Mcgregor actually looked good there. He was crisp, loose, and aggressive. Pulling the guillotine was a bad move, but even then, it was very tight for a moment. Dustin had to literally climb the cage (which i thought was illegal..?) to escape it. After that went south, mcgregor still managed to avoid any serious damage while being extremely aggressive off his back.
Dustin looked about the best he ever had though too, so hats off to him and it was a solid win. This is no knock on him at all. My point though, is that it's too early to write off mcgregor assuming he comes back in the same form. That version of Conor beats nearly every LW on the roster.
Just rewatched the fight:
- 1 of 6 of Conor’s kicks hit an advantageous target. The rest hurt him more than Dustin
- Dustin’s kick landed spot on the calf and buckled Conor. There was a LOT more of that coming in round 2. And a tired Conor would have had no answer for that
- Conor landed one punch. It did nothing
- Dustin landed 3 combos that had Conor searching for answers and he absolutely looked panic. Calm? No way
- 3 of Conor’s elbows landed from the bottom. In a row. But they had about 3 inches of working room so they were far more for show than productivity
- for those saying Conor avoided the GNP? Watch again. Dustin connected with about 6-7 completely unblocked shots. Than about 5 more direct ones that Conor snuck a hand or something in. His GNP was more productive than khabibs round 2
- Conor had a guillotine with 2 hands for about 1 second total. The rest was one handed, and never was even close to even restricting his breathing
- Conor went for the guillotine 4, count em, 4 times. I absolutely believe Kav when he says they trained it, because he looked like a second grade wrestler who only knows the headlock, spamming that one move over and over. It was actually ridiculous the 2 times he went for it late in the round
- when Conor got up, he look EXHAUSTED. He took a huge breath in and did the typical Conor mouth open whole body tense and release with one breath. For those that thought he had a chance in round 2, I am not sure what fight you were watching
-Dustin, who expended a ton of energy in GNP looked completely fresh walking back to his corner
it was not. 10-8, that came from the last knockdown and herb dean assisted survival. But it was a completely dominant 10-9 round
Conor reminded me a ton of Silva in Silva Weidman 2. He knew the stakes were super high and he was tight and there was no Conor head shaking, talking, waving the arms, etc. he was all business from the time he entered the cage