Return of the Notorious Conor McGregor

Scott J Davies

Scott Davies is a freelance writer and tutor. He is currently studying a Master of Education. He is interested in education, economics, geopolitics and history. He's on Twitter and has a Medium page.

Related Post Roulette

18 Responses

  1. Em Carpenter says:

    I have a thing for Irish accents, and Conor McGregor.Report

  2. InMD says:

    I’m not going to lie. I used to make fun of MMA referring to it as redneck karate. This is despite being an unapologetic boxing fan. However the boxing bout against Mayweather may have softened me on MMA. The spectacle was great and I ended up finding it far more entertaining than the last few Mayweather fights. Sadly I have a wedding to attend this weekend otherwise I’d certainly find time to watch.Report

  3. Lab Rat says:

    I have to pull for Khabib on this one. Connor’s precision striking is a joy to watch, but he refuses to defend his titles and holds up the division. UFC’s 155 is the best division in the MMA. It’s fighting weight for most men. The huge amount of competitors means the fighters in the top ten of the division are usually elite in a way the top ten at 205, for example, don’t have to be. It’s a shame to watch challengers at 155 logjam while McGregor’s off making whiskey and losing boxing matches.Report

  4. Mike Dwyer says:

    I’m looking forward to this one and will be watching tomorrow night. If it goes to the ground, God help McGregor. Khabib’s wrestling is ridiculous. On the feet, I think McGregor could easily knock him out in the 1st. His left hook is a thing of beauty.Report

  5. InMD says:

    I hear I missed a hell of a spectacle. Sad to hear McGregor lost but I’m told by people who know better than me it was kind of expected.Report

    • Andrew Donaldson in reply to InMD says:

      The book on McGregor, and this was proven again last night, was if you can survive the first round or two he tires and you can beat him, especially a grappler of the caliber of Khabib. He’s fearsome but comes full bore with no pace. As for the after fight, it will have wide ranging complications for the sport. The Nevada State Athletic Commission is not going to let this slide, and potentially could harm the relationship between UFC and their premier event site. Whatever hammer the NSAC swings, Dana White is going to be obliged to take it, however painful.Report

  6. Slade the Leveller says:

    Never been a fan, but the post-bout video I’ve seen tells me John McCain was right in the first place.Report

  7. Mike Dwyer says:

    The result was about as expected. Khabib dominated on the ground and McGregor really had no answer for that. He’s an amazing striker but unfortunately still a fairly one-dimensional fighter.

    My takeaway though was that McGregor exposed some holes in Khabib’s game as well. The strategy of wearing him down for a few rounds by making him wrestle hard and then starting to pick him apart with shots in the fourth was the best plan Connor could have had. It just didn’t work out.

    I could absolutely see Nate Diaz or Dustin Poirier or Tony Ferguson using that same strategy but adding in their solid ground games to make for a very competitive fight. Khabib is amazing but I do think there were moments where Connor made him look human last night. Interested to see what happens with the division going forward.

    * As for the nonsense after the fight, Dana White needs to decide what kind of organization he wants to run. If it’s all about hyping the big money fights and dramatic silliness, that’s fine but he needs to say that. If it’s a real sporting company then he needs to start acting like it. They would never tolerate this in any other league today. I honestly think he doesn’t care about people jumping over cages and starting brawls, but actually seemed legit scared last night when he suddenly realized there were thousands of angry Irishmen in the stands and he had a public safety issue on his hands. Maybe this will knock some sense into him but I doubt it. He has been incredibly inconsistent in the past with how he treats situations like this.Report

    • Troublesome Frog in reply to Mike Dwyer says:

      They put a ton of effort into converting it from a basement spectacle to an accepted sport with rules and best practices, and now it looks like they’re going to let it slide back into spectacle because that’s how their parent company knows how to make money.

      I didn’t watch the Cormier / Miocic fight, but the clearly scripted “call out” and face off with Brock Lesnar afterward seemed like an indicator of things to come. Pro wrestling soap opera nonsense but with actual fights.Report

      • When did they start having to hold people back at the weigh-in?

        Was it before or after Lesnar’s meltdown following UFC 100?Report

      • Mike Dwyer in reply to Troublesome Frog says:

        Bellator does more stuff like that. I always wanted the UFC to be more ‘professional’ but this stuff has really gotten silly. Plus, it waters down the divisions when fight-making is based more on who can hype the most rather than who is actually the #1 contender.Report

        • Jesse in reply to Mike Dwyer says:

          “Plus, it waters down the divisions when fight-making is based more on who can hype the most rather than who is actually the #1 contender.”

          The vast majority of fans don’t care about who is the #1 contender, though. Or even the best fighter.

          Demetreius Johnson is probably the best P4P fighter in the world, is spotless personally, and is a pretty exciting fighter. But nobody cares about him. So, at the end of the day, since there is no season-like structure, it’s all about what draws and outside of the couple hundred thousand people who watch MMA for the actual fighting, not the personalities, people like McGregor will always with out over the Mighty Mouse’s of the world.Report

          • Mike Dwyer in reply to Jesse says:

            I’m definitely in the minority among MMA fans. I really want to see it be run with actual rankings and best fighting the best. I do get the hype stuff but even with this fight, it made the most sense.Report

        • I hear that criticism and find it valid, but I try to give UFC the benefit of the doubt. Inherent to the sport, much as boxing before it and it’s black sheep cousin pro wrestling, the ratings and gate are only as good as your top attraction. It’s a personality based sport, so you are going to get the hype matchups. Fortunately over the years UFC has done a pretty good job of balancing hype to actually matching the best fighters. But once the entertainment box is opened hard to scale it back.Report

      • Jesse in reply to Troublesome Frog says:

        I mean, isn’t that combat sports in general? There’s this guy originally named Cassius Clay who might not have actually believed all the things he said about various opponents.Report

  8. It’s weird that UFC events are numbered consecutively. Do fans really have conversations like:

    “Name the best UFC ever.”

    “129.”

    “You’re crazy, It’s 143.”

    “143 was just OK, It only seemed great because 141 and 142 had been such disappointments after all those great fights in the late 130s.”Report

    • Mike Dwyer in reply to Mike Schilling says:

      Aren’t Super Bowls also numbered?

      It’s rare that fans talk about an entire card as a whole, with a few exceptions. UFC just does it out of convenience though. Usually you would talk about McGregor vs. Nurgamedov or if they fight again, McGregor vs. Nurgamedov 1 & 2. This would similar to boxing.Report

      • Aren’t Super Bowls also numbered?

        Yes, but I’ve never heard anyone use the numbers except for sportscasters, and when they do you can mentally add it to 1966 to get the year, which actually helps. My impression is that UFC matches take place less regularly than that.

        Usually you would talk about McGregor vs. Nurgamedov or if they fight again, McGregor vs. Nurgamedov 1 & 2.

        That makes sense. Like the first and second time the 49ers played the Bengals for the championship.Report