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1.Conor's mental game - wildly overblown media nonsense
I really like MMA analyst Luke Thomas, but he always annoys me by harping on about how hugely important and powerful Conor's mental game is. It's the kind of silliness I would expect from the more feeble-minded/exciteable/infantile members of the MMA media like Ariel Helwani, but not serious analysts like Luke.
Last night proved that all this stuff about Conor's mental strength is so, so, so wildly overblown.
You can be the most confident, composed, determined, fearless, psychological game-player on the planet.... but all of that counts for nothing, absolutely nothing, if you get clipped and hurt and finished, or gas out and can't go on, or simply meet someone with vastly superior technical skill in one or more areas and get outfought.
Luke often stated he would find it very difficult to pick against Conor because McG's mentality was such that it just would not allow or accept defeat..... a theory which counted for absolutely jack shit in reality, as I and many people knew it would, because you can talk mentalities till the cows come home, but it's a physiological fact that clean punches hurt, that poor cardio can get exposed, and when both things happen you're liable to get badly fucked up, mental game or no mental game. A mentality cannot ensure you have sufficient cardio for 5 rounds or teach you how to defend chokes.
This sport is primarily a technical and physical endeavour. This has to be understood and accepted. The mental game stuff is mostly just media silliness for the build-up, the cameras, 90% of fighters implement their game regardless of whether someone makes fun of them in an interview or not. It's idiotic. Fans need to grow up and realize that making people laugh at a press conference does not make your opponent's punches hurt less in the cage, or make their BJJ game or their striking magically inferior to yours if they're actually significantly better. It's beyond stupid.
Mystic Mac? Please.
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2.This fight exposed strategic, technical, and cerebral deficiencies in Conor's (striking) game
Let us be clear - Nate Diaz is far from unbeatable on the feet. A minimum of three fighters already in the UFC have already comprehensively beaten him in what were mostly stand-up fights. Nate was barely competitive across three fights with Benson Henderson, Rafael dos Anjos, and Josh Thomson. I don't think he won one round in those three bouts, if I'm remembering them as clearly as I think I am. All three guys fought in a similar sort of way, so the template was already laid down, it was pretty damn obvious how to dominate and defeat Nate Diaz - move around him, not to him, throw a lot of kicks, and counter his leading shots. That's what all three guys did, and all three of them dealt with Nate in dominant and fairly easy fashion. Ok, with Benson and RDA, they also mixed in takedowns, and the threat of the TD may have had some bearing on how the striking portions of the fight went, but the stand-up was so one-sided and so much time was spent purely striking that it would be silly to write those kickboxing masterclasses off as just Nate being outwrestled. And that argument can't even apply to Diaz vs Thomson, where he got destroyed and KO'd on the feet, absolutely fair & square and clear as day. Conor stepped to Nate, tried to rely on single-shot punches to knock him out, failed, gassed, and got battered. Awful gameplan and tactics and execution, and suggests that Conor may simply not be as good of a striker/student of the game/all-round fighter as those three proven-quality lightweights.
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3.Conor would have been destroyed by Rafael dos Anjos, and should never even think about challenging for the welterweight strap. Ludicrous delusions of grandeur
Conor was finished in 2 rounds by a top 10/borderline top 5 lightweight on 11 days notice. He lost because he couldnt get the KO, gassed, ate some punches from a decent but not vicious puncher, and then had nothing on the ground once the fight went there. The thought of what RDA would have done to him is scary. RDA has a proven chin himself, proven 5-round cardio, proven punching (and kicking power) at 155lbs, and way better takedowns and top control/top game than Nate. He would have eaten McGregor alive. Conor should be thanking his lucky stars that the "bruised foot" happened. And I'm not even going to go into detail on how stupid the idea of Conor challenging Robbie Lawler is, it doesn't merit it. The dumbest MMA idea since there was a movement to have Chris Weidman challenge Jon Jones at 205. Delusional nonsense.
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4.Conor's groundgame and TDD issues have to make you think that both Aldo and Edgar have a formidable case for devouring McGregor in upcoming featherweight fights
We saw some truly pathetic TDD and BJJ bottom-game from Conor in the Mendes fight, but his cross-eyed foaming-mouthed fanatical supporters convinced themselves that he was really the white Jacare Souza and that every failing on show was due to a mysterious injury that never came out till after the fight. I think these goons must just accept now that these issues are very real, and that unless McGregor starts working with the best trainers available in these areas and takes urgent steps to improve his game, this weakness is going to be horribly exposed by proven elite well-rounded fighters like Aldo and Edgar, who have both shown excellent takedown and top games in MMA
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5.McGregor is nowhere near the top of the food chain in MMA in terms of all-round ability
Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, Dominick Cruz are the top of the pile. Rafael dos Anjos, Luke Rockhold, Fabricio Werdum, Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, and more following on from them. These guys have all proven their abilities in every phase of MMA, in different types of fights versus different types of top opponents. Conor McGregor is an amazing striker with awesome power... and that appears to be all. He deserves to be pound-for-pound ranked because the win over Aldo was sensational, but to consider him the equal of guys like Jones, Johnson and Cruz is silly. He is a very effective but limited fighter, and needs a hell of a lot of work on his game to be getting close to that level.
In short, "Have I been wrong yet? Have I been wrong yet?" Yes, you have. Many people were. Back to the drawing-board, it's time to get serious or go home.
I really like MMA analyst Luke Thomas, but he always annoys me by harping on about how hugely important and powerful Conor's mental game is. It's the kind of silliness I would expect from the more feeble-minded/exciteable/infantile members of the MMA media like Ariel Helwani, but not serious analysts like Luke.
Last night proved that all this stuff about Conor's mental strength is so, so, so wildly overblown.
You can be the most confident, composed, determined, fearless, psychological game-player on the planet.... but all of that counts for nothing, absolutely nothing, if you get clipped and hurt and finished, or gas out and can't go on, or simply meet someone with vastly superior technical skill in one or more areas and get outfought.
Luke often stated he would find it very difficult to pick against Conor because McG's mentality was such that it just would not allow or accept defeat..... a theory which counted for absolutely jack shit in reality, as I and many people knew it would, because you can talk mentalities till the cows come home, but it's a physiological fact that clean punches hurt, that poor cardio can get exposed, and when both things happen you're liable to get badly fucked up, mental game or no mental game. A mentality cannot ensure you have sufficient cardio for 5 rounds or teach you how to defend chokes.
This sport is primarily a technical and physical endeavour. This has to be understood and accepted. The mental game stuff is mostly just media silliness for the build-up, the cameras, 90% of fighters implement their game regardless of whether someone makes fun of them in an interview or not. It's idiotic. Fans need to grow up and realize that making people laugh at a press conference does not make your opponent's punches hurt less in the cage, or make their BJJ game or their striking magically inferior to yours if they're actually significantly better. It's beyond stupid.
Mystic Mac? Please.
--
2.This fight exposed strategic, technical, and cerebral deficiencies in Conor's (striking) game
Let us be clear - Nate Diaz is far from unbeatable on the feet. A minimum of three fighters already in the UFC have already comprehensively beaten him in what were mostly stand-up fights. Nate was barely competitive across three fights with Benson Henderson, Rafael dos Anjos, and Josh Thomson. I don't think he won one round in those three bouts, if I'm remembering them as clearly as I think I am. All three guys fought in a similar sort of way, so the template was already laid down, it was pretty damn obvious how to dominate and defeat Nate Diaz - move around him, not to him, throw a lot of kicks, and counter his leading shots. That's what all three guys did, and all three of them dealt with Nate in dominant and fairly easy fashion. Ok, with Benson and RDA, they also mixed in takedowns, and the threat of the TD may have had some bearing on how the striking portions of the fight went, but the stand-up was so one-sided and so much time was spent purely striking that it would be silly to write those kickboxing masterclasses off as just Nate being outwrestled. And that argument can't even apply to Diaz vs Thomson, where he got destroyed and KO'd on the feet, absolutely fair & square and clear as day. Conor stepped to Nate, tried to rely on single-shot punches to knock him out, failed, gassed, and got battered. Awful gameplan and tactics and execution, and suggests that Conor may simply not be as good of a striker/student of the game/all-round fighter as those three proven-quality lightweights.
--
3.Conor would have been destroyed by Rafael dos Anjos, and should never even think about challenging for the welterweight strap. Ludicrous delusions of grandeur
Conor was finished in 2 rounds by a top 10/borderline top 5 lightweight on 11 days notice. He lost because he couldnt get the KO, gassed, ate some punches from a decent but not vicious puncher, and then had nothing on the ground once the fight went there. The thought of what RDA would have done to him is scary. RDA has a proven chin himself, proven 5-round cardio, proven punching (and kicking power) at 155lbs, and way better takedowns and top control/top game than Nate. He would have eaten McGregor alive. Conor should be thanking his lucky stars that the "bruised foot" happened. And I'm not even going to go into detail on how stupid the idea of Conor challenging Robbie Lawler is, it doesn't merit it. The dumbest MMA idea since there was a movement to have Chris Weidman challenge Jon Jones at 205. Delusional nonsense.
--
4.Conor's groundgame and TDD issues have to make you think that both Aldo and Edgar have a formidable case for devouring McGregor in upcoming featherweight fights
We saw some truly pathetic TDD and BJJ bottom-game from Conor in the Mendes fight, but his cross-eyed foaming-mouthed fanatical supporters convinced themselves that he was really the white Jacare Souza and that every failing on show was due to a mysterious injury that never came out till after the fight. I think these goons must just accept now that these issues are very real, and that unless McGregor starts working with the best trainers available in these areas and takes urgent steps to improve his game, this weakness is going to be horribly exposed by proven elite well-rounded fighters like Aldo and Edgar, who have both shown excellent takedown and top games in MMA
--
5.McGregor is nowhere near the top of the food chain in MMA in terms of all-round ability
Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, Dominick Cruz are the top of the pile. Rafael dos Anjos, Luke Rockhold, Fabricio Werdum, Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, and more following on from them. These guys have all proven their abilities in every phase of MMA, in different types of fights versus different types of top opponents. Conor McGregor is an amazing striker with awesome power... and that appears to be all. He deserves to be pound-for-pound ranked because the win over Aldo was sensational, but to consider him the equal of guys like Jones, Johnson and Cruz is silly. He is a very effective but limited fighter, and needs a hell of a lot of work on his game to be getting close to that level.
In short, "Have I been wrong yet? Have I been wrong yet?" Yes, you have. Many people were. Back to the drawing-board, it's time to get serious or go home.
