Nate's Southpaw stance will be a problem for Conor

[Mixedfights]

Dude...Nates nothing is going to pose no problem whatsoever.

Give me a break dude. Conor by murder.

 

[robjenkins2]

I have a feeling this will be the toughest fight of Conor's career.

 

[rjmbrd]

Brandao

Interesting note. Conor was the 6th guy to KO Brandao. In fact, Brandao was KO'd in his fight immediately prior to facing Conor. Getting KO'd is basically his signature move.

He's also 5'7"

...

Poirer at 5'9" and a much more respectable record is a fair example. He was already put away by Korean Zombie and lost to Swanson but a talented scrappy guy, albeit much smaller than Nate.

 

[robjenkins2]

Interesting note. Conor was the 6th guy to KO Brandao. In fact, Brandao was KO'd in his fight immediately prior to facing Conor. Getting KO'd is basically his signature move.

He's also 5'7"

...

Poirer at 5'9" and a much more respectable record is a fair example. He was already put away by Korean Zombie and lost to Swanson but a talented scrappy guy, albeit much smaller than Nate.

Porier was shook going into that fight, not to mention that he was cutting was too much weight and his chin was not good at 145.

 

[rjmbrd]

Porier was shook going into that fight, not to mention that he was cutting was too much weight and his chin was not good at 145.

I'm sure he was and I think Aldo felt the pressure too. This is prize fighting though and like all athletics (perhaps the most extreme example) your ability to show up when the music hits is everything.

Poirer has always been a guy willing to brawl if you feel like obliging a brawl. Not a good idea when your opponent hits much harder than you. He was the better wrestler and submission grappler if he used his head.

Conor shows up at 100% when the lights go on and that is a very big deal.

 

[Jedi Judah]

Im suprised no one is even curious about Conors gas tank at 170. Anyway, I'm just hoping both their chins hold up and they deliver us a war.

 

[bambammccoy]

IIRC both Diaz brothers are right handed but fighting in southpaw position (not leftie southpaws which McG fought before). That's something to keep in mind.

Defintely.

Nate is a jab heavy southpaw striking with volume and hidden power shots where as Conor is a traditional left handed southpaw having great set ups but ultimately looking for that kill shot.

Such a great stylistic match up. I hated it at first but this is should be a good one for sure.

 

[JayElectra]

Conor's lead hand game is tailored for MMA. He likes to hand trap a lot to remove his opponent's jab, anticipates the cross, slips and comes back with his cross. He smothers their lead hand and takes it away. He did this to Holloway, a taller lanky opponent and to many others (Buchinger, Mendes etc).

Yes and no. He didn't completely eliminate Holloway's lead hand as much as he was overwhelming with everything else he was offering with his left hand and left high kick. It's nitpicking to the extreme, but Holloway didn't offer much in that fight but circling away from Conor's left hand, and a lot of the work that Holloway did to nullfiy Conor's offense could have been circumvented with more varied work from lead hand. As I said before, nitpicking to the extreme as Conor was winning easily against a good striker, but his lead hand didn't really play much of a role past acting as a decoy.

He does have a good jab but like you said he mostly paws with it or throws it still in a pawing fashion to distract just before he throws his left cross or hook. Against Poirier he pumped a double feint off the lead hand as if he was going to jab to freeze Dustin up and then cracked him with that left hook that ended his night. Against Aldo the second strike Conor threw was his jab to the chest which pushed Jose back. He threw his left with no setup, Aldo slipped, Conor dipped with his chin tucked behind his lead shoulder and pushed him away with his jab to avoid the return fire and to create space. When he had Chad against the fence as he was going for the finish he used his lead right hook to cut off Chad's escape route to his left and to simultaneously steer him into a hard left body kick to his right.

Is that really showing a genuinely good jab or versatile lead hand in any of these cases? Not really. I mean, most people in boxing wouldn't consider the likes of Adonis Stevenson to have much of a lead hand past using to set up his left hand. Does that mean Adonis isn't a problem for most everyone around his weight? No, but he really doesn't do a lot with it past pawing, occupying his opponents lead hand, and occasionally using it as lead right hook to the head or body. It has been a real problem in the past when opponents have chosen to do everything in their power to simply avoid the left hand. Now, this comes back to the fact that McGregor could perhaps be the best striker in the world pound for pound (not saying he is, but he's certainly in the conversation) in MMA without much of a right hand. However, when he faces a bigger southpaw with a half decent right hand (and all of Nate's other qualities), I'm going to ask some questions.

I think we'll see Conor use his lead uppercut-left cross combination against Nate to get inside since we saw him use it plenty against Holloway along with hand trapping to take away Nate's jab. I wouldn't be surprised if Conor changes levels and jabs Nate to the chest a good bit either to stifle and potentially frustrate him. But I don't think this will just be an MMA boxing match, I think Conor will utilize his kicks as well, especially his lead leg lowline sidekick to keep Nate from advancing and to control range as he starts to walk him down, landing while also looking to counter off of Nate's offense. I'm sure we'll see some body shots too and not just to the chest with his lead hand but also his left cross to soften Nate up and open him up even more. Some low to high and maybe high to low attacks with kicks mixed in is what I think we may see and Conor likes to open with kicks, which Nate won't like. I don't think Nate will react well to Conor's linear leg kicks, switch kick to the body or his spinning back kicks which are aimed to the head and body (chest and stomach).

The kickin game will be interesting. I'm not one to claim I understand the kicking game much more than I understand it in terms of cutting of space and exposing poor positioning so take this all with a grain of salt. Against Poirier, I think Conor's kicking game didn't really impact the fight in any real concrete way (in fact, it was Poirier landing by far the better kicks if I remember correctly). When Nate has been exposed on the feet in the past, it has been with the kicking game of his opponents. I'm not sure if Conor's kicking game is going to play a massive role against a southpaw, all things considered, but I could easily be wrong. I think Conor is going to come straight forward and look for exchanges to exploit. No one will be more obliging than Nate, and he'll probably look to hurt him early (as he should, especially a guy who is light on sparring as of late). It's going to be interesting for thereon out. One would expect someone like Conor to hurt Nate early and often, but if Nate can get into the fight, things could really get interesting. He also doesn't have terrible takedowns from the clinch, and I think everyone acknowledges Nate poses real problems to Conor on the ground. It's a fight I'm looking forward to, all in all.

 

[Faceplanter]

Yes and no. He didn't completely eliminate Holloway's lead hand as much as he was overwhelming with everything else he was offering with his left hand and left high kick. It's nitpicking to the extreme, but Holloway didn't offer much in that fight but circling away from Conor's left hand, and a lot of the work that Holloway did to nullfiy Conor's offense could have been circumvented with more varied work from lead hand. As I said before, nitpicking to the extreme as Conor was winning easily against a good striker, but his lead hand didn't really play much of a role past acting as a decoy.

Is that really showing a genuinely good jab or versatile lead hand in any of these cases? Not really. I mean, most people in boxing wouldn't consider the likes of Adonis Stevenson to have much of a lead hand past using to set up his left hand. Does that mean Adonis isn't a problem for most everyone around his weight? No, but he really doesn't do a lot with it past pawing, occupying his opponents lead hand, and occasionally using it as lead right hook to the head or body. It has been a real problem in the past when opponents have chosen to do everything in their power to simply avoid the left hand. Now, this comes back to the fact that McGregor could perhaps be the best striker in the world pound for pound (not saying he is, but he's certainly in the conversation) in MMA without much of a right hand. However, when he faces a bigger southpaw with a half decent right hand (and all of Nate's other qualities), I'm going to ask some questions.

The kickin game will be interesting. I'm not one to claim I understand the kicking game much more than I understand it in terms of cutting of space and exposing poor positioning so take this all with a grain of salt. Against Poirier, I think Conor's kicking game didn't really impact the fight in any real concrete way (in fact, it was Poirier landing by far the better kicks if I remember correctly). When Nate has been exposed on the feet in the past, it has been with the kicking game of his opponents. I'm not sure if Conor's kicking game is going to play a massive role against a southpaw, all things considered, but I could easily be wrong. I think Conor is going to come straight forward and look for exchanges to exploit. No one will be more obliging than Nate, and he'll probably look to hurt him early (as he should, especially a guy who is light on sparring as of late). It's going to be interesting for thereon out. One would expect someone like Conor to hurt Nate early and often, but if Nate can get into the fight, things could really get interesting. He also doesn't have terrible takedowns from the clinch, and I think everyone acknowledges Nate poses real problems to Conor on the ground. It's a fight I'm looking forward to, all in all.

What I'm saying is that Conor's lead hand game is based mostly around trapping (more effective in MMA since the gloves are open) and throwing his left cross, which he does do effectively. He does have a jab but it is almost always pawing in his fights as we've discussed. I've seen him snap his jab good in practice but not really in any of his fights that I can remember. I can speculate as to why though. Aside from occupying his opponent's lead hand, he knows that if he does throw a jab he can be countered, a cross counter being the prototypical example. He has a left hand that he throws very fast with real power and no tell so he chooses to throw it without much of a jabbing game to set it up because he's so good at landing it anyway through his timing, tempo changes and feints. In the Mendes fight, he shoulder feinted and landed it or threw it by itself with no setup mostly. He was hand trapping Mendes but not as effectively as he's done in past fights (the Buchinger fight is a perfect example). If you asked Bas Rutten what he thinks of the jab in an actual fight, he'd tell you that it's useless, simply because you're throwing a strike that's less powerful (though quicker) in exchange for a potential counter that's often considerably more powerful. In MMA the jab is important but so is hand trapping since it frustrates opponents and they typically and predictably throw their rear power hand, which is already anticipated to slip and then counter.

As for McGregor's kicking, he's effectively used it against all types of opponents of different body types and stances. He landed a spinning back kick on Poirier early and to start the fight he opened with a hook kick which just missed IIRC. But, this gets his opponents thinking and on the defensive momentarily. For a long time he mostly just used his kicks to set up his boxing but now he's using his kicks to actually hurt his opponents as well. Nate's body will be open to these kicks and so will his liver (especially to punches, ie., hooks). Conor kicks effectively and can do damage with both linear and lateral kicks ranging from the legs up to the head. As much as Nate will likely want this to be a boxing match (if/when he can't get this to the ground), it will almost certainly be a kickboxing match on McGregor's end. We'll very likely see him looking to try and soften Nate up with body work (if not do him in), especially if Nate comes out with a high guard and elbows out, which will leave his ribs and liver exposed. Conor controls distance very well so I don't see Nate being able to engage him in the clinch easily at all, much less throw him (Conor is no doubt stronger, has a lower center of gravity with excellent balance and Nate isn't a very physical guy to begin with).

Maybe we'll see McGregor use his jab more, perhaps in other ways than just his usual pawing fashion. He may try and punch his way in to close the gap with his jab or he may find a different way to get inside of Nate's reach, which he has several other options to explore. It's an interesting fight but not one I'd call very competitive on paper. If Nate had really good takedowns then that'd be of some real concern to McGregor, but as it stands, he has scrappy rather unpolished boxing (consisting of a lot of monotonous 1-2's) with less than admirable fundamentals, a serious lack of ring/cage generalship, loose, rather sloppy footwork but great BJJ with a strong submission game.

 

[JayElectra]

What I'm saying is that Conor's lead hand game is based mostly around trapping (more effective in MMA since the gloves are open) and throwing his left cross, which he does do effectively. He does have a jab but it is almost always pawing in his fights as we've discussed. I've seen him snap his jab good in practice but not really in any of his fights that I can remember. I can speculate as to why though. Aside from occupying his opponent's lead hand, he knows that if he does throw a jab he can be countered, a cross counter being the prototypical example. He has a left hand that he throws very fast with real power and no tell so he chooses to throw it without much of a jabbing game to set it up because he's so good at landing it anyway through his timing, tempo changes and feints. In the Mendes fight, he shoulder feinted and landed it or threw it by itself with no setup mostly. He was hand trapping Mendes but not as effectively as he's done in past fights (the Buchinger fight is a perfect example). If you asked Bas Rutten what he thinks of the jab in an actual fight, he'd tell you that it's useless, simply because you're throwing a strike that's less powerful (though quicker) in exchange for a potential counter that's often considerably more powerful. In MMA the jab is important but so is hand trapping since it frustrates opponents and they typically and predictably throw their rear power hand, which is already anticipated to slip and then counter.

If we asked Bas Rutten how to box, we'd have a bunch of useless boxers. I get that occupying the lead hand and then hooking or jabbing off it is a real use of the lead hand. McGregor hasn't done it very much successfully against real opponents. More than that, he more or less hasn't shown a consistent jab against real opposition. With all that, he's still maybe the best boxer in MMA. He might not need any of it even if he is capable of it, but I haven't seen it yet, therefore I won't assume he has it.

As for McGregor's kicking, he's effectively used it against all types of opponents of different body types and stances. He landed a spinning back kick on Poirier early and to start the fight he opened with a hook kick which just missed IIRC. But, this gets his opponents thinking and on the defensive momentarily. For a long time he mostly just used his kicks to set up his boxing but now he's using his kicks to actually hurt his opponents as well. Nate's body will be open to these kicks and so will his liver. Conor kicks effectively and can do damage with both linear and lateral kicks ranging from the legs up to the head. As much as Nate will likely want this to be a boxing match (if/when he can't get this to the ground), it will almost certainly be a kickboxing match on McGregor's end. We'll very likely see him looking to try and soften Nate up with body work (if not do him in), especially if Nate comes out with a high guard and elbows out, which will leave his ribs and liver exposed. Conor controls distance very well so I don't see Nate being able to engage him in the clinch easily at all, much less throw him (Conor is no doubt stronger, has a lower center of gravity with excellent balance and Nate isn't a very physical guy to begin with).

If we asked Bas Rutten how to box, we'd have a bunch of useless boxers. I get that occupying the lead hand and then hooking or jabbing off it is a real use of the lead hand, but its a limited use. We have yet to see a real active and effective jab from Conor. He simply hasn't shown a consistent jab against real opposition, southpaw or orthodox. With all that said, he's still maybe the best boxer in MMA. He might not need any of it even if he is capable of it, but I haven't seen it yet, therefore I won't assume he has it.

Maybe we'll see McGregor use his jab more, perhaps in other ways than just his usual pawing fashion. He may try and punch his way in to close the gap with his jab or he may find a different way to get inside of Nate's reach, which he has several other options to explore. It's an interesting fight but not one I'd call very competitive on paper. If Nate had really good takedowns then that'd be of some real concern to McGregor, but as it stands, he has scrappy rather unpolished boxing (consisting of a lot of monotonous 1-2's) with less than admirable fundamentals, a serious lack of ring/cage generalship, loose, rather sloppy footwork but great BJJ with a strong submission game.

Maybe we will see Conor work his jab, and, more generally, his lead hand. We haven't really seen it yet. We could easily see it. Either way, I think this is a bit more interesting than most play it off to be.

 

[Faceplanter]

If we asked Bas Rutten how to box, we'd have a bunch of useless boxers. I get that occupying the lead hand and then hooking or jabbing off it is a real use of the lead hand, but its a limited use. We have yet to see a real active and effective jab from Conor. He simply hasn't shown a consistent jab against real opposition, southpaw or orthodox. With all that said, he's still maybe the best boxer in MMA. He might not need any of it even if he is capable of it, but I haven't seen it yet, therefore I won't assume he has it.

Maybe we will see Conor work his jab, and, more generally, his lead hand. We haven't really seen it yet. We could easily see it. Either way, I think this is a bit more interesting than most play it off to be.

Bas used to do bare knuckle and has been in many street fights. This is MMA, not boxing. MMA resembles more of a real fight or "street fight" than a boxing match. Conor also uses his jab to probe, find his range and paw on top of hand trapping. What you're wanting to see from him is a frequent stiff solid jab, which is understandable, or a strong hook, but that isn't what he's doing at the moment for whatever reason. He will use hooks at times from his lead hand (again, against Mendes, to intelligently corral him into a hard left body kick) but not frequently. His lead uppercut is effective even when he doesn't follow it up with the left cross. He knocked a guy out with just that lead uppercut in Cage Warriors.

There's footage of him using a solid jab in sparring and on the bag and pads. Watch his open workouts or SBGi training footage, it's there. Aldo could use his jab more and it's excellent. Why doesn't he? You'd have to ask him. It didn't take him long to develop a great jab, or GSP, or Gustafsson etc. But Conor does use his lead hand, just not as often as you'd see in boxing, and not with a snappy stiff jab in his fights, at least not yet. This is an interesting fight but the RDA fight imo was far more interesting and because Rafael's belt was on the line. This is a fun fight though for the fans but it won't do much if anything if/when Conor does beat Diaz in terms of his ranking or for his legacy.

 

[Darwinambrosius]

lol no. When McGregor asked him about his teammates he literally put the mic down and looked at the floor.

He'd already answered the question. Nate doesn't like being redundant unless it involves copious amount of profanity.

 

[maleproblem]

Nates dead in the water. Open your eyes.

 

[ConorMcGreGOAT]

Someone who knows what they are talking about.

God, I literally can't even count the amount of times I see this leading up to Conor's fights.

"Finally someone who understands."
"Look, someone that actually trains and understands what's going on."

Yet everytime... They're wrong. Weird.

 

[robjenkins2]

God, I literally can't even count the amount of times I see this leading up to Conor's fights.

"Finally someone who understands."
"Look, someone that actually trains and understands what's going on."

Yet everytime... They're wrong. Weird.

This is a whole different challenge for Conor, this isn't a 5'6 inch FW. This is a 6'1 guy who is accustomed to facing big guys and heavy punchers for his whole career, someone who is actually much bigger than Conor for once and who won't fold when he gets hit hard.

 

[ConorMcGreGOAT]

This is a whole different challenge for Conor, this isn't a 5'6 inch FW. This is a 6'1 guy who is accustomed to facing big guys and heavy punchers for his whole career, someone who is actually much bigger than Conor for once and who won't fold when he gets hit hard.

"This is a whole different challenge for Conor. This isn't a 5'4 inch BW. This is a guy Conor's height who is accustomed to facing top 5 competition who has never been knocked out."

"This is a whole different challenge for Conor. This isn't an obviously dehydrated LW. This is a top 3 guy that the UFC has been protecting Conor from and who is the kryptonite to Conor's style. He also hits much harder than Conor."

"This is a whole different challenge for Conor. This isn't a tired, 2 week camp Chad Mendes. This is the P4P #1 in the world who is accustomed to facing the best of the best his entire career and who has never been knocked out."

Very cool.

 

[CJohnny]

Has Conor ever faced a southpaw? Also i see Nate controlling Conor on the ground. This is not an easy fight for Conor at all. Also first fight 2 weightclasses above his. I think the run ends here tbh.

Brimage
Siver
Poirier

 

[robjenkins2]

"This is a whole different challenge for Conor. This isn't a 5'4 inch BW. This is a guy Conor's height who is accustomed to facing top 5 competition who has never been knocked out."

"This is a whole different challenge for Conor. This isn't an obviously dehydrated LW. This is a top 3 guy that the UFC has been protecting Conor from and who is the kryptonite to Conor's style. He also hits much harder than Conor."

"This is a whole different challenge for Conor. This isn't a tired, 2 week camp Chad Mendes. This is the P4P #1 in the world who is accustomed to facing the best of the best his entire career and who has never been knocked out."

Very cool.

This could be the toughest fight of his career.

 

[ConorMcGreGOAT]

This could be the toughest fight of his career.

Every fight "could be" the toughest fight of anybody's career.

 

[CJohnny]

Interesting note. Conor was the 6th guy to KO Brandao. In fact, Brandao was KO'd in his fight immediately prior to facing Conor. Getting KO'd is basically his signature move.

He's also 5'7"

...

Poirer at 5'9" and a much more respectable record is a fair example. He was already put away by Korean Zombie and lost to Swanson but a talented scrappy guy, albeit much smaller than Nate.

Poirier would beat the shit of Nate.