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I'd say that's got to be the whole reason for booking the fight on this particular card. Conor Vs Khabib definitely needs a security blanket underneath, just in case. Watch Khabib fall out now, Tony and Tony to both miss championship weight, and then one Tony to fight and beat Conor but not win the belt, leaving the division in tatters once again. Sure it'd be great craic. 

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Aye, Tony is the UFC's insurance policy in case Conor or Khabib withdraw. They also have Usman on stand-by to fight Woodley in case Till doesn't make weight. They aren't taking any chances after the UFC 223 debacle.

I am a bit more open to a McGregor victory than I was a month ago. I have been swayed a bit by Ludwig, etc. However, I still see the fight playing out as follows. After a cagey first few minutes, Khabib lands a takedown and proceeds to suck the life out of Conor until the end of the round. Conor comes out groggy in the 2nd round and has one last crack at knocking Khabib out. While doing so, Khabib scores another takedown, puts his foot on the gas and eventually gets the stoppage midway through the round. 

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2 hours ago, OzExile said:

I didn't say that at all. 

Not saying you did but you used that fight as an example to show that Conor had improved his defensive wrestling since the Mendes fight. I'm just saying we don't know that really because Alvarez didn't really try for takedowns at all. Whatever his reasoning, he didn't go the wrestling route. 

Alvarez definitely said after the fight that his gameplan going in was to 'move to his left, away from Conor's power left hand, and wrestle' and instead he 'moved to his right, towards Conor's left, and tried to box'. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Conor forced everything that happened or that it will work against anyone else. Alvarez got cracked early and whether he was foggy and dazed from then or whether it became a pride thing of him wanting to get Conor back, who knows? His gameplan certainly went out the window but I don't think we can read too much into Conor's grappling based off that fight. 

Love Ferguson vs Pettis. Great fight and exactly what this card needed. The whole look of this card changes for the better now with that fight added. Just hope they both make it to fight night. Neither of them has the best track record with injuries. 

Kevin Lee can't be too happy. He was pushing pretty hard to get on this card against Pettis. Now Ferguson comes back to ruin Lee's plans. Again. 

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26 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Not saying you did but you used that fight as an example to show that Conor had improved his defensive wrestling since the Mendes fight. I'm just saying we don't know that really because Alvarez didn't really try for takedowns at all. Whatever his reasoning, he didn't go the wrestling route. 

Alvarez definitely said after the fight that his gameplan going in was to 'move to his left, away from Conor's power left hand, and wrestle' and instead he 'moved to his right, towards Conor's left, and tried to box'. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Conor forced everything that happened or that it will work against anyone else. Alvarez got cracked early and whether he was foggy and dazed from then or whether it became a pride thing of him wanting to get Conor back, who knows? His gameplan certainly went out the window but I don't think we can read too much into Conor's grappling based off that fight. 

Love Ferguson vs Pettis. Great fight and exactly what this card needed. The whole look of this card changes for the better now with that fight added. Just hope they both make it to fight night. Neither of them has the best track record with injuries. 

Kevin Lee can't be too happy. He was pushing pretty hard to get on this card against Pettis. Now Ferguson comes back to ruin Lee's plans. Again. 

Pretty sure I remembered Alvarez shooting for a couple of (desperate) takedowns that McGregor shrugged off with ease - so I checked the fight stats on ESPN.com and he was 0/3 on TDs attempted. 

But I think we're arguing beside the point and are in total agreement that Khabib's wrestling is far superior to anything we've ever seen, so its inevitable that Conor will spend time on the ground not in control. I'd argue that it's more Khabib's machine-like gas tank that makes him so dangerous with his grappling.  He just doesn't seem to gas chasing them.  

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1 hour ago, jimufctna24 said:

Conor had an ACL tear going into the Mendes fight. I can give him a pass for being taken-down in that fight. That being said. I have seen little to suggest that he can handle Khabib's grappling. 

He was injured but Mendes also took that fight on short notice. Neither man was at their best that night.  

1 hour ago, OzExile said:

I'd argue that it's more Khabib's machine-like gas tank that makes him so dangerous with his grappling.  He just doesn't seem to gas chasing them.  

This is something that interests me because Khabib puts out such a relentless pace that I wouldn't be surprised if he did gas out in the championship rounds of a fight somewhere down the line. Maybe not this fight but at some point. Especially given that he's had some tough weight cuts in the past. Even the Iaquinta fight, he won comfortably but rounds 4 and 5 were his least impressive rounds of the fight and it was those rounds where he got a little bit sloppier with his takedown attempts and Iaquinta was actually able to stuff a couple which is why Khabib stood more late in that fight. He wasn't blown up or anything but he didn't look as superhuman as usual. 

But even if that is a possible chink in the armour, I don't think Conor's going to be the one to exploit it because even if Khabib were to gas horribly in the later rounds, Conor would probably have endured 3 rounds of torture by then and he'll be gassed even worse. 

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Yeah, man. That's who I had in mind when I made that post. I think I'd favour Khabib but I still think Fergie is the toughest fight for him at 155. Hopefully the knee injury hasn't taken too much out of him and hopefully we finally see those two fight. But the combination of Khabib and Ferguson really seems cursed. 

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So Fergusson vs. Anthony Pettis is going to be added to this show.

It’s a smart move, giving them a back-up or two if anything goes wrong, but if that fight goes ahead then Anthony Pettis is getting absolutely rinsed, isn’t he? 

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I think so. But Ferguson is coming back off an injury and Pettis looked really good against Chiesa last time out, it was easily Pettis' best showing in years for me. I know fighting Ferguson is a different animal to fighting Chiesa but stiill, if Pettis was ever going to spring an upset on Ferguson, maybe now is the time. 

But yeah, if Ferguson is anywhere near what he was before the layoff then he probably wins this fight pretty handily. 

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5 hours ago, Supremo said:

A weight-cutting Khabib, with sunken eyes, staring directly into the camera and going, "location...location..."  over and over again is the scariest thing I've ever seen.

That is an incredible trailer

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