If Conor had no intention of coming back why would he be doing 20 rounds of bjj sparring?

[Final Say]

He’s barely richer than mid level NFL and NBA players and they’re always looking for money

That guy has more money than the vast majority of all pro sports players that ever lived

The delusion when it comes to this guy is stunning

 

[Aberlour]

Hang on a sec, why is the round clock at 2:12.9 and yet he's stood around doing fuck all ?

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

I sure he is coming back but don't think for more than 2 or 3 fights max. Also who in your avatar?

Sgt. James Doakes, character from Dexter.

 

[ANIM4L]

Hang on a sec, why is the round clock at 2:12.9 and yet he's stood around doing fuck all ?

He gassed after 7 minutes

 

[mikesparrow]

Hang on a sec, why is the round clock at 2:12.9 and yet he's stood around doing fuck all ?

Because that's the only way he can do 20 rounds.

 

[cshireman4]

Conor IS bjj.

 

[D 1 Wrestler]

I really don’t have an opinion about whether he’s coming back or not. I think he probably is. But along the lines of the question, “why would he”, because his entire livelihood is based on people talking about him and his popularity. If he just hangs them up and goes away, then in addition to losing his MMA money, he loses sponsorships and anything else that comes with fame. It would make sense to keep people guessing.

He has 20 million Instagram followers, he can go around posting pictures advertising for sponsors but he's instead in a gym training when he doesn't have to be.

 

[aichokyu]

also why the fook is the new forum cutting off the image?

probably to stay relevant to his groupies and pretend he's stil a fighter ?

 

[IsNormal]

His BJJ is far better than you guys like to pretend it is.

Reverses a 2nd degree BJJ black belt:

Escapes a heel hook from that same 2nd degree BJJ black belt:

Sweeps another 2nd degree BJJ black belt:

Escapes a guillotine from that same 2nd degree BJJ black belt, who said that would've tapped anyone else:

Beats up the best wrestler in the division from guard with elbows:

Scrambles out from underneath an All American wrestler when he tried to pass, and then escapes a guillotine from a guy whose camp's specialty is guillotines:

Passing to full mount on Siver with ease:

Achieving full mount on Holloway not once but twice with ease:

Passing over into full mount on grappler Dave Hill

Escaping an armbar from Kywan Gracie Behring in no gi comp:

Conor's ground game is fine.

Good collection.

I'm sure someone else could probably counter this with a collection of gifs where Conor makes some basic mistakes on the ground.

But I think these examples are at least enough to show his ground game is not terrible.
He's got some decent escapes and reversals.

I'm still on the fence though, I really need to see him fight Khabib for a few rounds to see more of his defense to tell which level he's at.

 

[markg171]

People saying his grappling sucks just don’t know anything. Being choked out by a black belt after getting rocked and fatigued apparently makes people believe that he’s a white belt

People use the Diaz loss as an example of Conor having a bad ground game, when the reality is is that it's really an example of why Diaz is a 2nd degree black belt.

- Conor shoots so Diaz wraps up a tight guillotine
- Conor tries to pass guard to get out but Diaz blocks with his leg, trapping him in half
- Conor rolls to get out and Diaz uses it to take full mount
- Conor rolls to try and escape and Diaz uses it to take back mount
- Conor defends his neck so Diaz uses the momentum of a punch to create the space necessary to get under the chin
- Conor taps as there was nowhere to go

Conor didn't actually do anything wrong. Diaz just did everything right and showed why he's such a high level black belt.

 

[deev]

I go to Judo and do 20 rounds of sparring on a wednesday night. Doesnt mean Im having a UFC fight next week.

 

[0-1]

Same reason floyd would post a video of him training or in an octagon, Is it really hard to comprehend?

 

[markg171]

Even though this could probably be countered by a collection of gifs where Conor makes some basic mistakes on the ground - I think this at least shows that he's got some decent reversals and escapes, and his ground game is not as terrible as people try to make it out to be.

Oh I'm not trying to say he's got a great ground game. But he certainly doesn't have bad ground game which is how many portray him. He's certainly shown himself to be competent on the ground, and to be good enough to serve his purposes of getting out of danger and back to his feet where his real strength is.

 

[Dionysian]

His BJJ is far better than you guys like to pretend it is.

Reverses a 2nd degree BJJ black belt:

Escapes a heel hook from that same 2nd degree BJJ black belt:

Sweeps another 2nd degree BJJ black belt:

Escapes a guillotine from that same 2nd degree BJJ black belt, who said that would've tapped anyone else:

Beats up the best wrestler in the division from guard with elbows:

Scrambles out from underneath an All American wrestler when he tried to pass, and then escapes a guillotine from a guy whose camp's specialty is guillotines:

Passing to full mount on Siver with ease:

Achieving full mount on Holloway not once but twice with ease:

Passing over into full mount on grappler Dave Hill

Escaping an armbar from Kywan Gracie Behring in no gi comp:

Conor's ground game is fine.

Good post. Normally I'm the first to derail apologists justifying him not fighting and masturbating over his paychecks like it earns them something, but "Conor sucks on the ground" is definitely overstated/not accurate. Doesn't mean he'll survive against Khabib of course, but the guy has legit skills there.

Yes, and he didn't want to defend them because he had a bigger fight possible and was pursuing that.

Stop that though. That "bigger fight" excuse happened nearly a year ago. He was uninjured and did absolutely nothing over the past year AFTER THAT fight, up to and including losing his belt because he didn't want to fight. Stop defending it.

 

[markg171]

Stop that though. That "bigger fight" excuse happened nearly a year ago. He was uninjured and did absolutely nothing over the past year AFTER THAT fight, up to and including losing his belt because he didn't want to fight. Stop defending it.

Seeing as Ariel and Dana's reports from 2 months back that Conor was set to fight for the interim WW title against RDA have been recently confirmed by Conor, I still see it being that Conor wasn't defending his 155 title because he had a bigger fight. First ever triple division champ is bigger than a title defence.

 

[gunlok]

Seeing as Ariel and Dana's reports from 2 months back that Conor was set to fight for the interim WW title against RDA have been recently confirmed by Conor, I still see it being that Conor wasn't defending his 155 title because he had a bigger fight. First ever triple division champ is bigger than a title defence.

Wait, Conor attacked the bus on April 5 and UFC 224 was May 12
Are we supposed to believe that UFC would start promoting Conor's return one month before the actual event? Sounds more like, Conor was scheduled to meet with Dana and discuss potential fight.

 

[Buri]

I am in the Mcgregor is a crappy human and his actions are cowardly camp, but it's as much him as it is the UFC. They worked hard to manufacture just about every aspect of him. There were likely meetings to discuss how to be a (even bigger than natural) heel, a layout of his career including side scenarios. The UFC brass made a ton of money from selling the Diaz rematch...something that really wasn't probable (Diaz was not pushed as that big of a draw for his title fight). Then a good opportunity to fight for a second title, then a chance to market to a new group of fans (Mayweathers).
I doubt any of the fights were fixed (other than Mayweather clowning for his own financial gain). so credit to Mcgregor for winning. Yes he ducks but that is as much on the UFC. For anybody (haters or fanboys) to not believe there is a room full of spin doctors employed by the UFC to create a money making narrative is ignorance.

This is not unusual in sports...NFL was easy on deflategate, NBA refs LeBron (who is amazing) favourably and the NHL pushed for Vegas. MLB doesn't care that the playoffs are set a third of the way into the season and boxing has more divisions and organizations than you can name.

 

[KOFight228]

Ofcourse he is coming back. He visualises coming back and beating the ugly Russian because the universe will make it happen.
Just like he visualised winning against Floyd which is exactly what happened, he won a hell of a lot of money and most of the rounds.

 

[Based Akali]

Are we supposed to believe that UFC would start promoting Conor's return one month before the actual event?

At this point you could probably start promoting a Conor fight a few weeks before it happens and it will still sell, he's already built a huge fan base. They don't need long ass promotion times with him.

 

[gunlok]

At this point you could probably start promoting a Conor fight a few weeks before it happens and it will still sell, he's already built a huge fan base. They don't need long ass promotion times with him.

The story is full of holes. Nothing against Dana or Ariel, but some things they are saying are highly suspicious. They would want to maximize Conor sales to the max. The guy may never fight again and insanely hard to negotiate with, yet very popular with fans.

Dana invented the "Conor was actually booked to fight" part after the incident, because fight ain't happening anyway, and Dana looks like he was able to succesfully negotiate with Conor. Now he looks good for both WME and MMA fans. Ariel likes to redistribute UFC's "half-truths" , because he is still kinda loyal to the brand and is trying to downplay any possible tensions between him and UFC.