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Theres a video knocking around on social media show Khabib's 14 failed takedown attempts against Iaquinta. A lot of people are saying that's the proof they need to show Conor will keep this thing on the feet and land the shots needed.

 

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33 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Theres a video knocking around on social media show Khabib's 14 failed takedown attempts against Iaquinta. A lot of people are saying that's the proof they need to show Conor will keep this thing on the feet and land the shots needed.

Yeah, that's just the usual social media mouth breathers logic though, and most likely should be ignored as much as possible.

What these dudes don't acknowledge is that Khabib absolutely fucking manhandled Michael Johnson, one of the top NJCAA college wrestlers in the country during his time competing.

The logic used by these fools is that by someone making a video showing khabib walking through Barboza's shots it means he could walk through Conor's striking as well.

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You're being silly if you completely write off McGregor's chances, looking at his skills, experience and because MMA. I've typed this a few times, but top end coaches seem to reckon Conor is all wrong for Khabib, given the gulf in stand up ability.

However, Khabib has rarely wobbled. We all know Rogan tries to use the Johnson fight as an example that Khabib can be rocked, but while he definitely got cracked, Khabib took it and went on to smash. I reckon Conor will probably get a couple of testing shots in, and we'll get a good look at Khabib's chin. If Khabib eats the shots and walks Conor against the cage, Conor is absolutely buggered.

Khabib said after the Barboza fight that he realises he gets hit too much charging forward and definitely won't take those chances v McGregor, but it's known that come the fight it's hard not to fall back on your bad habits - holla, DC.

I still pick Khabib, of course, but Conor ruined prime Aldo in a few seconds.

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The thing that always confused me somewhat about McG fans is the way they spoke about the fight with Mayweather, and kept talking about him just needing to land "one big shot."

We're not talking about prime Johny Hendricks here, or Volkan Ozdemir. This isn't a guy who's known as a one-punch KO artist who drops people with one punch in devastating fashion.

He's dropped one person in such a manner, in Aldo, when Aldo rushed in at the exact same time McG threw his shot. That doesn't mean the guy is suddenly a big one-punch KO finisher. In his entire career he's stopped two people besides Aldo via a one-punch KO, and both were outside the UFC.

Since coming into the UFC he's stopped Brimmage, Brandao, Poirier, Siver, Mendes, and Alvarez by TKO due to a combination of strikes.

He's an accurate striker, not a power striker, who has an uncanny ability to crack his opponent behind the ear causing all manner of equilibrium issues that he then finishes off with a flurry of strikes, which is still dangerous in itself of course.

There's also the fact that he's now facing bigger opponents. His punches managed to drop Nate a few times, but never stopped him, and we're talking about a guy in Khabib who walks around at anywhere between 187lbs to 198lbs if pre-camp reports are to be believed. And this walking around weight isn't a "sitting on his couch watching reruns of Cheers" type weight, like some fighters, this is him actively grappling and all of the other shit he gets up to in between fights, which, if we're honest, isn't really much. He's hardly living it large on the shores of the Caspian Sea with his home boys getting all liquored up and crazy. 

This isn't a featherweight he's facing, this is another legit big dude for the weight. A guy who was being talked about as moving up to welter not that long ago.

It's going to be interesting, and if McG catches him with one of those behind-the-lug shots there's every chance he could get the win, but even dropping Khabib is only half the battle. What then? Does he follow him to the floor and risk being tied up? Or does he let him back up?

I honestly think that even in the standup McG has a lot to do to get the win, while in the grappling I think once Khabib lands a few takedowns he's going to take over, which is why I see it as I do.

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Conor's pure punching power was exposed in the Mayweather fight. In MMA you don't need massive power to have success on the feet, accuracy is the key because of the lack of padding on the gloves, and that's why Conor thrives. I spoke of it pre-Mayweather, but many people believed Conor was taking punching power to the boxing ring the likes of which has never been seen before, people were talking like he had kryptonite in his left hand and it was simply a case of him needing to touch Mayweather to hurt him, we found out very quickly that he doesn't.

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10 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Conor's pure punching power was exposed in the Mayweather fight. In MMA you don't need massive power to have success on the feet, accuracy is the key because of the lack of padding on the gloves, and that's why Conor thrives. I spoke of it pre-Mayweather, but many people believed Conor was taking punching power to the boxing ring the likes of which has never been seen before, people were talking like he had kryptonite in his left hand and it was simply a case of him needing to touch Mayweather to hurt him, we found out very quickly that he doesn't.

What was this belief based on though? That's the question I'm asking in my previous post. 

He has never been seen as a heavy-hitting, one-punch KO artist save for the time he caught Aldo rushing in. He's an accurate volume puncher more than anything else.

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14 minutes ago, David said:

What was this belief based on though?

He knocks dudes out. I think even Conor has said in the past that it's more to do with precision than power - although clearly you need a combination. Either or, he has a habit of finding the shot to end the fight, or leads to the demise of his opponents as they're on their arse by that point.

He's no Mark Hunt, of course, but his MMA record suggests he's definitely a KO artist and if Khabib is just going to charge forth again McGregor will light him up.

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3 minutes ago, ColinBollocks said:

He knocks dudes out. I think even Conor has said in the past that it's more to do with precision than power - although clearly you need a combination. Either or, he has a habit of finding the shot to end the fight, or leads to the demise of his opponents as they're on their arse by that point.

He's no Mark Hunt, of course, but his MMA record suggests he's definitely a KO artist and if Khabib is just going to charge forth again McGregor will light him up.

Yes, he wins via TKO and puts his opponents away, I'm not disputing that.

What I'm questioning is this generally held belief that if he connects with "one good shot" it's game over, as though he's Hendricks flattening Kampmann or something. He's not.

Admittedly it is primarily social media-based, but the old "one good shot" chat that we heard during the Mayweather build-up is rearing its head again.

He hit Diaz with a lot of shots and didn't put him away, did he? He dropped him, but didn't stop him.

As I said, he's an accurate puncher, not a single-shot KO artist, despite the Aldo fight. So, in this fight "one good shot" isn't going to put Khabib away most likely. It's going to take an accurate strike that puts Khabib on the back foot followed by some well-chosen shots to cause a referee stoppage, as is the case in most of his wins.

Many of his fans are talking about the one good shot coupled with this belief that if Khabib gets caught he'll crumble. He's never crumbled before, and he's faced some legit 155lb dudes, guys who can hit hard. 

Not only that, we're seeing some people actually believe that Conor has the wrestling ability to effectively stop Khabib doing what he's done in virtually every fight he's fought. All based on what? A single fight against Al Iaquinta?

Why aren't these people talking about how Khabib took down an NCHSAA state wrestling champion and four-time NAIA All-American in Abel Trujillo twenty one times in a single three round fight? 

That's an average of seven times a round.

I get that Conor's fans are, for the most part, fucking imbeciles (present company excluded, of course) but some of the stuff I'm reading as to how he's going to win this fight are the ramblings of the feeble-minded. 

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I don't disagree with you David. I'm just pointing out that's why he has his reputation - that and Joe Rogan. As I typed, even Conor admits it's more precision than power, but even if it's not "one shot" it's usually always the perfect shot he finds, which is why Khabib should be worried.

Khabib has admitted his fighting style will land him in proper bother if he doesn't try and be more elusive. Conor's abilities are that he's very fast, accurate and explosive. It's why quite a few coaches fancy Conor, because Khabib is too slow and sloppy by comparison. However, it's why I pointed out that if Khabib walks through a few testing Conor shots (like he did v Johnson), then Conor is proper buggered.

We saw what happened when Diaz ate everything.

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I really like Joe Rogan, but I think there's a shady part of his act that is his real genius: he cultivates this idea that he's not interested in promotion, or towing the company line, and he says just enough (about Bellator or whatever) to make people believe it. But, actually, he's one of the most effective arms of the UFC promotional machine: whether it's Ngannou, Ronda, McGregor or whoever else, he's always pulled with the marketing team, rather than push against it.

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1 hour ago, David said:

What I'm questioning is this generally held belief that if he connects with "one good shot" it's game over, as though he's Hendricks flattening Kampmann or something. He's not.

Probably because he knocked Aldo out in 13 seconds with a single shot and most of the people saying it are familiar with that but not all of his other fights.

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10 hours ago, David said:

Why aren't these people talking about how Khabib took down an NCHSAA state wrestling champion and four-time NAIA All-American in Abel Trujillo twenty one times in a single three round fight? 

I thought Khabib was supposed to be the unstoppable wrestler who's going to take Conor down and smash him, and Conor's only chance is in a short window at the start of the early rounds? If you have to take someone down twenty ones times in a three round fight, that would tend to suggest you have trouble keeping them down no? You keep saying Conor isn't a one punch knockout artist, yet you seem to be painting Khabib as some Mark Kerr-esque Smashing Machine. He's had ten fights in the UFC - 2 KOs/TKOs, 2 submissions and 6 decisions. He's certainly a volume striker, but he doesn't seem to be a particularly heavy striker. If you want to use Conor's fight record as a means of arguing your perfectly valid opinion that Khabib is going to win that's fine and dandy, but a bit of consistency would be nice.

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I can't think of many MMA fighters below welterweight that you could describe as 1-punch knockout artists. It was no surprise in retrospect that Diaz was able to take Conor's punches. Diaz is a natural welterweight, whereas Conor is a natural lightweight. I think Conor's power will transfer to lightweight from featherweight. In that if he catches you, he won't turn your lights out instantly, but he will set you down a steady slope to being stopped. 

Nevertheless, despite Khabib's lack of finishes in the UFC, I still think Conor will do well to survive three rounds against him. Barboza fought out of his skin to survive three rounds again Khabib last year. Iaquinta survived 5 rounds against him, but that was perhaps due to Khabib injuring one of his paws. I have my doubts about Conor's ground game and stamina. Is he as good a defensive grappler as Barboza and RDA? I don't think so. I suspect there will be a point where Khabib turns up the volume and Conor has no response, leading to a stoppage. 

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20 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said:

I can't think of many MMA fighters below welterweight that you could describe as 1-punch knockout artists.

There aren't many. I'd say Jeremy Stephens is one of the best examples. Even John 'Hands Of Stone' Lineker, heavy handed as he is, he doesn't often put guys away with one shot. 

The thing with the McGregor vs Aldo stoppage, it was amazing but it wasn't a total one punch knockout like it's often remembered. Before the Mayweather fight I kept hearing the Aldo KO brought up as an example of proof of McGregor's earth shattering power but a lot of that stoppage was the brutal follow up hammerfists on the ground. If that was a boxing match Aldo would've been given a standing 8 count. Now Aldo looked hurt enough from the initial knockdown that I doubt he'd have recovered if you gave him 30 seconds but it's a point a lot of people didn't take into consideration in the run up to the Mayweather fight IMO. A huge part of McGregor's ability to finish is those follow up strikes after he gets an opponent hurt. It's probably his biggest strength, to be honest. If he gets an opponent wobbly and buzzed, it's very rare he gives them chance to recover. If he stops Khabib, it's most likely to be that way. He catches Khabib with something and stuns him, then swarms all over him. But I do think David's correct that McGregor isn't typically a one punch KOer. That's not to say he can't land that kind of shot but it's not that Paul Daley type punch that just flatlines guys pretty regularly. The cleanest KO I remember McGregor landing was the Ivan Buchinger fight in Cage Warriors, which was a beautiful slip to a counter left that wiped Buchinger out cold. But all his big UFC finishes were knockdown/follow up punches on the ground. 

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