lol Nate hitting a vape pen during post fight press conf

Anybody else notice Conor limping out of the arena? Looked like his left leg was hurt.

https://streamable.com/e7am

Diaz cut from 175.

To quote Conor : "Fook leg kicks. My leg is in fookin bits.

I was more invested in a Diaz win than a healthy adult male should have been, but you gotta be a stone cold bastard to not give Conor props on this. He fought the exact fight he needed to fight to win, in the face of adversity, and maybe did it on an injured shin. Respect.

He broke his foot, no? Didn't they say that in the post fight? I was pretty drunk at that point.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...oot-and-return

Nate says a month out he injured his knee and couldn't train grappling, then 2 weeks out injured a rib sparring and couldn't train striking.

Nate is crazy he's gone from boasting how he was so great he beat Conor with no camp and if he had a full camp Conor wouldn't even touch him and his team are all world class pro's to now using the full camp as an excuse for the loss.


Last fight I said how the short notice of it all was more of a disadvantage to Conor because he'd been preparing for a shorter orthodox guy with a shorter reach and then fought a taller southpaw with a longer reach and Nate also wouldn't have any bangs or injuries all fighters pick up in camps.

Add in a weight cut to 155 and he gets knocked out.

Great fight. Not sure either guy looked that good. Gotta rewatch. I believe Diaz when he said hes had several injuries cuz he looked pretty mediocre.

big surprise is Cerrone at 170. Holy **** he looks good. Maybe Story is coming off the sauce but Cerrone destroying him is impressive.

if I was a ufc fighter I probably wouldn't train real hard on anything but cardio before a fight. I did a little bit of mma training and all I did was get hurt. I was better on my first day than I was after a month of training because you get dinged up so much. I broke my toe I cracked a rib I sprained my hand. it was comical

First couple of round was like watching a noob street fighter player getting killed by a player spamming a single move and having no clue what to do about it.
I cannot believe diaz survived the first 1.5 first round but mc gregor making it to the end of round 5 was even more unbelievable.

I m not even sure i want to watch a 3rd one, maybe at 155 that will be less of a missmatch but at 170 that was a bit of a freak show.

In what way was it a freakshow and a mismatch?

As in different weight class.
But tbh connor at 145 is a bit the same.

this, rumble obv super scary as well

props to conor, i def thought the tables had turned at the end of round 3

I don't think you can look at Diaz vs. Johnson, Diaz vs. Conor I (on 11 days notice) and this fight and not conclude Diaz had something wrong with him. Diaz looked sharp in the first two fights, and really behind tonight.

Credit to Conor for having the sense to swallow his pride and leg kick his way to victory. It's not the the "How to beat a Diaz brother" manual is terribly thick or private. He did what he would obviously have to do and had a patience we hadn't seen a ton of.

OK so Nate weighs 195 lbs when he fights at 155 lbs. Or he weighs 185 lbs and put on 10 lbs that noone noticed. Sure.

I wonder what Conor does now. If I was his manager I'd advise on a title shot v. Alvarez, preferably at UFC 205. It's a winnable fight & he still has a 145 title fight (even if Aldo is full champion) if he loses. If he loses to Jose he'll probably have to take a non-title fight (I don't think they do the immediate trilogy bout but it's possible).

That was a mixed performance, the first 8 minutes was the most impressive of Conor's career by far, keep in mind he'd had 13 seconds in the ring with a prepared top 10 opponent & looked pretty bad in his two fights v. unprepared top 10 opponents (Diaz I think is top 10), he was really fantastic for 8 minutes, didn't get hit.

I think Conor will struggle with 155 lbers who can grapple. He might want to mix in some takedowns v. durable guys to preserve his energy, for example I think he would have fared much better if he followed Diaz to the ground for some lay and pray. Conor actually did this extremely effectively v. Holloway who isn't Nate Diaz off his back but is no joke. It's pretty unusual for top 10 opponents to get subbed from someone's guard & Diaz reminds me of Anderson Silva - easyish to take down, not going at getting up or sweeping the opponent, very adept at avoiding damage + offers some dangerous subs. Conor should add that to his game v. Aldo/Eddie since it's clear his stamina isn't the best (Jose's TD defence is phenomenal but he won't be defending the TD v. Conor and might get KDed).

It wouldn't be a Diaz loss if they didn't throw out a bunch of excuses, but I also agree he looked off. Kinda reminded me of a less severe instance of the RDA fight where he was very obviously injured (first time not making weight).

Party,

I would be surprised if Conor didn't demand an immediate third fight if he lost to Aldo. I'd be even more surprised if they didn't give it to him. I think Eddie takes Conor's lunch, IMO, but I can't imagine they don't actually follow through with Conor v. Aldo later this year. If he retains the title, he goes right back to challenging the LW champ.

This is almost certainly correct.

This is also probably correct.

So I am watching my bias against cm grow again from all the bs.

First I'll say I think it was a fair decision, but how does he regain goat status off that performance?

-Nate is not a welterweight, he is a large lw. Stop it.
-He got tapped in the first fight and won a very, very close decision this time.
-The leg kick game plan was not brilliant, nearly everyone itt saw it as his path to victory and frankly it was implemented fairly poorly...he still slowed down and looked like he was in grave danger way too early.
-Nate took his best shots and Conor could not finish him.
-Nate loses 1 out of 3 fights in his career.

What we saw was a great fight between two very evenly matched fighters. Neither one is the ****ing King for crying out loud. It was great for the same reason Griffen vs Bonner was great.

The Conor hype train Going full steam ahead just because he barely avoided derailing completely is an over reaction.

/hate

True, no shortage of excuses after a diaz loss.

Apparently no one knew who dos anjos was at the time which is why diaz, allegedly, did not train at all. He had no motivation.

Well, to be fair, has connor ever implemented these kicks in the past? I thought he did a great job in the first round delivering those kicks and then he mentioned hitting diaz knee straight on in 1st round and injuring his foot/shin. So I think thats why we dont see as much follow up as well as being gassed somewhat. It seemed to play an important role in this fight and probably the biggest adjustment from his last fight with diaz. Not saying it was flawless execution, but it def. was what helped the tip scale and give him the win in a close fight.

Diaz bros give excuses in a way that is annoying because they are always saying they won the fight, but they all mention injuries. Honestly the taboo about talking about injuries is kinda overblown. If someone is injured it should not be a secret and can actually be a reason for their performance. It is not an excuse because it is part of the game to try to stay injury free and everyone has that challenge equally, but not excusing a loss doesn't mean it is no factor in performance.

I' like it better if they could just disclose what injuries they had without the song and dance qualification of "I'm not making excuses but.." Which only sounds worse. I do want to know about them as a fan though.

By the way, what a brutal welcome to the ufc for chris avila. (nate diaz training partner)

The leg kicks he took were especially brutal. Clearly lobov and mcgregor worked a ton on this in camp.

He did not look at all prepared for this level of fighting.

Completely agree and wish everyone thought like this.