Is it fair to say Conor initiated this prevalence of ducking and cherrypicking in MMA?

In all my years of following the sport, I cannot remember a period in which so many actual champions were so openly ducking the toughest fights available. Bisping, Johnson, the Dutch girl - it just all seems to have coincided with Conor's rise, which has seen him effectively put two weight divisions at a standstill at one point and desperately chase a retired boxer instead of defending his title against the most deserving contender in his division right now. It seems more and more fighters are seeing how much they can push their luck with the new management as a result of how much they've enabled Conor's behaviour thus far.

It's a bad look for the UFC and been a very poor year for them. They always compared themselves with boxing and prided themselves on delivering the best fights, something boxing has often been guilty of failing to deliver fans. The irony is, boxing has actually been providing top quality matchups this year and the ducking and cherrypicking seems to have shifted over to the UFC.

As a fan, let's hope Conor stops insulting the integrity of the sport and the fans intelligence of its fans and actually starts behaving like an actual champion, as opposed to some meaningless belt collector. Maybe then the rest of the sport can follow suit.

 

No.

 

Yes.

 

I remember when Tito tried to duck Chuck for the longest time...and ended up taking his ass whoopings anyway. GSP ducked Silva, but he was in a higher division so I guess that's not all that bad.

 

Rubbish. The only fighter Conor has ducked is Ferguson. He's fought the toughest challengers up until now, even jumping up in weight for them. MMA fighters have been ducking fights long before Conor and will continue to do so.

Also since we're talking Conor, Mayweather has probably ducked more boxers than anyone in the history of the sport.

 

He's the only one that pulled it off successfully

 

Yes

But also ufc.

 

Yes.

 

NO

 

... and Silva ducked Jon Jones, and Jon Jones ducked HW.

 

Conor hasn't ducked Ferguson, yet. The Mayweather fight is huge, he'd be an idiot to turn it down if it's actually available.

For him to duck Ferguson he would have to have an MMA fight with another LW less deserving than Ferguson. I wouldn't call fighting Woodley at WW ducking either.

 

Tito dodged Chuck of course. Alot of contract disputes randy refused to defend vs. big nog ect.

Rashad actually dodged Rampage, but then got shadfaced by machida.
Matt hughes dodged young up and comers after he beat serra, huge hughes fan saying this.
Bisping dodged everyone by taking a fight vs. 46 year old Hendo.
Bisping also dodged guys like Rich Franklin and Aland Belcher or maybe the UFC wanted to keep UK"s cash cow away from them.

 

It's almost like you've never heard of Jacob Ortiz

 

Conor cherrypicks the hardest opponents imaginable or non imaginable.

 

At least Conor showed that he's willing to challenge himself.

If all the fighters where ducking like Conor, we would've watched prime GSP vs prime Silva, Silva vs Jones, Rousey vs Cyborg, maybe Jones vs Cain etc.

Going after money fights doesn't have to be all bad

 

Conor does not duck.

 

So we blame Conor for going after moneyfights? For wanting to support his family. Do you Seriously think anyone fights for the honor? If you don't like the matchups, blame the UFC.

 

yer, conor is the reason that "mighty" mouse would rather the UFC scrap the 125 division than face Dillashaw

 

This argument usually comes down to three points.

1. Accepting a nightmare matchup in Chad Mendes on short notice instead of a nightmare matchup in Frankie Edgar.
2. Not giving a rematch to the guy he KO'd in 13 seconds.
3. Ignoring Tony Ferguson to box someone 100 times more difficult.

 

Which top 5 Heavyweight called out Jon? He didn't duck anyone, he even called out then-champion Cain Velasquez after he beat DC. His issues after that is why he never moved up to HW.