Who’s the Pound-for-Pound Baddest Man on The Planet Today?

[jamesmcdonnell]

I agree.

However, the reason that McGregor went for the double leg is that he was getting destroyed on his feet from the moment that the first left landed.

The way McGregor folded was the exact same way that he loves to describe others folding when they feel his left hand. He didn't take this fight for the fans. He took this fight because he believed his own hype. He didn't lose the fight on the ground. He lost the fight because he decided that he could trade with little risk with Diaz. He fought stupid. He had control of the fight and he gave Diaz a chance that Nate was only too happy to take.

Diaz is the one who showed donkey ballz taking the fight on short notice. Diaz is the one who was repeatedly belittled prior to the fight. McGregor went to the ground to lose with less damage because he was convinced that Diaz was going to destroy him in the standup. The act of going for the double leg was McGregor submitting, consciously.

Holm proved to have far more sac than McGregor last night. He folded as neatly as a towel. I will believe that he comes back from this when it happens. It will likely be a very discerning path of cherrypicking if it happens at all.

Diaz got the fight he's been calling for at a way higher weight limit then he could have dreamed so I'm going to give the gutsier vote to Conor. Taking on such a dangerous guy without sufficiently being able to dedicate a training camp to defeat that person is difficult if not just plain dumb. I think the biggest factor was the weight limit changing less than two weeks from fight night though. Boxers and MMA Nutritionists have weight cutting down to a science with these fighters and it's such a delicate balance. As a person that still has nightmares from my years of almost killing myself to make weight for wrestling, I can tell you that the weight limit increase to 170 from 155 with less than two weeks to go was THE story in this fight.

Imagine that you've been killing yourself in camp to get down to 155 from 190 plus and just before the hardest part of the weight cut, they tell you that the limit was just moved up to 170. Now you're already below the limit or close enough that your Nutritionist immediately grabs his shiit and leaves camp wishing you luck because he's no longer needed. I'll guarantee Conor immediately started pounding liquids (not being able to drink is the worst part) and stopped eating strategically and to be honest, I said to my buddy as soon as i saw him walking into the cage that he looked puffy/uncut and I had a bad feeling because i've seen that look before. That's a look of an athlete that didn't complete camp and get to the required weight properly. I've been there before and if i didn't win in the first round then i was done because my body was not ready for a long match. Conor was all done after the first round and admittedly was dead armed and there's only one reason for that.

You are right though. When Diaz landed that first punch on the chin, you can see it in Conor's eyes that 170 punches hurt a lot worse tan 145. Conor did essentially give up with that attempt to take to the mat, I agree. I felt the exact same way watching it live. But it was shocking how quickly and easily Diaz converted it to the choke. Conor's lack of ability on the mat will end up hurting him the rest of his career, i promise you. Just get him on the mat, that's the goal.

I agree that he looked too puffy coming into the ring, and that messing with weight midstream is a difficult proposition. I think that McGregor should have continued his camp as if the fight was to be at 155.

I was also surprised by how quickly Diaz was able to sink the choke, but in the replay it became apparent (to me) that McGregor gave up in order to limit damage. I believe that it was a good business decision on his part. He realized that he had nothing left and that Diaz did.

The whole affair, from the announcement to the choke out, was bizarre, imo. Diaz is a 155 fighter. He was ok with cutting to 155. It seems like this was a way for the UFC to control Conor without destroying his value. They played on his ego and he fell into the trap. Maybe I am just reading too much into this but now his next fight is even bigger, no matter who he fights and at what weight.

Can he still make 145 comfortably? His own team has suggested that he can't do it much longer. Can he compete with the best at 155? He just lost to a guy who wasn't rated in the top five of the division, albeit at 170 and under strange training conditions. Will those at 145 be emboldened to simply get it to the mat with him? Can he improve his ground game enough to compete on the mat?

I had lost interest in mma over the last few years. I am much more enthused with the UFC today than I was going into the Diaz v McGregor fight. I was essentially tagging along with my kid to watch. I was impressed with the entertainment value of the card as a whole Saturday night.

I think Mcgregor realised he'd bitten off more than he could chew. He'd hit Diaz with some pearlers, and was nowhere close to really hurting him bad. I also think he's been cutting a lot of weight and been entering the ring with huge advantages over his opponents, I didn't think he looked smaller than Diaz overall going into that fight.

I think it would normally be much harder to get McGregor on the mat, he's stuffed plenty of takedowns previously, I think in this instance you had a guy who was exhausted and realised he was just heading for a brutal beatdown, who chose to limit the damage and fold easy.