Is it possible that Conor is a better wrestler than he is leading people to believe?

He hit a nice take down on Nate in the first fight and wrestled Max a bit but I haven't seen enough of Conor's wrestling to say whether he's good or not.
 
YOLOGOGOPLATA said:
Oh I absolutely think his take down defense is Aldo/Woodley level. You're correct that he falls apart when his gas tank fails. When he is fresh he stops the take down and picks guys apart with his boxing. Khabib will test this theory more than any of his previous opponents (if it happens) IMO
Click to expand...
His TDD is on Aldo/Woodley level? Ha ha ha. Than Khabib's striking might be on Wonderboy/ Adesanya level?
 
He's shown to be a pretty good one, just not an elite one. He controlled Holloway with wrestling even with a torn ACL though, and he also outwrestled a BJJ guy like Nate Diaz at the end of the first round of their first fight, when he was still fresh. So he's no slouch, but he'd be smart to stay far, far away from the wrestling of a guy like Khabib.
 
I do think he's gonna surprise us. I doubted him in the Mendes fight tbh and he showed great ability to get back up.
I don't think we're gonna see him throwing triangles and armbars at Khabib but I think Khabib is gonna have a hard time getting the clinch and going for takedowns
 
Yeah im sure he didnt try his hardest, and purposly wrestle-failed against Diaz just so he can catch Khabib by surprise years later with his A+ level wrestling. He's actually a way better wrestler than DC.
He purposely got taken down by Mendes only to look bad because he's actually got better TDD than Whittaker. Just waiting to use it ahains Khabib years later.
He also lost to Mayweather and looked like a dildo in that fight on purpose because he wants to surprise Khabib with his swift combos.

Are you retarded?
 
Yes he’s actually a very good grappler. It’s just that he’s not good enough to hang with the fighters who specialize in grappling. I don’t know why everyone is twisting that into him sucking at it
 
Conor is skilled in every facet of MMA, he's just so good at striking and distance control that he almost never needs to use if, but its very apparent that he is no slouch if you actual play attention to his fights and not just remember the finishes.
 
The 2007 world championships were a joke. US team crushed the rest of the world as they sent in pros like Matt Horwish while other were part time sportsmen.
 
YOLOGOGOPLATA said:
But I honestly do think his TDD is elite. He just slows down so quickly, I think he has the worst cardio in the top 5 of the LW division. The biggest question in that hypothetical fight is if Khabib can avoid the big shots for 2 whole rounds. That's a lot to ask. Khabib needs to be able to make Conor work (IMO) for the first 2 rounds and if he survives that he should be able to pound him. So many variables, which is exactly why I want to see Conor/Khabib more than any other matchup
Click to expand...
I'm not concerned with Conor's Cardio, there have always been mitigating circumstances when Conor has gassed, people talk about him only having 8 minutes in him but if you look at his fight with Eddie he was as fresh as a daisy when he finished him, there was no signs he was even remotely ready to gas.

The gassing stigma really only comes from 2 fights, Mendes when he really should have pulled out of the fight due to numerous health issues and Diaz where he moved up 25lb in a couple of months and made the error of thinking he could blow him out the water...

I don't think he's a cardio machine just that it greatly exaggerated.

Also Khabib has gassed himself on occasion.
 
He is not a very good wrestler/grappler, he's average in those areas at best including TDD.
 
HAWTRIDDUM said:
noticed something interesting on Ricky Lundells IG page which I will get to.

For those of you not familiar with Lundell, he is a 3rd degree black belt under Pedro Sauer, 2 time champion at wrestling world championships, which is managed by United world wrestling, which oversees all wrestling at the olympics.
He was recruited by Cael Sanderson to wrestle for D1 school Iowa State at the age of 15, despite having zero folk or traditional wrestling experience, only submission grappling experience.
He went on to win the USA world team trials and became a 3X champion at the international submission wrestling world championships.
He has also trained with and trained quite a few UFC fighters over the years including Mir, Browne and Rousey.

Now that we have established his credentials in wrestling and bjj, I noticed in a post on IG that he mentioned defeating John Kavanagh in the finals at the wrestling world championships 11 years ago. Kavanagh also commented on the picture.
I found that surprising considering that Kavanagh is only known as a bjj grappler from the Machado lineage.



To make it to the finals of world championships must mean Kavanagh has to be a very accomplished wrestler.

Is it possible that Kavanagh has poured his knowledge into Conor’s skill set over all the years he has trained him, but they are purposely holding back until they had to face someone like Khabib?

Fighters like Holly Holm have claimed to use such tactics in the past, where she said she purposely fought conservative until she faced Rousey. Hard to say if true, but her and winklejohn said it.

Just found it interesting because I wasn’t aware that Kavanagh had a background in wrestling, let alone competed in world grappling championship finals.
Click to expand...

Conor has no doubt improved his ground game and wrestling in prep for Khabib, however, I'm not sure any amount of work will get him anywhere close to the level that Khabib is on with his lifetime of experience in grappling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,985
Messages
55,459,427
Members
174,787
Latest member
Freddie556

Share this page

Back
Top