UFC 205: Alvarez vs McGregor

[Chunk]

Yeah, I'm pretty certain Conor drops the 145 belt. Didn't Dana come out following 194 and say that Jon Kavanagh told him the weight cut was dangerous, or something along the likes of this?

 

Yeah, but more recently he's come out and said that Mcgregor was cutting weight back then based on researching how to cut weight on Google and that now they have a proper diet and nutrition guy on board he could make the cut again. It's hard to separate the fact from fiction.

[thevestofdeanambrose]

Maybe Aldo can move up to 155lbs and challenge Conor there? He could play a stalker role, eventually following him to welterweight if need be.

This

[the_mole]

I said this last week but Charles Olivieira failed to make weight at 145 coming in at around 155, Ricardo Lamas agreed that he be given another 24 hours were he couldn't come in above 165, he still had to cut a bit for that.

 

What does that have to do with Conor? Nothing but in the second Nate fight, he cut zero weight and came in around 168 and he said he felt a little overweight, so Conor especially with the money he has can come in and cut 15/20 lbs easily and do it healthily, with the right diet and nutrition.

[wandshogun09]

Eddie Alvarez posted this on his Instagram...

 

ealvarezfight Congrats to Connor and his camp on an amazing accomplishment , these guys continue to deliver ,hats off to you fellas . As for my performance , the only thing I can honestly say was I fucking blew it ... I did nothing I trained , I did the complete opposite of what we planned on a daily basis for 10 weeks . To sum up our plan in a sentence it was "Go left and mostly wrestle" instead I circled into his left hand and mostly boxed . Fighting the way I did was a for sure death sentence and the result was fitting . I say it all the time, there is really small margin for error at this level and I paid for my mistakes . I managed to make it to the biggest stage and audience in my long career and fucked it all up when I arrived , my heart sincerely hurts and when I dwell on it I fill up with regret and anger . If there was a list of what not to do against an Opponent of this nature I did them all on Saturday . I am disappointed in myself and this is not a reflection of my coaches , training Partners , and the endless hours of training I commit to this sport . Every Time I get into the cage I negotiate being vulnerable and possibly embarrassed against the opportunity to do something great and Grow more . I always choose the latter regardless of the uncomfortability and anxiety it brings to me , I think this choice is the only reason I ever succeeded in the first place . I thought in my head at least making a lot of money would make me happy but I am having a lot of trouble enjoying myself regardless of the check thats going to be written , I am very uneasy and discontent for the most part . I am lucky to have my wife and my child at a time like this to help me laugh and smile and let me know everything's gonna be all right , they are my saving Grace , without them I am a shell of a man. Besides the outcome I thoroughly enjoyed fight week and the lead up , it was a lot of fun . I have never defined myself off one win and I'll never define myself off one loss,I simply had a bad night .. I'll have the opportunity again to have a good one ,, and I'll make the Walk to see what I got Everytime . Thanx for listening -EA

Sounds absolutely crushed. A loss like that has got to hit harder than most. He didn't get to do anything. Nobody is happy to lose but if you're going to lose I guess you can live with it more easily if you lost a war like Jones vs Gustafsson or something. At least in those types of losses your stock still raises and you did something people will remember for years. When you lose in the manner Eddie did on Saturday you don't want anyone to remember it, you'd rather they forget. It's got to be a tough one to take. Eddie has never been beaten like that on the feet. Yeah, he's been dropped and hurt in fights but he's always given as good as he's got. Never has an opponent made him look like he didn't belong.

 

Nice to see him showing some class in defeat towards McGregor as well. I got the impression there wasn't really any serious bad blood there between him and Conor. They both got into the trash talk but even McGregor said he respected Eddie's toughness going in and they touched gloves at the start of the fight. The build up was so much fun but it never had that genuinely nasty feeling to it like there was with Aldo and McGregor or at times Diaz and McGregor.

 

All the talk is rightly focusing on what's next for McGregor. But I wonder what's next for Alvarez? I've seen a few people mention him possibly dropping to 145. I wouldn't mind seeing that and fights with Aldo, Holloway etc would be great. But I don't think he'd ever fight Frankie Edgar as they've been pretty close for years and I'm not sure cutting more weight is the answer. There's still plenty of good fights for him at 155. Personally, I wouldn't be against an Eddie Alvarez vs Diego Sanchez fight next. Diego is coming off a solid win and it's a good rebound fight for Eddie.

[Guy Bifkin]

I'd do Eddie Alvarez vs Nate Diaz next. 

[lambyUK]

From a size perspective Eddie does look more like a 145'er. However, he carries so much muscle I'm uncertain he could get down to 145llbs. 

[TildeGuy~!]

Frankie was teasing moving to 135 in a few interviews I watched on the weekend.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Finally finished watching UFC 205 last night. What a show. Life got in the way- I wasn't able to watch live due to being on a cruise, and when I got back home I had to take care of Mum for a couple of days. Been working my way through the show a couple of fights at the time.

 

The beauty of downloading the show rather than watching live meant I could pick and choose the fight order. The show opener of McGregor vs. Alvarez was a great way to kick the card off, and I loved the main event of Woodley vs. Wonderboy. Despite all Wonderboy's technical skill, I had no idea he had that kind of heart.

 

Woodley vs. Wonderboy was by far the best fight, but the rest of the card was full of great moments and finishes. Conor's accuracy in that combination was scary. Every single shot, laser focused on the jaw. Amateur hour though by UFC not having the two belts ready to go. Maybe they thought Alvarez would run through him and slow down the Conor train? Gotta think, as much as UFC love how Conor brings in business, they're not enjoying the leverage he's getting. Personally, I'm not too fond of it either. I love Conor as a fighter, but if it gets to a point where Conor only fights the fights he wants to fight, I'm going to be pretty pissed. I'm being consistent- I hated it when Bisping fought Hendo, and when he was calling for GSP and Nick while not being as eager for Jacare or Romero. Even though Conor's my favourite fighter, I won't be happy if he defends the belt against Nate next or goes for another "super fight" vs. Woodley. My stance is McGregor vs. Aldo II while Khabib and Ferguson have a 155 no. 1 contenders fight. The 145ers need a champion, and right now Aldo is the interim. Fuck the interim label if Conor wants to be 145 champ but can't be arsed defending it against the ONLY contender, by virtue of that interim title.

 

Anyway, tangent. Pennington's win was a shocker, and Tate's retirement even more so. Guessing Miesha just does modelling now? 30 is early to retire.

 

I liked JJ vs. KK, wasn't amazing but it was a solid title fight, the 4th round drama bumped things up. They might have to do a strawweight champions TUF for Joanna to find her a real challenger at this rate.

 

That Romero flying knee was sick. Bisping looked like he was playing to the idea of being in a rivalry with Yoel, so maybe the "I wouldn't fight him" was all bullshit. If Bisping signs the contract, I'll withdraw my criticisms of him. Well, some of them.

 

Shows how strong the card was that it lost two name fights last minute and didn't seem diminished in quality at all. Looking forward to the next time UFC is in the Garden, and bring on UFC 206!

[wandshogun09]

Bisping will fight Romero, I'm sure. When it comes to it, Bisping's too alpha to back down from someone calling him out. That's one thing about Bisping, he's got self belief by the bucket load. I genuinely think he 100% believes he can beat anyone and everyone. I know all fighters say that but I think Bisping truly believes it. I think that's what's carried him so far in the end. He's a very good fighter but he's overachieved really when you look at it. And I think his mental toughness and just his complete refusal to fuck off is why. He's just been insanely persistent in his quest for the belt. He's not the best fighter at middleweight. Despite holding the belt. I think we all know that. He's a stopgap champ, as fun as his story's been. But one thing he's never been is a fight ducker. And when it comes to it, I'm pretty confident he'll put pen to paper and face Romero.

 

As for Tate, I don't think her retiring was that much of a surprise. I think she's been thinking about it longer than it might seem actually. Remember last year when Tate was supposed to get her third crack at fighting Ronda Rousey for the title? Dana promised her the next shot then changed his mind and went with Rousey vs Holm (bet he's glad he did that, eh?). When Miesha was passed over she publicly said she was thinking of just packing it all in. At the time it just seemed like a knee jerk reaction out of frustration. Then obviously she got the shot at Holm, she wasn't going to turn that down. She won, then the Nunes and Pennington losses just finished her. I reckon it's been on her mind longer than this. The way she announced it straight after the fight in the cage, it just seemed like she'd given it thought beforehand. Seems like there's something up with her and Caraway as well. Stann mentioned something on the show and Caraway's since come out and said something like 'she hasn't been herself lately'. Probably just burnt out with it all. She's had a fairly long career for a young woman and she's had some really rough fights and taken a lot of punishment. Also, people forget or underestimate but she's probably been hounded by MMA media nearly all of her career. It's different for women fighters, especially attractive ones and especially when Tate broke in and women's MMA was a novelty. She's probably had to do more media/photoshoots than your average 30 year old fighter. Let's face it, nobody was ever beating down Bigfoot Silva or Keith Jardine's door to do photoshoots. All added up, she's had a hectic career.

[Egg Shen]

I imagine Tate will return at some point, she's basically reached the top of the mountain and fell of completely in the space of 12 months, she's probably more emotionally spent than anything. She'll likely do just fine outside of actually competing though so all power to her.

[lambyUK]

I imagine Tate will return at some point, she's basically reached the top of the mountain and fell of completely in the space of 12 months, she's probably more emotionally spent than anything. She'll likely do just fine outside of actually competing though so all power to her.

I actually think she may stick to her retirement. She's an extremely intelligent woman who happens to be very good looking too. I think Fox will snap her up and anyone else for that matter who may snap up the TV rights once the Fox deal comes up.

 

She also has her podcast.

 

That said, if the circumstances of a Rousey fight came up, I think she would take it in a heart beat.

[wandshogun09]

She's done some stuff with FOX before so that's a good possibility. And yeah, I've got a feeling her retirement will stick. If she hadn't reached her goal of becoming champion I'd maybe think otherwise but maybe she's content with just having won the belt at all.

 

If all else fails;

 

 

In all seriousness, like I said, she's had a rough old career. Look back at her fights and she's been in some right hard scraps. She's young but she's got some miles on the clock as a fighter. Even the fights she really shined in like McMann, Kedzie, Coenen etc she basically had to walk through fire to come out with the win. Maybe she's just had enough.

[Egg Shen]

Tate signing up to work for Brazzers would get my coin, no question.

 

I'd like her to stick to the retirement, she's clearly got options available to her and if she's been smart she should be sitting on a some serious money as it is.

[the_mole]

Tate talking to Caraway after the fight, even though I don't really like Bryan Caraway you can tell he doesn't want her doing anything she'll regret. Khabib talking to Michael Johnson & Dana White during the fight, Weidmans corner looking fucking gutted and Conors family https://youtu.be/4kTxWUUcFVs

[Egg Shen]

them videos are great, Khabib is a maniac.