This 100%. If Nate ended him, Lawler would murder him. Conor simply will not be in the UFC anymore after that.
He was at MW out of laziness. He has the same reach as Conor.
How does he match up well with someone as durable as diaz but with way more punching power
You are oversimplifying too much. You're just saying "if top 5 LW beats Conor then WW champ definitely does". But it isn't as simple as that. Styles make fights. The big advantage Robbie has over Nate is TDD, and that's irrelevant against Conor. Nate has a reach advantage and better boxing than Robbie. He's the tougher fight than Robbie for Conor. Robbie is obviously more of a KO threat, but aside from that Nate's the tougher fight for Conor
My point exactly. He lost in a humiliating fashion against a LW with no camp and his only other fight at LW was a fluke win imo. Can you imagine against a WW with camp? Conor vs Hendricks would be a freak show lol. Would watch though. Conor barely made 167 and he must have drank gallons of water prior to the weigh-in. The hype machine blew his weight up, but he's just a LW. A abercrombie and fitch model --Kenny Florian
"relative to other top Welterweights". Everyone else is either a wrestler like Hendricks and Woodley or a striker with reach like Wonderboy and Condit or both of those things like Rory. That's why he matches up better with Robbie than other top Welterweights.
I don't think it was particularly humiliating. Look at Holm/Rousey for humiliation. Conor was winning for most of the fight. It sounds like you're overestimating the importance of weight classes. Hendricks' wrestling would be the problem for Conor; not the fact that he's a Welterweight. Nate's size is actually more of a problem because he's way taller and longer than Hendricks.
You haven't looked at the details of the fights. He survived against Anderson because Anderson is a counter-striker and Maia didn't engage him. Not because he took lots of shots and survived.
