish - there are no submission aces at featherweight. As far as the wrestler blueprint goes, while I do believe McG was fortunate not to encounter a wrestler early in his run.....I wonder if they've missed their window. His timing and power are so dangerous now that it might not matter anymore. When he says that no one at the weight can take his power, I think he just might be right. Edgar could certainly be the guy to beat him - but it sounds like Connor might go up to lightweight first, and that might be smart. These fights will always still be here for him if 155 doesn't go great, whereas doing the reverse might be tricky.

Oh, and speaking of Luck of the Irish...does anyone think the decision to go to lightweight might go differently if Khabib was healthy and had the belt? It's hard for me to see Connor keeping that maniac off of him. Although the rivalry that would generate between those two massive egos would be unreal.

Disagree. He's pretty rough when he's trying to be anything but a heel. He's a little like Mayweather in that way. Listen to him talk "outside the spotlight" and he's pretty bland and comes off either nervous or just sort of dumb. His character is more capable.