This is pretty much the argument in every combat sport when stats are litke that: "Well he hit him more" "Well he hit him harder".

Those stats aren't meant to make a statement on the fight other than that it was close, which is why I said they could do this about as long as they want. They're well made opponents for each other, in and out of the ring.

Like I said in the other thread, Nate seemed off in this fight as compared to his previous two. Both he and Conor showed each other a little more respect this go round (although good luck getting either to even acknowledge it) and both were a little more hesitant to engage, but even beyond that, Nate seemed really unwilling to throw from range.

He seemed "Less sharp" if that makes sense, like he hadn't been training. He says he hasn't, but who knows to what extent that's actually true.

I think Nate was off after he got punched in the face by Conor. Iirc he rocked him early with one then put him down soon after. From then Nate was in survive mode until Mc gassed. Once Mc gassed he couldn't have given Nate any more encouragement than he did by shying away. On the other side Nate didn't give a **** about what condition he was in and still went hunting.

And yeah, I'd watch again.

Could be, I'll watch it again today and see if I think differently.

I mentioned it earlier but MMA judging is hard and/or dumb right now. In boxing, it's pretty simple, guy goes down, take a point. How do you score KDs in MMA? Coming from a boxing background, I want to just take a point, but this is MMA, if the fighter scoring the KD doesn't follow it up, or the guy getting KD'd isn't stunned, is it a point? Is their an obligation to follow up a KD or TD with ground strikes because that's another facet of the sport, or is simply scoring the KD or TD enough?

I don't know how you give Nate a 10-8 in 3 if you don't also give Conor a 10-8 in 1 (I gave neither). I love the 10 pt. Must System, but while they're changing the UR to allow 12-6 elbows and kicks to an opponent with one hand down, they need to address more clear rules for scoring.

Unrelated, as much as I loved watching the Main, Rumble and Cowboy looked incredible and even though it's sort of "cheap" I'm all aboard to see Cowboy and Alvarez go.

Man that combo was picturesque.

Yeah I immediately thought back to the "humble in victory and in defeat" comment and thought to myself, Seriously? You've forgotten that pretty quickly. If you can't be humble in victory in that spot then you're just full of ****. He did walk it back a little in fairness saying he gave him a good fight or similar but the comment did nothing to win me over(not that he cares of course).

He followed that up with a pretty sweet knee against the cage as well iirc, just perfect.

Rumble was incredible, agreed.

RT report to the FACK league, clean out your PMs

Yeah, the excellent main event is overshadowing a couple of other fantastic moments. All around this was an amazing night of fights.

That Cowboy combination above is mind blowing - That's probably one of the cleanest combinations 1-2-3-4 in years. Just beautiful.

Anthony Johnson is ****ing terrifying.

Yeah I think this persona that McG created is awful and not funny at all but I guess it works because he is making all the monies.

I'm not a wrestling fan (never even watched it except when taking care of two DD dudes, and that one night with the drinking game) but he's going baby face to heel right

He's emulating Mayweather either way

He's a lot closer to Adrian Broner than Floyd.

Big takeaways from the fight:

1) Conor refused to go for takedowns when something landed on him, the one thing he wouldn't do was panic wrestle this time around

2) Big John didn't ask for the doc to check cuts even tho he should've in the 4th, that's the subjective opinion that you want in there - he knew the moment. I would bet Herb would've had Nate looked at.

3) The 10-8 was just a human nature fallibility bias wanting to have it even going into the 4th.

I knew some boxing head would correct me.

I'd be surprised if he's consciously imitating Broner, he's doing Floyd in his own way. He's being antagonistic, building himself up, and talking about money when no other MMA fighter ever has minus what, King Mo or something?

Tito the martyr?

I wasn't correcting you, as much as I was qualifying it. Broker is, as I believe Conor is, a cheap imitation of Floyd.

Broner tried to copy Floyd the same way, he even won a world title, until he hit some real opposition and lost while getting literally humped by his opponent in the ring.

Conor followed that path a lot more than he's following Money. There are reasons for it, but Floyd was, for all his flaws, a top 20 all time boxer with elite skills and work ethic. Conor has already been exposed as a one dimensional fighter who's more talk than substance, even if he's plenty of both.

Conor showed that he's not one dimensional last night. He adjusted his game plan based on the guy who was fighting. He utilized leg kicks, which he had never thrown previously. If he didn't do that he probably wouldn't have been able to set up those big shots. He held his own in the clinch, was able to switch the position a few times, and even secured a takedown. He stuffed some takedown attempts that I didn't know he was capable of.

Adding leg kicks to punches isn't really another demission of note. It's MMA striking, you're supposed to use all four limbs.

His TDD was solid until the very end of the fight, but he also refused to follow Nate to the ground when he knocked him down. We all know why, and it was 100% correct on conor's part, but it's still an area where he's totally outclassed.

He lost in the clinch by a laughably large margin, so there's no saving that one.

The story is the same, he's one of the few athletes that can get themselves down to a weight class below what their contemporaries can. At that weight class he's got considerable power and range. As he loves up to a more "natural" weight, his power lessens and his opponents cam focus on his weaknesses, like his limited cardio and average ground game.

Pretty much everything you just said is either an exaggeration, not true, or a nitpick. If Conor was one dimensional the fight would have gone exactly the same as last time. He adjusted his game plan and fought smart, incorporating new aspects to his game

And to be clear, that's not some huge insult to Conor (unless you really think he's the GOAT).

I'm a huge Khabib slappy but I'm not going to say his striking excellent. It's decent enough to set up his wrestling and that's about it. If Khabib moved up to a weight class in which his wrestling no longer carried the day, he'd get blown up too.

In boxing we had the much lighter, faster Khan outbox Canelo for 4-5 rounds before getting absolutely starched in the 6th. That's how the fight game works

This is succinct and accurate. Well put. I think the ratio leads me to under-rate him a bit because it leads so many to over rate-him.

This is an example. Give your head a shake. Imagine any fighter 8 months ago saying that they were going to spend 300k on a camp so that they could very narrowly beat Nate Diaz by decision and that would prove them as the mixed martial arts king. Ridic.

Diaz is literally the worst possible matchup for Conor. He's got cardio for days and a brain the size of a peanut that can't get knocked out. Ignoring these factors and just going on his track record is missing the point on why this is an impressive and clear victory for Conor

RT his power didn't lessen unless I was watching a different fight. Fs twice he beat Diaz about the ring, rocked him I don't know how many times. No idea how many 155's could take that power but it won't be many as they aren't all called Diaz.

@RT

Why Cowboy title shot "cheap"?

Who else would get it? Besides the RDA losses, he has been winning fights for awhile now and even beat Alvarez. Not like anyone else is really at the top of that list.

Cowboy/McGregor probably makes a lot more $$ than Alvarez/McGregor as well. Or maybe Cowboy/Diaz and winner gets CmG.

I haven't been on this site for quite a while and want to know, is this the thread for all things MMA? I would imagine most of the posts were/are UFC related, but I don't really know.

Until I find out if this is all things MMA - I'll probably just read. But since I'm already here - 2 quick thoughts. I see that Donald Cerrone after his win last night is 11-1 in his last 12 fights.

Rick Story after his loss last night is 6-6 in his last 12 fights.

When they put up the Tale of the Tape for the fight last night - Right Up in the Lights for the fans to see they had Story at #9 contender and Cerrone as #14Contender. That just seems way off no matter how u cook it.

I watch quite a few fights, but I'll have to admit I haven't seen much of Story. Looks like most of his losses are by decision. Cerrone is starting to get up there at 33 & he usually has exciting fights that he wins. I see he moved up to Welterweight 3 fights ago and all 3 fights he won "Performance of the night". Makes no sense

I also wanted to mention some of the UFC marketing ploys that are funny to me, but I can understand why they work.

Thanks

As far as CMG/Aldo....Think CmG walks through him if they fight again, you aren't beating CmG at 145 without superior wrestling ability.

Fire away, this is the MMA thread unless you fancy hanging with the snobs in EDF.

Diaz is a bad matchup but someone like Khabib is a nightmare matchup for Conor, never mind someone who is actually very good. A good wrestler will expose him even more than Diaz did.