UFC 229: Khabib vs McGregor

[boyfriend]

Terrified this is gonna be a horrible mauling for McGregor, al a the Barboza fight.  It'd be f'n epic if he pulls it off, partic since Khabib has long been the darling and the one name constantly brought up whenever McGregor beats anyone. Wait til he faces a wrestler (Mendes was short notice blah bah blah),  Khabib will destroy him. The sad thing is even if he wins people will just say ah his stand up is sloppy or whatever. Cunt won't get the credit for any of the names he beats which I get why Dana has said he's one of the most underrated fighters ever in a roundabout way. 

Fanboy rant over, Conor getting killed in round 2

[Keith Houchen]

32 minutes ago, boyfriend said:

f'n

[jimufctna24]

In Conor's defence, the early knockout is his only realistic route to victory. He has not shown the cardio or defensive wrestling to indicate he can withstand Khabib's assault for more than a couple of rounds. Conor isn't a knockout artist. He is, however, powerful and accurate enough to blitz top-level opposition. 

[Chunk]

Anyone notice McGregor drilling knees in his open workout? Knees and upper cuts to an opponent shooting for the takedown. Not seen this from him before.

Conor by flying knee KO. 😉

[TildeGuy~!]

If Khabib opens up trying to strike with Conor he’s going to get knocked out, it’s that simple. 

Just look at him in the clip above, looks like a complete amateur, of course Khabib will probably come out and go for the take down straight away.

[David]

You have to love Joe's complete overreaction to everything that's going on. Johnson strings together some shots that land, which don't buckle Khabib's legs, don't force him to retreat and regroup, don't drop him, but "he's hurt bad" according to Joe.

It's a bit like Mayweather in boxing, where if a guy lands a single shot on the guy the crowd and commentators go wild, as though it means something.

It's MMA. You're going to get hit. 

We saw Conor land a lot on Nate and not put him away, didn't we? He could catch Khabib with a solid shot and rock him, but there's nothing to suggest that Nurmagomedov is going to crumple like a soggy bog roll as soon as McG lands a glove on him.

[Keith Houchen]

We've seen the state of Khabib's face from training!  He's been getting hit for a while!

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, boyfriend said:

The sad thing is even if he wins people will just say ah his stand up is sloppy or whatever. Cunt won't get the credit for any of the names he beats

Same is true in reverse though. If Khabib mauls Conor you'll no doubt get all the Lickarse O'Hoolihan's excusing it with 'well McGregor's not fought in 14 months and hasn't been in the cage for two years. He never beat Conor at his best' and all that bollocks. I think Conor gets plenty of credit these days. He never used to, granted. When he was on his original climb and beating the Holloways and Brandaos and Poiriers there was a lot of goalpost moving about what he needed to do to prove himself legit etc. KOing Aldo in 13 seconds silenced a lot of that. You still had the odd twat cry 'lucky punch' but the horse had left the stable by then, he was clearly a special fighter. The way he rebounded from the Diaz loss and fought a great (and mostly smart) fight in the rematch showed a new wrinkle and the Alvarez performance really cemented that it could no longer be denied that he was a great fighter.

People saying they think Khabib's style is a bad one for Conor isn't people not giving Conor credit as a great fighter. It's people factoring in the two mens' styles, coupled with Conor's layoff, then mix that with a bit of Conor's odd behaviour over the last year or so and they factored everything in when thinking about the fight. That's how I interpret it anyway. And, like when predicting anything, you think in terms of what's actually the most likely outcome, not just the outcome you want to happen. I mean, Conor can stop Khabib. I certainly think he's skilled enough to possibly do it. But it's not the most likely result when you think all the scenarios through with their styles, recent activity and everything taken into account. 

As for that clip above, I'll argue forever that Johnson 'badly hurting' Khabib is a load of old shite. It's only got as much play as it has because a) Rogan's overreaction to it and b) people understandably looking for weaknesses in Khabib, which means any minuscule bit of success his opponents have is magnified x10. Some punches landed on a fighter in a fight. This suddenly means anyone with good striking will KO him. Yeah? How'd that work out for Edson Barboza? Or Rafael Dos Anjos? Or, for that matter, Michael Johnson himself? 

[ColinBollocks]

23 minutes ago, David said:

We saw Conor land a lot on Nate and not put him away, didn't we? He could catch Khabib with a solid shot and rock him, but there's nothing to suggest that Nurmagomedov is going to crumple like a soggy bog roll as soon as McG lands a glove on him.

This is the fight, for me. I have no doubt Conor will catch Khabib, but if Khabib just eats it all then Conor is goosed. You imagine Conor needs to keep distance with Khabib and the only way to do that is to get him to respect the shots that will come at him. We saw in the Johnson fight that while Khabib did get knocked a bit, Khabib still walked through it to get the takedown.

Still, though, every chance Conor punches his face off. His finish rate against top fighters is pretty remarkable.

[David]

I think, among those who know the sport especially, that whoever walks away from with fight with the win will emerge with a lot of credit. If Khabib manages to win in an impressive manner he'll have to be considered one of, if not the single greatest lightweight of all time potentially.

If McGregor wins, the same goes for him I think. He'd be responsible for ending the longest running unbeaten streak in the game (I think), which is insane considering that 10 of his fights have come in the UFC.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I tell you what, I still think McGregor isn't given enough credit for how he pieced up Alvarez.

That, for me, is up there with the greatest Octagon performances of all time. To this day, it staggers me how elite he looked.

And it's easy to forget, but a lot of people saw Alvarez's toughness and all-round game being way too much for McGregor. I think that was the moment that if you tried moving the goalposts, it was clear you were just a twat.

His hands, his movement, his rhythm was incredible. That was Anderson Silva going matrix on Forrest Griffin level special. Only Alvarez shouldn't have been that outclassed.

[wandshogun09]

3 minutes ago, David said:

If McGregor wins, the same goes for him I think. He'd be responsible for ending the longest running unbeaten streak in the game (I think), which is insane considering that 10 of his fights have come in the UFC.

Add that to ending Aldo's, what, 10 year streak? If he beats Khabib then he's ended two of the greatest streaks in MMA history, in two different weight classes. That's huge. Probably not a stat they'll touch on much at the time but definitely an achievement that would come up when people look back on his legacy when it's all said and done. 

[ColinBollocks]

It all won't matter.

[d-d-d-dAz]

That is a junior estate agent who's just been paid for the first time.

What a gimp.

[David]

Personally, I think that guy is the biggest threat to Khabib. Someone good on the feet, long and rangy, but who can get shit done on the ground as well. He matches up against Khabib well I think.