Analysis of Alvarez vs McGregor

[wilddeuces]

If anyone is looking forward to UFC 205, I threw something together in advance of two of its title fights:

http://a-neutral-corner.blogspot.ca/2016/11/ufc-205-strikers-thoughts.html

There is also an analysis of Woodley vs Thompson as well.

Have a good weekend, all!

Luis Ortiz is fighting Malik Scott beforehand. I'm interested to see Ortiz against some of the top talent in heavyweight.

The Danny Garcia fight I am decidedly less enthused about.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

I hear McGOAT dominated Alvarez with striking. He rocked Alvarez with harder and harder punches. Alvarez has soon pretty good proficiency in striking before. Dont know what happened this time.

 

[DoctorTaco]

I hear McGOAT dominated Alvarez with striking. He rocked Alvarez with harder and harder punches. Alvarez has soon pretty good proficiency in striking before. Dont know what happened this time.

it was a technical take down and a clinic on patients, threat, and timing. I figured Alvarez would win and I'm not a fan of connors persona or antics but that dude won me over last night purely as a fighter.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

it was a technical take down and a clinic on patients, threat, and timing. I figured Alvarez would win and I'm not a fan of connors persona or antics but that dude won me over last night purely as a fighter.

And Alvarez is no slouch. He beat RDJ, and Pettis.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I think that technically speaking (sorry i have to say that because outside of the cage he and his fans tend to be cringe-worthy) he is GOAT material.

Anderson material.

I wish someone here would make a report (some dudes here make pretty impressive ones) on the differences between Conor and Anderson's counter punching.

 

[rmongler]

Alvarez was having success in the opening frame with the legs kicks, really threw McGregor off his groove early. Then he stopped using the leg kicks and got knocked down.

It seems like the same old story in this fight where a shorter guy is fighting a longer guy. Just like with Edgar vs Aldo too; the leg kicks equalize the playing field and they have success with them, but then for some reason when they start getting boxed up they get so hung up on the fact that the guy has a reach advantage that they try to 'prove' they are a 'better' striker by trying to trade hands with the guy who has longer hands? Or because they are thinking so much about the reach, they can only think of doing punching themselves? Smdhtbqhwt onii-fam.

McGregor, like Diaz (or Wonderboy), is very front foot heavy, and the forward lean creates false distance; they are ready to evade and react to any strike, except ones that are below the belt. There is zero reason to not exploit that, you either win out right, or force them to adjust to less familiar tactics, win-win either way.

Trying to fight one of these fighters heads up like that like trying to smack your face into a boulder rolling downhill. McGregor found that in the first Diaz fight (Diaz basically spends all his time doing boxing and jiu-jitsu; every guy who has ever beaten him so far has generally done it by exploiting the holes in his lack of wrestling or kickboxing, rather than smacking their faces into the boulder. Which makes the fact that McGregor managed to take a decision the second time around by basically coming at Diaz head on again a very impressive achievement. Smart game planning? I'd say not really, but sometimes all you have is a hammer, and in his niche he showed that he has a really good hammer [something everyone else needs to game plan around]).

 

[Soul Rebel 2]

People still haven't learned to keep your feet set against Conor, leaping at him is suicide.

[

 

[Zefram Cochrane]

McGregor was waiting to counter a straight right with a straight/cross left of his own, which is his bread and butter and even the walls know it.

Despite this obvious situation, Alvarez decides that, since his low kicks were landing too much and that was too boring, it was a good idea to leap forward face first against the longer guy and, of course, gets countered and knocked the fuck down.

Since that worked out so well, Alvarez decides to rinse and repeat the process until he gets knocked out.

At least, that was what I could gather from my keyboard warrior station.

 

[Azam]

Tbh I have no fucking idea what Eddie was trying to do.

McGregor legit beat him - but Eddie made his job way to easy - I mean it wasn't even a contest. I don't know what happens to guys in there - it's like they just leave their fight intelligence, game plans or brains at the door of the cage.

Basically Eddie kept circling towards McGregor's left and for some crazy reason used the left side of McGregor as entry points to get into range or just stayed right infront of him static like. I don't know who came up with that game plan or even if Eddie was following one but man that was retarded. I mean he closed the distance in a straight line from the left of McGregor - that's like walking right into your opponents best weapon....

He got lit up & knocked down each time he did that and tbh he didn't really threaten Connor with any wrestling - when you've been starched 3 times like that your way to dazed to mount any sort of effective grappling exchange.

Why on Earth he didn't circle to McGregor's right or why no-one seems to want to do that is beyond me. The only real attack/defensive option McGregor has on that right side is the spinning back kick which he uses if anyone deviates or tries to go to the right of him - its very slick but it's easy to deal with when you know it's going to come plus everytime McGregor throws that spinning back kick - he resets because he's always out of position right after it. That would have been the perfect opportunity to close that range.

But I have to rate the guy he beat Aldo & Alvarez legit - even if both abandoned their senses.

McGregor maneuvered & used that pawing lead and lead foot - to keep Alvarez to his left and Alvarez just let Conor take the optimal positioning for himself.

I definitely felt like banging my head on a rock when I see guys just abandon game plans & common sense when they fight McGregor.

 

[Rico]

People still haven't learned to keep your feet set against Conor, leaping at him is suicide.

[

This.

He does a ton of things to goad that leap, though. Everything from the stabbing teeps and oblique kicks to dissuade taking the outside angle when you do leap in to little nods to subtly "direct" you to do what he wants.

Something I'm gonna try to steal from him is doubling up on the counter left cross against a lead right. Don't see that too much and it's almost like the first "tap" is to set the plate for the second bomb, which because of his reach he can take completely over the shoulder.

That counter is basically southpaw 101, though. I have no idea why Eddie was continuously chucking out lead rights. His coaches should have told him not to even throw it unless he put something in front of it with his lead hand. The one time he did he actually cracked Conor. I just have no idea what his strategy was in there. I get he wanted to take it to the ground but he fell for everything like he's never seen Conor fight before.

 

[Rico]

Tbh I have no fucking idea what Eddie was trying to do.

McGregor legit beat him - but Eddie made his job way to easy - I mean it wasn't even a contest. I don't know what happens to guys in there - it's like they just leave their fight intelligence, game plans or brains at the door of the cage.

Basically Eddie kept circling towards McGregor's left and for some crazy reason used the left side of McGregor as entry points to get into range or just stayed right infront of him static like. I don't know who came up with that game plan or even if Eddie was following one but man that was retarded. I mean he closed the distance in a straight line from the left of McGregor - that's like walking right into your opponents best weapon....

He got lit up & knocked down each time he did that and tbh he didn't really threaten Connor with any wrestling - when you've been starched 3 times like that your way to dazed to mount any sort of effective grappling exchange.

Why on Earth he didn't circle to McGregor's right or why no-one seems to want to do that is beyond me. The only real attack/defensive option McGregor has on that right side is the spinning back kick which he uses if anyone deviates or tries to go to the right of him - its very slick but it's easy to deal with when you know it's going to come plus everytime McGregor throws that spinning back kick - he resets because he's always out of position right after it. That would have been the perfect opportunity to close that range.

But I have to rate the guy he beat Aldo & Alvarez legit - even if both abandoned their senses.

McGregor maneuvered & used that pawing lead and lead foot - to keep Alvarez to his left and Alvarez just let Conor take the optimal positioning for himself.

I definitely felt like banging my head on a rock when I see guys just abandon game plans & common sense when they fight McGregor.

Lol. Apparently, we saw the same shit.

*Brofist*

 

[Rico]

I think Eddie froze up tbh.

Mark Henry is supposed to be a good coach. No idea if "hey, let's lead with EXACTLY what Conor wants to counter all night" was really a strategy but I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Azam]

I think Eddie froze up tbh.

Mark Henry is supposed to be a good coach. No idea if "hey, let's lead with EXACTLY what Conor wants to counter all night" was really a strategy but I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt.

Judging by the interview after it looks like Eddie was overwhelmed by the moment - he said he didn't follow their game plan.

I think though Khabib & Ferguson might give Conor problems because they are a bit like Diaz and don't really give a fuck - that seems to go a long way with McGregor. I think any of the decent kickers will give him problems as well.

That said Khabib's domination of M.Johnson was amazing to watch.

I was watching his entries (to see how he'd fare against McGregor) & while he did get hit - he's very slick when it comes to getting into range to grapple - he got hit more striking than actually closing the distance. His top game is fucking out of this world too.

 

[Rico]

Judging by the interview after it looks like Eddie was overwhelmed by the moment - he said he didn't follow their game plan.

I think though Khabib & Ferguson might give Conor problems because they are a bit like Diaz and don't really give a fuck - that seems to go a long way with McGregor. I think any of the decent kickers will give him problems as well.

That said Khabib's domination of M.Johnson was amazing to watch.

I was watching his entries (to see how he'd fare against McGregor) & while he did get hit - he's very slick when it comes to getting into range to grapple - he got hit more striking than actually closing the distance. His top game is fucking out of this world too.

His chain wrestling is out of this world. Conor wouldn't be able to simply deny the underhook like he did against Eddie. And if Khabib would have had the same entries that Eddie did last night then Conor would be eating through a straw right now. If you let Khabib anywhere near your hips they're getting sucked into that black hole.

Conor would come in with a diff gameplan, though, beyond some early first round success I really can't see him stopping Khabib beyond a very early KO.

 

[Rico]

Tony is just a wildcard but I think he just gets hit too much. Outside of a flash sub, I think Conor lights him up. His boxing fundamentals are meh.

 

[aries]

Judging by the interview after it looks like Eddie was overwhelmed by the moment - he said he didn't follow their game plan.

I think though Khabib & Ferguson might give Conor problems because they are a bit like Diaz and don't really give a fuck - that seems to go a long way with McGregor. I think any of the decent kickers will give him problems as well.

That said Khabib's domination of M.Johnson was amazing to watch.

I was watching his entries (to see how he'd fare against McGregor) & while he did get hit - he's very slick when it comes to getting into range to grapple - he got hit more striking than actually closing the distance. His top game is fucking out of this world too.

Khabib got caught on his feet though pretty badly. And while Michael Johnson hits fairly hard I'm pretty sure that McG hits harder. If Khabib gets caught like vs. McG it's going to be lights out before he even realises. That said Khabib when he did get to grappling with Johnson made it look pretty easy. If he can survive closing the distance then he has a really good chance of making it a very long and frustrating night for McGregor. It's just a big what if regarding how he safely negotiates closing range on McG.

 

[Latim]

Alvarez was having success in the opening frame with the legs kicks, really threw McGregor off his groove early. Then he stopped using the leg kicks and got knocked down.

It seems like the same old story in this fight where a shorter guy is fighting a longer guy. Just like with Edgar vs Aldo too; the leg kicks equalize the playing field and they have success with them, but then for some reason when they start getting boxed up they get so hung up on the fact that the guy has a reach advantage that they try to 'prove' they are a 'better' striker by trying to trade hands with the guy who has longer hands? Or because they are thinking so much about the reach, they can only think of doing punching themselves? Smdhtbqhwt onii-fam.

McGregor, like Diaz (or Wonderboy), is very front foot heavy, and the forward lean creates false distance; they are ready to evade and react to any strike, except ones that are below the belt. There is zero reason to not exploit that, you either win out right, or force them to adjust to less familiar tactics, win-win either way.

Trying to fight one of these fighters heads up like that like trying to smack your face into a boulder rolling downhill. McGregor found that in the first Diaz fight (Diaz basically spends all his time doing boxing and jiu-jitsu; every guy who has ever beaten him so far has generally done it by exploiting the holes in his lack of wrestling or kickboxing, rather than smacking their faces into the boulder. Which makes the fact that McGregor managed to take a decision the second time around by basically coming at Diaz head on again a very impressive achievement. Smart game planning? I'd say not really, but sometimes all you have is a hammer, and in his niche he showed that he has a really good hammer [something everyone else needs to game plan around]).

Eh, he stopped leg kicking because he was landing with his foot to conors Shin. The inside leg kick is not worth throwing IF you can't place it correctly.

 

[Soul Rebel 2]

Eh, he stopped leg kicking because he was landing with his foot to conors Shin. The inside leg kick is not worth throwing IF you can't place it correctly.

Maybe but he could have thrown it to the body or to the head. The right body kick against McGregor would work a treat since he favours the inside angle so much

 

[Rico]

Maybe but he could have thrown it to the body or to the head. The right body kick against McGregor would work a treat since he favours the inside angle so much

This is my biggest take from him. I'm a southpaw myself (obviously not on his level) and my whole game is based on the outside angle (which I'm working on). He does throw the double jab to outside angle straight left and that slip-shovel jab to cross deal but he seems to highly favor the inside angle...which goes against popular consensus for the most part.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Khabib got caught on his feet though pretty badly. And while Michael Johnson hits fairly hard I'm pretty sure that McG hits harder. If Khabib gets caught like vs. McG it's going to be lights out before he even realises. That said Khabib when he did get to grappling with Johnson made it look pretty easy. If he can survive closing the distance then he has a really good chance of making it a very long and frustrating night for McGregor. It's just a big what if regarding how he safely negotiates closing range on McG.

Not that you are doing that, but one should be pretty scared of Johnson's punches. I also think that he hits much harder than Conor, who rather uses precision, timing and speed instead of raw power.

Johnson's punches seem like they sting like hell and I think that he generates alot of power.

Also, the fact that he has a really weird erratic brawling technique must make him really hard to deal with, especially in a first round.

Johnson was pretty terrifying in the first. He looked like a pissed-off giant ant or something.