Could the secret to out-striking McGregor be simply walking him down?

[bambammccoy]

Brimage walked him down and pressured the shit out of him and is primarily a striker and a heavy hitting one at that.

He didn't want to give Conor any space to time a counter. But Conor just threw too many strikes perfectly made for a short stocky pressure fighter, snap kick to the body and face, bolo punch, The famous Arlovski combination of uppercut to lift the head up, straight punch after the uppercut made the head a target.

 

[BadJuju]

Not many can do what Nate did. Nate got dropped how many times in 2 fights.

He is one of the toughest LWs. Others would be finished using this tactic.

In 2 fights? It was only in the second fight.

 

[Make Sherdog Great Again]

Yes it's that simple. You've cracked the code TS.

 

[Rear Nakey]

Nate showed the game plan to beat Conor. First, make him gain 20 pounds in the middle of a weight cut and have him fight a couple weight classes higher than he is used to. Then, make him gas out by taking a life-altering beating to your face. It only works once though.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

I will tell you something with certainty Natural Born Rimmer. There is no one and hasnt ever been anyone with the skills in the UFC to do what Floyd did. This is a non argument.

I didn't compare any UFC fighter to Floyd, I simply said that employing his approach wouldn't be groundbreaking.

Shoulder rolling against the cage or ropes and not getting hit at all is something that only Floyd can do, that's what makes him special. Walking down a counter striker and smothering with a high guard isn't impossible, Nick Diaz is great at it, and as aforementioned, Paulo Costa seems to make a living with that approach. Even Cain Velasquez employs it to an extent, look at the JDS fights.

 

[FlowchartRog]

Not many can do what Nate did. Nate got dropped how many times in 2 fights.

He is one of the toughest LWs. Others would be finished using this tactic.

You’re overrating his power in a big way. As we saw against Floyd, and even little Paulie, he has no real raw power. He has good timing and accuracy, range and poise - and that combined with fighting enraged manlets with no chins and no defence has made his power look far better than it is.

I’ll hazard a guess any big solid 155 pounders like Kebab and Tony will take his shots just fine. They may get buzzed, they may get heavily outlanded and busted up on the feet, but there’s very little chance of them getting 1 punch ko’d.

 

[HerpDerp]

To me, the entire premiss of this thread is faulty to begin with. "Simply" walking him down? I think you're going to have to provide us with the how instead of the what in order for this thread to have any substance behind it.

 

[jeremyemilio]

I know it sounds ridiculously easy, and I understand that it definitely isn't, but I genuinely think fighters give way too much respect to Conor's hands. We've not seen one fighter tuck the chin and walk him down, take away his range, throw hooks in close and try to nail him.

Nate has underrated power, but he's not exactly a power puncher, he throws arm punches a lot of the time, he's a true volume puncher. Chad Mendes did try to implement this plan a bit in their fight but his stamina just couldn't hold up and he was considerably shorter than Conor, very tough to get in close with those T-Rex arms.

I know it was a boxing ring and I understand that the gloves are smaller in terms of your ability to guard, but I think Floyd showed a blueprint of how to get to him in boxing exchanges.

I agree with Conor, he's very tough to beat at range, and that really is his method of victory most times.

I would love to see someone go full Paulo Costa on him and just walk him down with true power shots, smother his shots and get in tight. Would be fascinating to see how he would react to that gameplan.

This is basically how Chael "solved" Anderson. Trouble with guys like Anderson And Conor is that you get hit while you're doing this. Hard. You're covered up, your chin in tucked, and so you have a much better chance to weather those shots, but it still hurts and it still scares the shit out of you and so it's tough to keep it up full time, and then the minute you blink, POW, right on the kisser.

 

[-Magua-]

I know it sounds ridiculously easy, and I understand that it definitely isn't, but I genuinely think fighters give way too much respect to Conor's hands. We've not seen one fighter tuck the chin and walk him down, take away his range, throw hooks in close and try to nail him.

Nate has underrated power, but he's not exactly a power puncher, he throws arm punches a lot of the time, he's a true volume puncher. Chad Mendes did try to implement this plan a bit in their fight but his stamina just couldn't hold up and he was considerably shorter than Conor, very tough to get in close with those T-Rex arms.

I know it was a boxing ring and I understand that the gloves are smaller in terms of your ability to guard, but I think Floyd showed a blueprint of how to get to him in boxing exchanges.

I agree with Conor, he's very tough to beat at range, and that really is his method of victory most times.

I would love to see someone go full Paulo Costa on him and just walk him down with true power shots, smother his shots and get in tight. Would be fascinating to see how he would react to that gameplan.

I think it makes sense, but how many have the ability to go vibranium Costa style against Connie, at 145/155?

 

[jeremyemilio]

You’re overrating his power in a big way. As we saw against Floyd, and even little Paulie, he has no real raw power. He has good timing and accuracy, range and poise - and that combined with fighting enraged manlets with no chins and no defence has made his power look far better than it is.

I’ll hazard a guess any big solid 155 pounders like Kebab and Tony will take his shots just fine. They may get buzzed, they may get heavily outlanded and busted up on the feet, but there’s very little chance of them getting 1 punch ko’d.

He only hit Floyd the once, and even that shot wasn't particularly clean. I don't understand why people think there's any information to be gathered from the Floyd fight about Conor's power.

 

[ImNotSurpisedDonks!]

Horrible idea. That's about as smart as Rumble deciding the way to prevent getting wrestle fucked by Cormier is to try and wrestle him. Don't confuse success against a totally gassed McGregor as walking him down. Floyd needed 27 minutes before he could start doing that with any real success, which is longer than an MMA championship fight.

 

[FlowchartRog]

Floyd did something very basic in there, I literally just rewatched the fight.

He's obviously a great fighter, but Floyd didn't outclass Conor necessarily, he made it his mission to get a stoppage and knew that he needed to fight that style. I think a half decent power puncher could take that approach and with some element of being able to cut a cage off, would have success with this approach.

Yup, Floyd fought the most basic fight of his entire career - like a plodding Mexican journeyman - as he knew that was all that was necessary to beat and stop Conor. Didn’t even need to use any of his resl skills.

Still, don’t underestimate how effortlessly elite Floyd’s defence, footwork, timing, accuracy, stamina and even power are compared to any UFC fighter in the world.

Overall you may have a point though - I could imagine the right fighter with a combo of chin, balls, stamina and power simply overwhelming Conor, taking away his range and busting him up. Fighters like that are rare though, it’s the ingredients for an elite pressure fighter.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

Horrible idea. That's about as smart as Rumble deciding the way to prevent getting wrestle fucked by Cormier is to try and wrestle him. Don't confuse success against a totally gassed McGregor as walking him down. Floyd needed 27 minutes before he could start doing that with any real success, which is longer than an MMA championship fight.

Floyd started doing that in Round 4 mate lol.

And no, a great plan would have been for Rumble to keep distance and try to land when Cormier advances, how you can compare this to wrestling DC is bizarre. What you're essentially saying is that there is no way or strategy to beat Conor on the feet. If he's not gassed, he's unbeatable on the feet and your only chance is a lucky punch or taking him down - in my opinion, that is bollocks. Nobody is unbeatable, Silva and St. Pierre proved that to you. Who would ever think that Chael Sonnen could stagger Anderson fucking Silva with a punch? Who ever thought that Hendricks would outbox GSP? There are ways of getting around people's weapons, Conor isn't this guy who has a force field around him where if you close distance you're instant KO'd, that idea is silly.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

I think it makes sense, but how many have the ability to go vibranium Costa style against Connie, at 145/155?

I think someone like Ortega has great pressure and someone like Max also.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

Brimage walked him down and pressured the shit out of him and is primarily a striker and a heavy hitting one at that.

He didn't want to give Conor any space to time a counter. But Conor just threw too many strikes perfectly made for a short stocky pressure fighter, snap kick to the body and face, bolo punch, The famous Arlovski combination of uppercut to lift the head up, straight punch after the uppercut made the head a target.

You didn't just bring up Marcus Brimage as an example did you?

 

[The Witcher]

I didn't compare any UFC fighter to Floyd, I simply said that employing his approach wouldn't be groundbreaking.

Shoulder rolling against the cage or ropes and not getting hit at all is something that only Floyd can do, that's what makes him special. Walking down a counter striker and smothering with a high guard isn't impossible, Nick Diaz is great at it, and as aforementioned, Paulo Costa seems to make a living with that approach. Even Cain Velasquez employs it to an extent, look at the JDS fights.

 

[FlowchartRog]

He only hit Floyd the once, and even that shot wasn't particularly clean. I don't understand why people think there's any information to be gathered from the Floyd fight about Conor's power.

His shots against Floyd were glorified arm punches, you could see it clear as day whether they landed clean or not, there was no power there.

Compare that with blocked shots from Cotto and Maidana which moved Floyd’s whole body, looked and sounded hard as fuck, or Pacquao who sent Floyd halfway across the ring with feints. It’s easy to gauge power whether shots land or not, you can see and hear the impact, and the opponent’s body language and reactions are a huge giveaway too.

Even Floyd confirmed Conor doesn’t hit hard and said Pacquiao - who started his career at 106 pounds - hits much harder.

Obviously boxers hit harder, and by UFC standards Conor’s power is better, but you’ll see when he fights solid 155ers his power won’t have anywhere near the same effect it did when he boiled down to fight little 145ers.

 

[-Magua-]

I think someone like Ortega has great pressure and someone like Max also.

Possibly.
I’m in accord with that.

 

[jeremyemilio]

His shots against Floyd were glorified arm punches, you could see it clear as day whether they landed clean or not, there was no power there.

Compare that with blocked shots from Cotto and Maidana which moved Floyd’s whole body, looked and sounded hard as fuck, or Pacquao who sent Floyd halfway across the ring with feints. It’s easy to gauge power whether shots land or not, you can see and hear the impact, and the opponent’s body language and reactions are a huge giveaway too.

Even Floyd confirmed Conor doesn’t hit hard and said Pacquiao - who started his career at 106 pounds - hits much harder.

Obviously boxers hit harder, and by UFC standards Conor’s power is better, but you’ll see when he fights solid 155ers his power won’t have anywhere near the same effect it did when he boiled down to fight little 145ers.

I don't disagree with most of this... but we do need to acknowledge that the reason Conor was throwing arm punches in that fight was that he simply couldn't connect. He was just trying to make contact without falling off balance into a hard counter. I'm not a delusional fanboy with regard to Conor's skill, but that's not how he usually punches. That's how he was punching against Floyd because he was so thoroughly outclassed that he had no other option other than to get KTFO while looking like he had the coordination of a toddler.

 

[chinarice]

I still don't think Nate really walked him down enough. Nate is the sort of guy who just follows his opponent, he doesn't use footwork to cut the cage off and he doesn't really come after you aggressively, he feels you out and then he plods forward in hope of getting you on the cage, he doesn't really "press the issue".

I'd be intrigued to see someone with a little more heat on their punches try to get in close and dirty box.

I don't think many outside of maybe Tony Ferguson could implement this strategy at LW without getting finished.