Ok, so what tournament has he competed in or won?
You do understand that what you do in the gym is not the only thing that goes with belt progression yes?
Also, he just received the black belt...when has he been training?... between sexual assaults?...coke binges?
Come on man, I get that you like him but how far are you gonna stretch to make him fit the suit you're trying to put him in?
Listen here now buddy. I need to have a talk with you. You're arguing against dorks who don't know what they're looking at, but Conor did not show bad grappling against Nate or Khabib. To assert that shows a lack of understanding of grappling as an art. More on that in a minute. I want to start out by asserting that you do
not have to be Maia, Shields, Fabricio, Big Nog, Mir, Charles, etc. to receive a black belt in BJJ. The minimum threshold for achieving that rank is much lower than being a world champion, otherwise there'd be no black belts around anyway.
One: you do not have to compete to get a black belt, or any belt in BJJ. Some schools "require" it, but a lot of schools don't and for good reason. I'd just offer up to you that Conor's net worth alone makes it silly for him to compete in a BJJ competition. Beyond that, though, this thing you're propagating about tournaments being used for belt promotions is just sanctioned sandbagging. If you're a blue belt, and you go and wreck everyone in your tournament and the next day are handed a purple belt, you were a purple belt fighting blue belts. I've never liked schools that promote that way, personally, but in any event this isn't necessity.
Two, about the fighting the hands comment made earlier and in general asserting that Conor showed poor grappling in his MMA fights:
In Conor v. Diaz 1:
First, let's just address that Conor swept Nate fucking Diaz, who had been a Cesar Gracie black belt for 4 years by the time they fought. That's not nothing -- he did a legit BJJ sweep from SLX (maybe curu curu) guard. On a Cesar Gracie black belt. While he was still 7 years from getting
his black belt. That alone let a lot of people know Conor's grappling acumen was legit.
Subsequently, Conor, while rocked and gassed, defended the guillotine from Nate Diaz very well. Impressive in my book. He monitored the hips/legs of Nate, got on top and scrambled well to get out of the danger. Nate can guillotine a rhinoceros lol.
After that, Nate eventually takes his back after a side control/mount transition by using ground and pound in every position to make Conor have to adjust position. Nothing technically out of place. At the end, Nate got hooks and flattened Conor out almost instantly and put all of Conor's weight on his arms that he was trying to use to turtle and stand up. That's an intentional technique of weight distribution, because it means you have neck access without having to fight hands. It's also part and parcel to the high level grapplers in Stockton and Lodi -- they use this sequence a lot and have for years.
Once he got the choke, Conor dropped a hip and attempted to go the correct direction to get his back flat to the mat (remember, rocked and gassed, at that), which required the use of his hands to basically do a push up to get room for him to turn his hips/shoulders to get his back to the mat. Conor had no time or ability to use his hands to "fight the hands" on that last choke -- Nate got it tight and deep and Nate
is a higher level black belt than Conor. The alternative was fight the hands, maybe successfully defend the choke but get punched 15 times and have no way to defend them. And please note this is when Nate was a 4 year Cesar black belt, Conor was still 7 years away from even getting his less prestigious black belt.
In Conor vs. Khabib:
Conor was carrying all of Khabib's weight at the time of the choke. He reached to fight the hands and immediately was aware that he was going to faceplant with Khabib on his back. Khabib didn't give him an avenue of escape with that crank/choke combo. While Conor had nothing for Khabib off his back offensively (who does/did/could?), Conor defended multiple submissions and was constantly moving his hips and creating avenues of escape off of his back. Khabib is the superior overall grappler, but Conor grappled well against a clearly more skilled grappler -- including getting up, stopping takedowns, defending submissions that were 3/4 set up, etc.
Okay, I realize this is a novel. and I apologize.
But you've been ITT a long time arguing Conor doesn't deserve a BJJ black belt while dudes like Danaher, Gordon Ryan, Rogan, Bravo, and other black belts on social media actually comment positively on Conor's grappling skills. What's odd is that yourself and others I see denigrating Conor for getting a black belt never comment on what belt in BJJ you think he should have. Blue? Purple? Brown? Because none of ya'll have any acumen to assess what skill level he's at, and, you're right he doesn't compete (and he shouldn't). In instances such as this, I'd typically defer to some more knowledgeable folks -- coaches and highly successful practitioners. And sorry, not the 7 year white belt that trains once a week who has an informed opinion on it. No offense, but as the lack of expertise goes up, so does the variance on the assessment of Conor's worthiness. As the expertise rises, so does the general acceptance that he's earned his belt and he has chops.
All of this to finally come full circle and say that I've personally heard Nate Diaz comment positively on Conor's grappling and the very impressive training partners he goes with (such as Gunnar Nelson). If you have a different opinion than guys like Danaher and Gordon, I'm going to safely side with their analytics and input while forming my own opinion. Cheers m8
Dude, you’re thinking MMA is the same as BJJ. And it’s not. Also, I never once said he was awesome.
He’s been training it long enough that it’s not a ridiculous stretch he’s achieved the status of black belt which, if you train and travel and see gyms around the world, has a crazy variation level.
It shouldn’t, but it does.
The black belt who ran the gym in Shanghai I rolled in, while great at BJJ, was not nearly as good as the one who ran the gym I rolled at in the UK who was not nearly as good as the one who ran the gym I rolled at in Canada. I’d often pop into gyms on my travels because it was fun and the BJJ community is super awesome and I always noticed the variation of skill level amongst players of the same belt level.
I can’t stand Conor and I’ve rooted against the fucker since Aldo. But a lot the dismissiveness about the nature of his black belt is rooted in hatred for the guy. And I’m trying to be fair, sir.
Your experience is valid. I've been coached by over a dozen BJJ black belts from different lineages and there were some that were clearly next level (Cesar's system) and then there was some weird variances in where their skillsets differed, such as when I went to a school where their BJJ black belts were also all Judo blackbelts. rolling with dudes from Faber's gym wasn't the same as Nick's gym wasn't the same as Xtreme Couture dudes wasn't the same as....etc etc
Almost nobody that I've read itt has any fucking idea what they're looking at in context to grappling other than the extremely basic stuff that's the equivalent of "wow that guy can kick high" or "that guy has a lot of power." Conor wasn't awarded an ADCC Gold medal, he was awarded a belt promotion that he obviously meets the qualifications for after even a cursory overview of absolute experts assessment of his skills and his movement inside the octagon. For fuck's sakes, people who train a couple hours or so a week get black belts in 8-12 years at most. Conor's started when he was 16. Give me a fucking break.