Biggest problem with Stephen A's position.

[Dyson350]

I referenced a title fight in my first point you illiterate gump.

The title fight he lost?

 

[Simian Raticus]

The real story here is the obvious knee jerk sensitivity over someone infiltrating the UFC bubble and bringing a harsh approach with them.

Rogan in particular is exposing how insulated they have been with his behavior.

An analyst saying something dumb or outrageous, if that's what you think it is, is not particularly noteworthy in itself.

 

[Kneeuinthenutz]

I can't possibly express what total fucking babies Rogan, and many of you are making yourselves out to be.....

What we're clearly finding out is that many in the MMA community are not ready to be part of mainstream sports due to their fragile little feelings being hurt....

It's fucking priceless.

 

[DeathFist]

Who the fuck is Stephan A.?

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Conor's resume from his first 4 UFC fights, before Siver, is better than Jorge's whole career.

You got to post ur pic and drop ur cherry picked stat for the 1,000th.

Now tell me who Jorge beat that's better than Holloway and Poirier?

Conor catching Max when he was 16 years old and Poirier reinventing himself as a top five lightweight are two of the most fortuitous things to ever happen to a fighter’s resume.

The best argument in favor of Conor’s path to the belt is that—through no intention of the company—he ended up having to get through Mendes to get to Aldo, the short notice stuff notwithstanding.

Conor has a few big wins on his resume. There’s no need to pretend that he faced a murderers row to earn a title shot though. He did an awesome job on that run, but it was most certainly a fast track.

 

[AmericanUppercut]

Stephen A Shock Jock.

 

[ramair455]

The MMA community has very thin skin. SAS has even more controversial with higher profile players in the NFL...AB, Colin Kaepernick, Terrell Owens, Tom Brady just to name a few.

 

[Ken Fresno]

Conor catching Max when he was 16 years old and Poirier reinventing himself as a top five lightweight are two of the most fortuitous things to ever happen to a fighter’s resume.

The best argument in favor of Conor’s path to the belt is that—through no intention of the company—he ended up having to get through Mendes to get to Aldo, the short notice stuff notwithstanding.

Conor has a few big wins on his resume. There’s no need to pretend that he faced a murderers row to earn a title shot though. He did an awesome job on that run, but it was most certainly a fast track.

It's supposed to be a fast track when you have multiple titles in another org. You saying Alvarez had a tougher path in going 2-1 before his shot?

Ironically enough, losing to The Cheap Tent. Then earning 2 decisions. Conor knocked out 4 people.

 

[ferrisjso]

Obvious issues have been pointed out and countered by many people with far superior knowledge. Rogan, Luke Thomas, Josh Thomson, Conor, etc etc.

1) "Cerrone folded like a cheap tent" - The implication that he capitulated or "folded" mentally. He's come from behind in several fights, including world title fights. He was hurt by Guillard early, who started fights fast like Conor, with even more power for his size. Came back and starched him. He was hurt badly several times by Matt Brown and came back to win by KO. He was coming back to beat Jamie Varner for the WEC lightweight title before Varner faked an injury from a grazing illegal knee. He even had his best round against Nate Diaz "the cardio monster" in the 3rd, after getting his ass kicked for 2 rounds.



2) "Cerrone folded in his first Pay Per View Event". As was stated, he has obviously fought on ppv cards, fought in main events, and fought for world titles. "First PPV Headliner" is a distinction I don't even know Stephen A understands.



3) "We didn't learn anything about Conor". We learned that he can break a nose and/or orbital with shoulder strikes. We learned that he is throwing head kicks with more of intent to damage than to just distract. We learned that he is still as comfortable as ever with the pressure to perform on the stage he creates. We learned that he is not "completely finished".




But the biggest issue with his statements in my opinion...

4) The constant repeating of "Conor did not show us that he could beat Khabib or JORGE MASVIDAL."

When the fuck did he ever have to show anyone that he could beat Jorge Masvidal? Jorge is not the champion. Jorge is not an unstoppable force. Jorge is not undefeated in 30 fights. He's not Khabib, or Usman. Jorge just showed up to this echelon, on a far more manicured path than anyone could ever say Conor took.

He caught an emaciated Darren Till, he beat what he described as an amateur bum in Ben Askren, and then he got a doctor's stoppage against Nate. Before that he was losing every other fight, and always going to decision, with his biggest win being none other than The Cheap Tent himself.

I guarantee Stephan A knows none of this, and just knows Jorge was the guy in the robe being discussed as a potential future opponent.

In isolation Stephen A's UFC performance was fine(besides the "we didn't learn anything", we didn't know Conor could KO an elite 155/170 guy, ESPECIALLY NOW, we did not know that). It's the context of him not knowing MMA and not knowing who Cerrone was. If you watched first take him and Max covering MMA was excruciatingly painful to watch(them calling Khabib his last name was the give away they didn't know what the fuck they were saying, it's like calling Giannis by his last name every time in a convo it sounds like you're reading a script someone prepared). There was thinking 36 is washed up cause it's washed up in the sports he watches, there was Khabib's last name it was just really weird to watch. I don't know how after that someone was like "damm we need to send Stephen A to the fight!"

He was right about Cerrone not showing up in big fights, he's won the most fights in UFC history yet has been to only one title fight those two facts require losing basically all his title eliminators to fit together. The way he told that correct narrative was annoying given the context. He messed up a few facts too(never being in this big a fight when he's fought for the title etc) but nothing I would have given a shit about if I thought it was an honest mistake or slip of tongue rather than him meaning every word.

 

[hillelslovak87]

Whenever Stephen A comes into your mind, throttle the fucker to death then go about your day.............

 

[Sakurabaism]

Conor's resume from his first 4 UFC fights, before Siver, is better than Jorge's whole career.

You got to post ur pic and drop ur cherry picked stat for the 1,000th.

Now tell me who Jorge beat that's better than Holloway and Poirier?

This is a very ridiculous notion Ken since those were not the same Poirier and Holloway that we see today.

 

[cann]

Basically just post the video Luke Thomas did on it, which goes over the points and much more from the OP's post.

 

[pacrossbow]

Obvious issues have been pointed out and countered by many people with far superior knowledge. Rogan, Luke Thomas, Josh Thomson, Conor, etc etc.

1) "Cerrone folded like a cheap tent" - The implication that he capitulated or "folded" mentally. He's come from behind in several fights, including world title fights. He was hurt by Guillard early, who started fights fast like Conor, with even more power for his size. Came back and starched him. He was hurt badly several times by Matt Brown and came back to win by KO. He was coming back to beat Jamie Varner for the WEC lightweight title before Varner faked an injury from a grazing illegal knee. He even had his best round against Nate Diaz "the cardio monster" in the 3rd, after getting his ass kicked for 2 rounds.



2) "Cerrone folded in his first Pay Per View Event". As was stated, he has obviously fought on ppv cards, fought in main events, and fought for world titles. "First PPV Headliner" is a distinction I don't even know Stephen A understands.



3) "We didn't learn anything about Conor". We learned that he can break a nose and/or orbital with shoulder strikes. We learned that he is throwing head kicks with more of intent to damage than to just distract. We learned that he is still as comfortable as ever with the pressure to perform on the stage he creates. We learned that he is not "completely finished".




But the biggest issue with his statements in my opinion...

4) The constant repeating of "Conor did not show us that he could beat Khabib or JORGE MASVIDAL."

When the fuck did he ever have to show anyone that he could beat Jorge Masvidal? Jorge is not the champion. Jorge is not an unstoppable force. Jorge is not undefeated in 30 fights. He's not Khabib, or Usman. Jorge just showed up to this echelon, on a far more manicured path than anyone could ever say Conor took.

He caught an emaciated Darren Till, he beat what he described as an amateur bum in Ben Askren, and then he got a doctor's stoppage against Nate. Before that he was losing every other fight, and always going to decision, with his biggest win being none other than The Cheap Tent himself.

I guarantee Stephan A knows none of this, and just knows Jorge was the guy in the robe being discussed as a potential future opponent.

And conor lost to a "skinny fat" nate diaz. What does that say about conor?

 

[ColombianFist]

Cowboy choked because of the shoulder strikes that broke his nose again. It was a matter of time and... i can't believe i am writing this but i agree with Smith and i consider him a tool.

 

[Ken Fresno]

In isolation Stephen A's UFC performance was fine(besides the "we didn't learn anything", we didn't know Conor could KO an elite 155/170 guy, ESPECIALLY NOW, we did not know that). It's the context of him not knowing MMA and not knowing who Cerrone was. If you watched first take him and Max covering MMA was excruciatingly painful to watch(them calling Khabib his last name was the give away they didn't know what the fuck they were saying, it's like calling Giannis by his last name every time in a convo it sounds like you're reading a script someone prepared). There was thinking 36 is washed up cause it's washed up in the sports he watches, there was Khabib's last name it was just really weird to watch. I don't know how after that someone was like "damm we need to send Stephen A to the fight!"

He was right about Cerrone not showing up in big fights, he's won the most fights in UFC history yet has been to only one title fight those two facts require losing basically all his title eliminators to fit together. The way he told that correct narrative was annoying given the context. He messed up a few facts too(never being in this big a fight when he's fought for the title etc) but nothing I would have given a shit about if I thought it was an honest mistake or slip of tongue rather than him meaning every word.

This is the larger point i was making about his comments, that the bias against Conor won’t allow people to see, or accept. There is just a clear lack of knowledge about the subject. And it was basically a guy reading a script and inserting sound bites and sports cliches.

The biggest clue to me was continuously mentioning Khabib and Masvidal in the same sentence, as if they have parallel careers and statuses in the sport. And ya, saying “Nurmagomedov” as many times as he did was another huge clue.

You just shouldn’t have that little knowledge about what you’re watching and make character judgements based on the results.

This is a very ridiculous notion Ken since those were not the same Poirier and Holloway that we see today.

It was obviously the same Conor though...

They had more UFC fights than him at the time. Odds would be in favor of him improving more than them since then.

Implying they’ve improved and he hasn’t is the only ridiculous notion here.

 

[Ken Fresno]

He won the second round against Nate on 1/3 scorecards (I thought he won it) and lost the third on all of them (I think he lost it) but other than that you're correct

Let's just be grateful we only have to ignore the SAS and Skip Bayless's of the world occasionally in MMA instead of all the time like other sports

I would accept that correction



.....if Adelaide Byrd didn’t score the fight

 

[TGArthur]

SAS always has an extreme opinion on sports. That's what makes him popular because there is no PC response with him which attests his popularity and also leads to a lot of enemies as well.

No doubt Connor cause serious damage in a short amount of time for his fight at 170 and dispatched him surprisingly fast,

That being said SAS pointing out how uncharacteristic of Cerrone to take a bunch of unanswered shoulder shots and minus a weak kick not even put up a fight. I don't think is completely out of the ordinary.

 

[Shaddows]

Obvious issues have been pointed out and countered by many people with far superior knowledge. Rogan, Luke Thomas, Josh Thomson, Conor, etc etc.

1) "Cerrone folded like a cheap tent" - The implication that he capitulated or "folded" mentally. He's come from behind in several fights, including world title fights. He was hurt by Guillard early, who started fights fast like Conor, with even more power for his size. Came back and starched him. He was hurt badly several times by Matt Brown and came back to win by KO. He was coming back to beat Jamie Varner for the WEC lightweight title before Varner faked an injury from a grazing illegal knee. He even had his best round against Nate Diaz "the cardio monster" in the 3rd, after getting his ass kicked for 2 rounds.



2) "Cerrone folded in his first Pay Per View Event". As was stated, he has obviously fought on ppv cards, fought in main events, and fought for world titles. "First PPV Headliner" is a distinction I don't even know Stephen A understands.



3) "We didn't learn anything about Conor". We learned that he can break a nose and/or orbital with shoulder strikes. We learned that he is throwing head kicks with more of intent to damage than to just distract. We learned that he is still as comfortable as ever with the pressure to perform on the stage he creates. We learned that he is not "completely finished".




But the biggest issue with his statements in my opinion...

4) The constant repeating of "Conor did not show us that he could beat Khabib or JORGE MASVIDAL."

When the fuck did he ever have to show anyone that he could beat Jorge Masvidal? Jorge is not the champion. Jorge is not an unstoppable force. Jorge is not undefeated in 30 fights. He's not Khabib, or Usman. Jorge just showed up to this echelon, on a far more manicured path than anyone could ever say Conor took.

He caught an emaciated Darren Till, he beat what he described as an amateur bum in Ben Askren, and then he got a doctor's stoppage against Nate. Before that he was losing every other fight, and always going to decision, with his biggest win being none other than The Cheap Tent himself.

I guarantee Stephan A knows none of this, and just knows Jorge was the guy in the robe being discussed as a potential future opponent.

LOL
how hypocrite can you be?

1) Cerrone folded like he did many times.
BEFORE THE FIGHT, most people commented Cerrone has his worse showings when holofites are on him. And that is a fact.
If you give him space, then he recovers. But if you put pressure on him? If you bully him?? He folds ! And that is a KNOWN FACT.

2) your assumption of what he knows or not is irrelevant.

3) We didn't learn anything from Conor. Conor was not put in any defensive position. Conor was not hit.
We expected a war. Conor made it a quick sparring show.
He got a point.

4) Don't play dumb. Conor fought at WW exactly because he wants Masvidal's belt.
What started it all was Dana claiming COnor was too small to fight Masvidal.

And then you try to claim how Masvidal got easy path?
How about COnor getting a title shot after beating the ranked #13 FW in Siver?
Or how about a LW title shot without ANY LW fights?
And then another undeserving title shot against Khabib?
and now? a title shot after beating a guy who lost his last 2 (now 3) fights? How stupid is that???

Sorry, but any way you look at it, your points are just an asinine attempt to defend a guy who's been a schill throughout his career.

And let us not forget the fact that Stephen (at least) deal with other sports through his career.
Rogan is a fucking comedian. MMA is just his side gig.
And while it was easy to think Rogan was the "Know it all" while he was with Goldie, now that he has actual fighters in the booth, you see how wrong he is most of the time.

So please spare me with this BS.

 

[ferrisjso]

This is the larger point i was making about his comments, that the bias against Conor won’t allow people to see, or accept. There is just a clear lack of knowledge about the subject. And it was basically a guy reading a script and inserting sound bites and sports cliches.

The biggest clue to me was continuously mentioning Khabib and Masvidal in the same sentence, as if they have parallel careers and statuses in the sport. And ya, saying “Nurmagomedov” as many times as he did was another huge clue.

You just shouldn’t have that little knowledge about what you’re watching and make character judgements based on the results.



It was obviously the same Conor though...

They had more UFC fights than him at the time. Odds would be in favor of him improving more than them since then.

Implying they’ve improved and he hasn’t is the only ridiculous notion here.

Yeah I don't think he gets divisions and that Masvidal and Khabib are different paths. Then again to be fair in boxing(which he knows better and likely uses to form his MMA opinions) that game of musical chairs is reality so that's probably from his decades of watching boxing pretend divisions didn't exist. Seems like he's using boxing logic where Khabib and Masvidal are the two biggest "money fights"(and I guess they are?), not knowing that(for now) isn't how things work in MMA there's actually structure.

Tbf to Stephen A in the past he has been better than this and it once seemed like he was learning fast. He's still better than Max(who's boxing knowledge probably removes Stephen A's minimal self awareness he doesn't know what he's talking about assuming it crosses over, I imagine in the same spot Max would be even MORE confident arguing with Rogan and co cause he's an expert in something related) but damm he didn't know Cowboy was a star. Again I know Cowboy was technically a tune up fight(as in not for a title) but Stephen A didn't mean it that way, again technically right but you know he didn't mean it the same way. I get the sense Stephen A said Cowboy hadn't fought in big events cause he mainly watches the biggest UFC events and Cowboy has not been in one of those for years rather than actually knowing that.

And yeah the him calling Cerrone old and needing to retire when 36 is pretty unextraordinary in MMA tbh IMO is the worst thing he said. I mean Cerrone got KO'd by TONY two fights ago, it's not like he lost to some gatekeeper, that was the best opponent Cerrone fought in his entire career, Justin G's number FOUR. He was calling for Cerrone to hang them up even BEFORE the fight! There was no reason for that.

I still think Conor's overrated(given his hype versus results how could he not be?) af and I despise his fans who i remember calling him the GOAT as far back as 2014. But yeah he exceeded my expectations based on what I saw him do versus Nick Diaz(who unlike Cerrone would have been cut several times over on the merits if he wasn't a "star'). I did not think he could take that power to 170 and thought the only reason he got Eddie was cause Eddie was on an even bigger unfounded hype train coming from Bellator(that lawsuit and his revealed salary shows that they really made an investment in Eddie at the time). I still don't think he can touch Tony or Khabib though maybe his offical UFC ranking isn't nearly as insane as it seemed beforehand. Khabib beating him at standup in the early rounds(I guess Conor won the first, but not based on expectations) IMO still displayed clear superiority unless. And the whole idea fame got him cocky doesn't make sense cause he'd already gotten his bubble shattered by a lesser fighter in Diaz and it wouldn't make sense for him to approach the fight with anything but his best.

 

[laleggenda27]

Cowboy actually did fold. At the press conference before the fight, Cowboy acknowledged the perception that he can't win the big fights and said, "well MF'er, here's the biggest one, let's see." And he got finished in 40 seconds. Rogan, in his latest defense of Cowboy and criticism of Stephen A. Smith, even says, "Cowboy's had problems in the past with these really big fights. And he looked nervous as f*ck."

Simply put, Cowboy froze as soon as they clinched. Conor threw shoulder strikes and Cowboy just stood there. He didn't pummel. He didn't change levels for a takedown. He didn't throw anything back. He froze.