Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz II

[Draz]

Nate got this

[christian1923]

Gotta root for Conor. The fight business needs more fighters AND characters like him.

[G-train]

Gotta root for Conor. The fight business needs more fighters AND characters like him.

I hate his character actually.
He portrays himself as a disrespectful idiot.

[christian1923]

I hate his character actually.
He portrays himself as a disrespectful idiot.

Yeah he's a fighter not a cop, he suppose to act like an asshole. Those are the kind of fighter personalities that engage me and most fight fans enough to pay for PPV. It's entertainment.

[Patrick Chewing]

Yeah he's a fighter not a cop, he suppose to act like an asshole. Those are the kind of fighter personalities that engage me and most fight fans enough to pay for PPV. It's entertainment.

Then you may as well watch Wrestling instead. They have tons of those characters.

The UFC is a joke when fighters like these act like this. Fighting is about the competition, the rivalry, and also the camaraderie.

[G-train]

Yeah he's a fighter not a cop, he suppose to act like an asshole. Those are the kind of fighter personalities that engage me and most fight fans enough to pay for PPV. It's entertainment.

No he's not supposed to act like an asshole. He can act however he wants.

He goes beyond the typical trash talking into total moron mode.

[gigantes]

I think it's hilarious how McGregor thinks he's so untouchable. He loses this fight, and loses his first title defense, and people will forget about him. Rousey lost one fight and you haven't heard about her since. UFC fans are fickle.

dude, she basically went spelunking after she lost. UFC fans had almost nothing to go on. i think the rare 'interview' she gave afterwards was for something completely unrelated, like some movie or product she was hawking. this had nothing to do with the fans being fickle.

...

anyway, conor has been looking like an immature idiot the past week or two. ordinarily i'm cool with him, but it's really hard to be a fan when he's so obnoxious and arrogant.

i did a quick breakdown for what conor needs to do to win this fight, and not much has changed. he really shouldn't be fighting at 170 IMO. he has maybe a couple paths to victory against nate, but nate just has so many more...

[plowking]

No he's not supposed to act like an asshole. He can act however he wants.

He goes beyond the typical trash talking into total moron mode.

Umm, no he doesn't. What does he do that goes well and beyond the normal?

He is a charismatic individual with great presence on the mic. He is there to sell tickets. He does a great job.

[plowking]

My point is he avoided enough damage, as he survived and then won convincingly in the second.

If he can again be still standing in the second, I think he will win again.

He didn't do enough to avoid damage. We've seen hard hits land on fighters and the fighter ends up fine. Then we've seen grazing shots hit the right area, and the fighter go down.
The plan isn't to get hit in the face. Taking any punch is a risk. Conor just happened to get hit with the right shot, and Diaz didn't.

There is nothing to signify that happening again. Diaz will be more spry this time and probably do a better job of avoiding those punches, hence increasing his chance not to get knocked out. All it takes is one good punch from either guy.

[blacknapalm]

Then you may as well watch Wrestling instead. They have tons of those characters.

The UFC is a joke when fighters like these act like this. Fighting is about the competition, the rivalry, and also the camaraderie.

c'mon man, conor is over the top but this has been around forever in the fight game. the shit talk, the bravado. i'm sure at the end of the day, conor definitely sees nate as a threat. he has to say all these things to hype himself up apparently...that and it sells PPVs and he's said himself he's in the PPV selling business. i get it, conor irks me too, but some of the biggest scuffles and shit talking have come from boxing too, especially when tyson was around.

there's a reason why straight forward guys like rick story and damian maia don't make even a quarter of what conor makes. they don't draw and sell tickets. i'm a maia fan btw.

anyway, conor seems kinda rattled to me. overly emotional. he usually is laughing stuff off, calmly talking shit. now he's out here raising his voice, cussing, running around a stage like donkey kong looking at shit to throw. dropping a mic and walking off. he's not dictating what is happening and the whole diaz walk off thing seems to have totally thrown him off. dude just seems legitimately agitated and he needs to keep his emotions in check.

also, i'm not buying the whole gassed thing either. i mean, it played a factor a bit but conor making it seem like that was the one main factor is a joke. diaz caught him with a knee to the gut that seemed to take a lot out of him, then his 1-2 combo landed and totally stunned conor. that was the end of the fight. him going for a weak takedown was a hail mary.

nate bleeds a lot but he has a granite chin. i think conor needs to go with leg kicks. we've seen how little nate checks leg kicks. conor can kill his mobility and limit his range that way. it will open the rest of his game. he can actually win a decision if he does that.

i agree with gigantes quite a bit. can conor KO nate? maybe. should he be so hellbent on it that it becomes a rigid gameplan and head hunting is his go to? def not. like i said, he can win this on a decision if he uses his full striking arsenal. if he unloads and gets frustrated/panicked at the end of round 2 cuz diaz is still eating his shots? well, that will play right into diaz

[Nastradamus]

Mcgregor will win rather easily. No disrespect to Diaz who I'm a huge fan of. Its just not his day. Mcgregor finishes him in 3 or less

[Nastradamus]

He didn't do enough to avoid damage. We've seen hard hits land on fighters and the fighter ends up fine. Then we've seen grazing shots hit the right area, and the fighter go down.
The plan isn't to get hit in the face. Taking any punch is a risk. Conor just happened to get hit with the right shot, and Diaz didn't.

There is nothing to signify that happening again. Diaz will be more spry this time and probably do a better job of avoiding those punches, hence increasing his chance not to get knocked out. All it takes is one good punch from either guy.

Connor didn't get hit with the right shot, he gassed.

[gigantes]

conor gassing midway through round two after a full camp is a bad sign. this is one of the reasons nate has more paths to victory than conor. examples:


[list][*] conor is not likely to win the grappling exchanges against nate.

[*] conor is in particularly bad shape going to the ground against nate.

[*] no way in hell conor wins a cardio war against nate over five rounds.

[*] conor head-hunting against the much longer diaz is seriously inefficient, as we saw.

[*] this time, nate has had a full fight camp and has had time to fill out his 6' frame to the max that 170 allows him. meanwhile, the 5'9" conor is not necessarily any better at 170 and is arguably worse, considering the heavy-footedness we saw from him last time.[/list]

[Nastradamus]

conor gassing midway through round two after a full camp is a bad sign. this is one of the reasons nate has more paths to victory than conor. examples:


[list][*] conor is not likely to win the grappling exchanges against nate.

[*] conor is in particularly bad shape going to the ground against nate.

[*] no way in hell conor wins a cardio war against nate over five rounds.

[*] conor head-hunting against the much longer diaz is seriously inefficient, as we saw.

[*] this time, nate has had a full fight camp and has had time to fill out his 6' frame to the max that 170 allows him. meanwhile, the 5'9" conor is not necessarily any better at 170 and is arguably worse, considering the heavy-footedness we saw from him last time.[/list]

It was Connor's first fight at the weight and he wasn't used to carrying it. He has a frame naturally suited to fight at 155 or 170 though, so I think he will be better there with some experience and another camp under his belt.

Diaz is great on the ground(1st or 2nd in UFC history in submissions IIRC), but people always forget that he SUCKS at getting people to the ground. One of the worst at getting takedowns in the game. He also has no defense. Great chin, but its about to get tested. I'd guess he goes to sleep in the ring tomorrow night.

[gigantes]

1) It was Connor's first fight at the weight and he wasn't used to carrying it. He has a frame naturally suited to fight at 155 or 170 though, so I think he will be better there with some experience and another camp under his belt.

2) Diaz is great on the ground(1st or 2nd in UFC history in submissions IIRC), but people always forget that he SUCKS at getting people to the ground. One of the worst at getting takedowns in the game. He also has no defense. Great chin, but its about to get tested. I'd guess he goes to sleep in the ring tomorrow night.

1) it wasn't really at 170, tho. it was 155 minus the weight cut. this will actually be conor's first fight at a true 170. meanwhile, nate already has a history of fighting at 170. another significant advantage to nate because he'll almost certainly be the bigger guy on fight night.

2) nate doesn't necessarily need to take conor to the ground. he can simply sprawl as we saw last time, or even just flip on to his back if he gets rocked. that's a big, werdum-like luxury, and shows just how dominant he is, even off his back.

nate (and his brother's) defense is a lot better than most people think. for one thing, their ability to punch non-stop and their ability to mix up light, medium and heavy power shots tends to frustrate their opponents and have them fighting less and less efficiently as the fight goes on. the other thing nate is great at is using his long frame to lean in and make the opponent think his head is closer than it really is. conor spent a lot of energy chasing that red herring last fight, only for nate to lean back and fire effective counters with his reach advantage.

i'm not saying conor can't win, but i think he has a load of problems to solve against nate. he's gotta be a scientist in there, not typical flashy mcgregor. like black napalm was saying, conor seems a bit rattled, and it seems like the diaz bros are one of the very few that his trash-talking game can backfire against. if conor does win, i will be mightily impressed, but if he loses, it's probably going to be kind of sad because a lot of us saw it coming while he didn't.