Did Conor McGregor Pass the "Wrestling Test"? Highlights / Breakdown by Brendan Dorma

[m22able7]

Based on what, your say-so? Even in the absence of body shots, a guy with a build and style like Mendes, which Conor even called him out on, is not very efficient in terms of stamina in a fight. He has to be in phenomenal shape to make it work.




Getting hit in the body will hurt you and take the fight out of you but his labored breathing is an obvious sign of cardio issues. There's a difference.

I don't think you have any sort of appreciation for the exertion that goes into fighting in MMA for even one minute. Normal people will gas after the first few exchanges. You don't fight at that level at your highest potential without being at your physical peak.

With Chad's body type he would still gass if he had a full camp against Conor due to Conor's pressure and always attacking not giving Chad a chance to rest even on the bottom.

But body shots are under utilized in MMA, there is a reason why they say hit the body and the head will follow it gasses people quick.

Another person who does a good job of using them is Fabio, he lands body shot early gets takedown beat on but all of a sudden his opponent gasses and he goes to town on them, and everyone is dumbfounded wondering how and criticizing his opponents gass tanks.

Max's has a good explanation as to why Chad gassed so fast and he is someone in the fight game who understands fighting at that stage.

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[Mike Schwartz]

No. Moving on.

This...he was rag dolled by Chad at will and held down...only escaped with a late sub attempt that he slip out of with sweat. He did not pass the wrestling test.

 

[m22able7]

This...he was rag dolled by Chad at will and held down...only escaped with a late sub attempt that he slip out of with sweat. He did not pass the wrestling test.

Then how do you explain Conor getting back to his feet several times in the first round when Mendes was fresher compared to the second and even escaping a crucifix.

 

[Wayweary]

With Chad's body type he would still gass if he had a full camp against Conor due to Conor's pressure and always attacking not giving Chad a chance to rest even on the bottom.

But body shots are under utilized in MMA, there is a reason why they say hit the body and the head will follow it gasses people quick.

Another person who does a good job of using them is Fabio, he lands body shot early gets takedown beat on but all of a sudden his opponent gasses and he goes to town on them, and everyone is dumbfounded wondering how and criticizing his opponents gass tanks.

Max's has a good explanation as to why Chad gassed so fast and he is someone in the fight game who understands fighting at that stage.

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Fabio's bodywork doesn't add up as quickly as the first minute. lol And he is fighting at a much higher weight class. You so desperately want it to be about Conor's success when it was clearly due to the short fight camp at least as much. I've seen that video, and I'm pretty sure that he's also said that it would have been a different fight if Mendes had a camp. Anyone that doesn't admit that is a blind nuthugger or is a promoter.

 

[Glad he ate her]

He didn't fail the wrestling test.

 

[tbulls123]

kicks and punches to body was a factor. I wasn't sure why people say he didn't connect on them. He did most of the time. But the wrestling test I didn't think Conor pass that test. He was good at scrambling but he got taken down most of the time. If he had stopped many of those, he would have pass that wrestling test. It was more of conor making the mistakes to allow him to scramble out. In the end, he beat a wrestler. But didn't pass the he can handle wrestlers now that he proved it.

 

[1nce Again]

i haven't seen a fight broken down this much since the chuck/wanderlei vid was played in it's entirety in slow motion where the creator of the vid actually counted the number of strikes each landed to justify why he though wand won.

what we don't know for sure and can only speculate upon the answer (usually the source of much debate and leads to the slinging of insults when certain opinions don't coincide with others):
-how affected was conor by his leg issue coming in to the fight?
-how affected was conor by having to switch up training for a completely different fighting style?
-how much better would mendes have been had he had a full training camp?
-was mendes uncharacteristically prematurely tired because of his lack of preparation time or was he tired because of conor's body work?
-what would a rematch look like given they both have full camps to prepare for each other?


things we do know definitely:
-conor landing lots of significant shots while standing. both head and body shots.
-mendes landed a few significant head shots while standing.
-mendes took conor down repeatedly without much trouble.
-mendes was able to maintain control on the ground and landed significant headshots-one of which resulted in cutting conor (not that the cut necessarily matters)
-mendes was able to pass conor's guard multiple times.
-conor survived mendes ground game.
-conor (t)ko'd mendes.


it was a competitive fight. there are a lot of unknown factors though. i think, despite a lot of those unknowns, conor proved himself to be deserving of his shot against aldo. as for the aldo fight...man-i just don't know. honestly, i can't call it.

 

[Hardkore]

Ground game isn't always wrestling. Imo his ground game was actually decent, but his wrestling was not. The way he defended the guillotine and the scrambles he got in shown his ground game was top notch. He defended a guillotine against the top guillotine guy in the FW division.

What?!? ground game top notch??

 

[Hardkore]

i haven't seen a fight broken down this much since the chuck/wanderlei vid was played in it's entirety in slow motion where the creator of the vid actually counted the number of strikes each landed to justify why he though wand won.

what we don't know for sure and can only speculate upon the answer (usually the source of much debate and leads to the slinging of insults when certain opinions don't coincide with others):
-how affected was conor by his leg issue coming in to the fight?
-how affected was conor by having to switch up training for a completely different fighting style?
-how much better would mendes have been had he had a full training camp?
-was mendes uncharacteristically prematurely tired because of his lack of preparation time or was he tired because of conor's body work?
-what would a rematch look like given they both have full camps to prepare for each other?


things we do know definitely:
-conor landing lots of significant shots while standing. both head and body shots.
-mendes landed a few significant head shots while standing.
-mendes took conor down repeatedly without much trouble.
-mendes was able to maintain control on the ground and landed significant headshots-one of which resulted in cutting conor (not that the cut necessarily matters)
-mendes was able to pass conor's guard multiple times.
-conor survived mendes ground game.
-conor (t)ko'd mendes.


it was a competitive fight. there are a lot of unknown factors though. i think, despite a lot of those unknowns, conor proved himself to be deserving of his shot against aldo. as for the aldo fight...man-i just don't know. honestly, i can't call it.

Not a good post, but great post. And complete objective I might add.

 

[m22able7]

Critics of the victory cite Mendes' lack of a full training camp, something McGregor says taught him another lesson.

"I learned that I never get it wrong," said McGregor. "I always predict correct. I predicted that I would KO [Mendes] inside two rounds. I bet a large sum of money and I won my bet. When I say I will put someone away in whatever time in whatever manner I say, it will happen. That's what happened. I went in there, lit his body up and I put him away.

"Yet, you have supposed veterans and professionals of the game, or experts, speaking about a full camp. It just made me realize how many bums and rookies there really are in this game. They can't understand that they have never seen clean body-shooting before like they saw in that fight. Myself and Chad understand where he was at in that position. He was shut down and he was broke."

At the end he added:
"Him and his whole team were praying for that victory so they would not have to face me. I ran out and butchered Chad's body in the knowledge that Jose would be looking with his sore ribs. I just see a fighter who has broke. I hope we can get him to show up, but we will see. All I know is what I knew July 11. I will be there and I will be victorious."

 

[GoldenAzazel]

What?!? ground game top notch??

Grappling with the #1 ranked FW in the world and escaping from bottom and crucifix, creating multiple scrambles, and not only defending but escaping to your feet from their best submission. Seems pretty top notch to me.

 

[MarleyLynx]

The short answer is Yes. The sherbro answer is no.

 

[Hardkore]

Grappling with the #1 ranked FW in the world and escaping from bottom and crucifix, creating multiple scrambles, and not only defending but escaping to your feet from their best submission. Seems pretty top notch to me.

Was controlled pretty easily while taking damage, was he able to scramble and defend the choke, because of skill or Mendes gassed? That's what I want to know.

 

[old_skula]

Edgar + Conditioning + McGregor = Take downs all day long.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

Was controlled pretty easily while taking damage, was he able to scramble and defend the choke, because of skill or Mendes gassed? That's what I want to know.

I guess we would have to see a rematch to find out, but imo grappling like that while having a bad leg injury against the 2nd best FW in the world shows that his grappling is pretty great.

 

[Zefram Cochrane]

he didn't

 

[thx113x]

Conor beat a wrestler with one leg and who cares about Conor's wrestling skills

Oh so when Mendes and Aldo claim injuries it's an excuse. But when McGregor claims he had an injury it's a valid reason for his lack of wrestling and ground game. At least Aldo had some kind of proof he was injured. McGregors proof was "his coach said so".

He got taken down and outwrestled by Siver as well who's not exactly an incredible wrestler.

 

[Wayweary]

Grappling with the #1 ranked FW in the world and escaping from bottom and crucifix, creating multiple scrambles, and not only defending but escaping to your feet from their best submission. Seems pretty top notch to me.

Escaping from implies he made the mistake of getting there. If Mendes had better cardio for that fight, he'd have had to escape more often (and with more difficulty) than he did, or less often, as the case may be...

 

[GoldenAzazel]

Escaping from implies he made the mistake of getting there. If Mendes had better cardio for that fight, he'd have had to escape more often (and with more difficulty) than he did, or less often, as the case may be...

I'm not saying he's the best in the world but he clearly held his own. Imo Mendes also gassed from the body shots, but it's all speculation really and we'd have to see a rematvh to know for sure.

 

[Wayweary]

I'm not saying he's the best in the world but he clearly held his own. Imo Mendes also gassed from the body shots, but it's all speculation really and we'd have to see a rematvh to know for sure.

The body shots probably didn't help matters, but his whole fight approach had to change in such a way that made him more susceptible to strikes. He had to conserve his already limited supply of energy and cardio. And it was fading fast. His breathing was becoming labored. He could explode somewhat, but he would need to recover afterwards. It was pretty obviously a low gas tank issue but Conor nuthuggers don't want to even concede that as a valid contributing factor. For them, it has to all be about the body shots because that best serves Conor's image; it can't be both.