So pretty much everyone makes these after they've rewatched fights trying to give some grand insight that's never been said before so I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give you a real as unbiased as possible review oh what I just rewatched. I'm a fan of Conors but I've also been a fan of Diaz and his brother since Nate was on TUF. "Stockton motherf*cker"
Sucks I have to preface the post like that though cause seriously most of the Conor Haters on this board get really hostile to anyone who likes his style and self belief. I know it rubs some people the wrong way but Christ.
First round:
So with all the said lets get into how the fight started. The first two minutes were the fighters just feeling themselves, Trying to gauge distance and pick shot selection. Conor threw some swinging punches a lot and Diaz made him miss.
Around the 3 minute mark the Fight starts to open up. Both men are landing, Diaz evades some shots but Conor lands aswell. But it wasn't until midway through the 2 minutes left on the clock when Conor starting landing big. Getting some nice shots in on Nate's face even cutting him open with a swiping left. I can see were Conor is coming from when he feels like he had Diaz hurt a bit in the end of the first. Conor was really popping him from the 2 minute mark until the end of the round. Diaz is still making him miss a lot, uses the clinch after Conor's spinning kicks that never seemed to really bother Diaz. If Conor goes with more traditional kicking shot selection but keeps low knee kicks and throwing some front kicks to Nates body he could have chances to score while keeping distance. Nate should be more sharp compared to the first fight though with his full camp. For all we know Nate's defense might be even better making it harder for Conor to land.
Between rounds it's pretty obvious Conor is already having some trouble catching his breath from the first and is already showing signs of fatigue. Now this can be attributed to multiple different things. Could be Conor has shit cardio, Could be Conor wasn't used to eating so much up to 170 to fight Nate after thinking he was fighting at 155 ten days out, Could be what Firas said idk. I do know he was clearly taking big breaths trying to recover.
The second round:
With the start Conor comes right out the gate and pushing the pace trying to out Diaz away early. I feel like Conor had to be aware he needed to put Diaz away soon or things might go bad for him. This is were Diaz deserves credit cause he didn't fold. He took some really hard shots and banged it out. All heart no denying it. It wasn't until 3:02 on the clock did Diaz land some Stockton slaps and start really landing. Between this time and 2:22 it was back and forth but Diaz slightly ahead. At the 2:22 point the first "1-2" bomb was dropped on Conor. Clearly Nate caught on the Chin and had him dazed. It really wasn't until this point did Diaz' volume really increase. I know the fight metric stats are thrown out there by haters to claim Conor got out box but it's deceiving. Nate landed MANY of his shots from the time he initially hurt Conor to the time the landed the second 1-2. Between the clock time of 2:22 until 1:16 Diaz was crushing Conor with the jab and was teeing off. At 1:16 Diaz landed the other big 1-2 which caused Conor to shot for the TD. The fight ends quickly after that.
Afterthoughts:
In retrospect the fight barely took place on the ground and the 30 or less seconds it was in the second Conor was already dazed. Hard to really take away anything of substance to draw conclusions about Conors BJJ. Nate gets most of his subs this way. Fatigue for whatever reason definitely caused the fight to turn to diaz' favor. Conor can win the rematch and so can Nate. The first fight was a fun one regardless. So much action and a bloodly brawl. This fight as 2 million plus views on YouTube. Crazy.
Rematch Prediction:
Conor has been talking a lot how he has been obessed with this rematch. First time around I don't think he took Diaz to seriously. There were a lot of contributing factors to the first fight that I don't think play out the same way making the rematch an entirely new fight. Conor has known for months he is fighting Diaz at 170. Training just for Nate. Again I dont know what was up with Conor's cardio but if he can go atleast 4 rounds at a solid pace he can get the TKO. The majority of the gifs everyone loves to post is from 3 minute mark or below in the second. That's when Diaz started winning. With a better shot selection and cardio Conor can put Nate away. Nates tough as fuck but he's beatable.
Honestly tried to keep it as real as possible most will hate this or say TL;dr but yeah. Just my view on the fight. thanks for those that actually read.
