Imo it probably only reserve to the 2 co-main event final

Lol holly holm lost a couple million by taking this fight

What actually can she do?

She can't hold off when Rousey is out until November. She was always going to have to defend it in between.

She was never going to have to defend until the Rousey rematch.

Yeah, as if she is going nearly a year without defending her belt. Utter nonsense.

Some people think Holly should have waited until Ronda comes back if she ever comes back?

really don't want to see GSP come back. he got beat up last fight, he's blown his knee out twice or whatever twice since then, it's gonna be 2-3 years since he's been in the ring. just please, no. don't do it. stay retired with dignity. can't imagine that he really needs the money.

I'm not sure why you think that. Not only didn't anyone (ie Dana/Zuffa) expect her to fight before the rematch, they didn't want her to.
Dana White: Holly Holm should have waited for Ronda Rousey rather than fight Miesha Tate
Dana White on Holly Holm fighting at UFC 196: ‘I absolutely hate it’
Dana White blasts Holly Holm's manager, 'I don't know if she really knows what she lost'

Holm is 34. She doesn't have long to fight in the UFC. There's a significant chance that within 1-2 years her athleticism falls off a cliff. Why in god's name would she wait a full year to defend her belt?

Obviously Dana would tell her to wait for the matchup that makes him the most money. But I don't think it was a crazy decision for her to defend her belt.

It doesn't matter what Dana/Zuffa expect or want.
If a fighter doesn't want to sit out a year then she/he doesn't have to. She is in her mid 30-s, had had a full boxing career and has to capitalize when she can. This did over 1 million PPV buys which made her millions + her next fight will make as well. It is no brainer to fight.
Only reason Dana is saying these things now is because he has a beef with Holly's manager. You can't praise Conor for stepping up and being a real fighter and then say the opposite about Holly.

Why? Athletes go broke all the time despite having millions. Failed business investments, out of control spending and greedy entourage members do a rich athlete in pretty quickly. Kind of hard on the ego to go from multi-millionaire lifestyle to being an average Joe with no positive cash flow.

anything is possible, but he seems like an intelligent & humble dude who lives modestly, especially relative to the fight game. i assume he made a lot of money from UFC, and even if he was broke he'd probably be able to survive on the endorsement money that he still makes to this day.

http://fightstate.com/georges-st-pierre-net-worth/

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/ric...rre-net-worth/

obviously he's gonna make a lot of money through a comeback fight, but i doubt he needs it.

Top level athletes often need the compition. Michael Jordan has been depressed since leaving basketball.

Anyway, if you have 25 mill and by today's standard could make 10 more for a comeback fight, it's not need that drives it even just on a money level. That kind of money is life changing even to a multimillionaire.

Jordan depressed lol

Both Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock failed a pre-fight drug test before Bellator 149.

http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/14...ght-drug-tests

Dude I don't even watch sports aside from MMA and it heard about it. Bing it. Retirment for sports heroes leaving them empty is a pretty well known phenomenon.

https://elt.oup.com/scripts/elt/nef_int_cloze2.xml

Oh man. There go their reputations!

jfc people use Bing lmao

=). Trolling.

Are we still talking about 196?

Just watched it again for the first time in a week or so and Nate's finish is just technically superb. From the point where he has Conor up against the cage and he's opening up his body and firing knees into his body and thighs to the hits pre-McGregor takedown, he sets it up so well. As soon as Mcgregor goes for the takedown it's over. Falls back and shifts straight towards his head, almost has the guillotine but then shifts to full mount with ease, his left arm is useless, bit of ground and pound, takes his back and goes for the choke... Conor resisting a little? Swift punch to the left eye socket then lock it in. Brutalised. The McGroger slappies still saying he gassed but it's a ridiculous assertion.. he was training for 5 rounds with Dos Anjos at this point. Upping 15lbs does not kill your cardio to that degree. He just got owned and his lack of a ground game woefully exposed. It was almost exposed in the Mendez fight. Hopefully he comes back humble and I would like to see an Aldo rematch that goes farther than 13 secs, just to see if he can actually dominate that weight class before attempting to move up again.

i'm a huge conor hater and concurred with everyone who thought his ground game was laughably bad in the mendes fight. and yet I still think comments along the lines of his ground game being exposed in this fight are just baffling. it was completely lost on the feet. he was completely out of it when he dove for nate at the very end.

and yes nate is obviously way better on the floor and finished it super smoothly, but all that was essentially immaterial.

Are you agreeing or disagreeing with me? Or is this not directed at me at all?

Im a huge mcgregor fanboy and my thoughts on the fight were that a combination of his big shots not fazing diaz and taking some shots from diaz led to him basically throwing in the towel and going for the takedown.

I didn't think he should be fighting at the weight....apart from that Mc just came out blasting with no regard for Nate at all, he got a huge surprise when Nate went nowhere and started throwing back (couldn't miss Conor as he offered zero defence) then he sort of gave up as he knew he was done.

Was a poor show.

Thought even tho his combinations were smooth they looked a bit slow, def didn't carry the weight well.

He was about to go out on his feet, Conor fanbois would have a lot harder time defending their boy in that case

It's pretty simple; Conor gassed a little from throwing big strikes, Diaz taking his shots w/ no issue made Conor panic, Diaz putting it on his face took more energy out of Conor, Diaz started really putting punches in bunches and Conor's striking defense evaporated w/ his lack of energy for movement. Then dude was about to go out; there was no intentional throwing in of the towel imo. His brain was scrambled, he knew not what he was doing really.

Seen it posted or talked about a few places but Conor would be well served to incorporate some standing defense involving parrys and clinch work to buy himself time in a similar situation in the future.

Everyone isn't Holloway or Siver on the ground where you can just take them down and chill. Conor just looked like a diff fighter in the 2nd but it's a learning spot for him. He's honest with himself (saying he panicked where Diaz went into auto-mode in the post-fight presser) and will work further on his deficiencies.

I'm a fan but I'm a fan of Diaz and Frankie and multitudes of other guys too.