To me, it seems that you think speed/explosiveness and strength is the only thing needed in order to be considered a great athlete.
Aldo's movement is actually very, very basic. He moves like a lot of Muay Thai fighters do. When watching him strike, you can see that he is extremely forced (you likely don't even know what that means, but that's OK) and he overextends a lot as well.
I agree that he over-extends a lot with his punches
And yes, Aldo has amazing defensive wrestling, maybe the best in MMA. But it's not about being a great athlete that helps him stop the TD's, it's simply the fact he has perfect technique and his speed definitely does help him. Look at when he gets clipped by Chad Mendes by an uppercut when Mendes faked the TD. Aldo threw a punch but Mendes ducked right under and in like .3 of a second, Aldo already had his hands down in position to stop a TD, then Mendes came up with the uppercut.
Aldo matches up great with wrestlers and always have. Look at the guys from Nova Uniao, they're all very good at stopping TD's and it's not only because they're good athletes, they have great technique. They use their weight very well when someone shoots on them and the way they can move their hips is great as well.
Aldo's a terrific counter wrestler, he has some of the best takedown defence in the game. Alot of that is down to technique but you can't deny there is an enormous amount of athleticism involved as well
When it comes to overall movement, Aldo is very basic in that aspect. I'm not saying his movement is awful or something, it's just that overall, Conor's movement is better than his and you'd have to be completely blind, or simply just bias to not believe it.
I agree Conor has great movement, it's quite unique. Although Edgar has great movement as well and has utilised it against higher quality opposition
Conor is so smooth with his footwork. The way he cuts angles and counters, the way he leads and controls the distance so well, etc. He makes guys throw punches and he (Conor) is able to evade those strikes with his movement so well, making guys miss by like a fucking meter.
Yeah, I agree
Conor has shown that with his movement/ability to use angles while moving backwards is far better than Aldo. Aldo had a lot of issue with Mendes' forward pressure/aggression and combinations. Aldo got cut off near the fence quite a few times and many, many times he couldn't capitalize on Mendes' mistakes because of the way Mendes kept him on his heels.
I agree, Conor fights better on the back foot than Aldo
With Conor, the way he's able to cut angles, is far ahead of Aldo's. Nobody has been able to push him towards the fence and keep him cut off there. He's too good at moving his feet and cutting angles.
So far so good. Although if Aldo gets him retreating and lands a few leg kicks like he did with Frankie Edgar than it'll probably slow him down a fair bit
Conor's use of angles, his footwork/overall movement, is absolutely beautiful to watch compared to Aldo. Aldo's movement is very much like any Muay Thai fighter. The thing about Aldo is that he has much better boxing than most Muay Thai guys and Aldo actually does move his head unlike many Muay Thai guys.
Aldo is very basic with his striking. But it's worked for him so far. I've noticed that when Aldo expects a striking battle he really likes to take the lead and pressure the opponent but if he is expecting a wrestler to shoot he is far less willing to lead. Against Conor, without serious threat of the takedown he'll be aggressive
Aldo doesn't move his feet like Conor. He doesn't cut angles like Conor. He doesn't counter like Conor. He overextends almost every single time with the rear strike, which would be something Conor would take advantage with his step left, counter left, one of his go to attacks.
Yep, that's a real danger, although I imagine he'll be training to avoid Conor's most dangerous weapon
Conor's reflexes are also pretty amazing. Did you watch the tests they did on him? the people who did the tests on him were absolutely amazed with him. Calling him the, "elite of the elite" and that he's a rare athlete, he's the full package.
Yeah, they were cool, I would love to see other UFC featherweights do these tests for the purpose of comparison, maybe if we knew Aldo's reaction time etc. we could definitively say McGregor is a 'better athlete'
Conor has the speed, the strength, the reflexes, the movement, etc. He has it all.
Speed, reflexes, movement. I saw the tests for these, did they do a test for his strength as well? I'd love to see it. I would be honestly surprised if Conor was stronger than Aldo, or if he kicks harder or faster
And Siver didn't land a single TD on Conor. Conor's back didn't even touch the canvas, Siver shot for a TD and Conor fell but Siver only really had a hold of Conor's legs, which made Conor easily pop back up in less than a second and if you knew anything about Siver, you would know that he actually does have good TD's. He drives with his TD's very well and he times them very well, too.
His TD defence was super impressive. It was one of my worries about him but he proved he can pop back to his feet really well. But I wonder, is he able to do this in the later rounds when he is alot more tired?
Siver is no joke. He's criminally underrated on here. He's dangerous in all aspects and over the years, his wrestling has improved drastically.
People are talking about how "Siver took him down", even though in all the statistics you look at, is says Siver went 0-3 in TD's, and really, people should be talking about Conor's ability to pop back to his feet so quickly. The way Conor got back to his feet the way he did was much like Chuck Liddell. I'm sure you'll be an idiot and say it was nothing like that, but when Siver almost had him down, Conor was back to his feet quicker than Siver could even get any advantageous position whatsoever. That's pretty damn good.
I agree, it wasn't a takedown, Conor popping back up was impressive
Aldo is great in that aspect as well. His ability to pop right back up to his feet. It's not just exploding out of position, it's simply just perfect technique.
Wait, so when Conor does it, it's complete athleticism but when Aldo does it, it's technique. I think both men show elite athleticism in their TD defence
I'd like to see Aldo get the same tests on him that Conor got. Just to see how great of an athlete he is in terms of "science". Conor showed that he can do it all, each coming back with amazing results.
As I said above, I'd love to see this as well.
Conor's cardio is also much, much better than Aldo's. And that's another thing about being a good athlete.
Really? How did you work that out? Has Conor ever gone 5 rounds? Cause Aldo has, with some of the best in the division
Athleticism aside, Conor is going to beat Aldo. He's going to finish him within 3 rounds on the feet. His distance control is too good and Aldo has a tendency to overextend with the right hand, and if you overextend with the rear straight against somebody who is amazing at cutting the angle to the left and countering with the left, it's going to be bad for Aldo in that aspect.
Possibly, like I said I'm a Mcgregor fan and I would love to see him land that left straight. But Aldo's leg kicks, if he can get Conor backing up, and wrestling, if Conor is over aggressive, are two unique challenges for Conor. Especially in the later rounds
Aldo is known for taking educated rests and using short bursts on his opponents. Well, that's going to be very hard when Conor forces you to back up, and work the entire time by constantly defending strikes, whether it be punches, kicks, knees, etc.
Aldo is going to come in, strike with Conor, be losing, and them he is going to start looking for TD's because he's going to realize that Conor is better than him on the feet.
Soon, Conor will shut Aldo's eyes and he will open yours and everybody else's.
Conor McGregor is a better athlete and he is a better striker than Jose Aldo. He is going to light him up on the feet.
Inb4 a bunch of dummies say that Aldo will simply chop him down with leg kicks. Learn to match two fighters up from a stylistic standpoint, then talk to me.
EDIT: I guess Roy Nelson is an incredible athlete as well because most people can't take him down either. LOL.
