I’m probably the most objective person on here about Conor. I’m not a fanboy nor a hater, I just look at him for what he is based on his fighting. I think some people do undermine his accomplishments and talents, like you listed, but I also think some of the “hype” talk comes from a legitimate place, I just thinks it’s worded wrong. I think good comparisons is how people felt about Ronda, Anderson Silva, and even Chuck Liddell. They were talented fighters with a killer instinct who could potentially finish anyone within the first round, but there were questions about their level of competition and how well rounded they were and many people thought this would catch up to them and the “show” would be over. With Chuck and Ronda it did rather soon after their peak, but with Silva it never really did until he simply got older. The difference with Conor is that he does fight really good competition, however there legitimate criticisms being that at 145 he had a significant size advantage against guys like Jose and Mendes, and Mendes wasn’t on a full camp, and then he moved up and immediately lost to Diaz in horrendous fashion. His next two fights were good, but let’s be honest neither Diaz nor Eddie are “tier 1” fighters, they are more like solid tier 2 fighters. And then he couldn’t even go the distance in a 10oz gloves boxing match with a pillow fist fighter who is much smaller then him. These are things which can’t be ignored when taking about someone’s legacy or making claims for Goathood.
Conor is a great fighter but there are a couple of things that hurt his legacy and it’s a legitimate question if he has what it takes to defend a belt as many times as a GSP, Jones or DJ because of his cardio weakness and even the amount of shots he’s willing to take to give one. All he has to do is keep fighting to prove everyone wrong (or right).
