GDT: UFC 196: McGregor vs. Diaz

[Live in the Now]

Well his ground game is trash. How he has a brown belt in bjj is like JDS's black belt. McDojo style.

Eddie Bravo said that Conor rolled at his gym and that his BJJ was pretty good. He also said that getting punched in the face adds a different variable to the equation, though.

 

[Avs_19]

I don't think we've seen enough of Conor's ground game to say whether it's good, terrible, or somewhere in between. It certainly didn't look good in the second round and Nate schooled him but that was also after Conor got rocked at least twice and looked tired. He did do a decent job in the first round when he was on his back. Luke Thomas had a good breakdown of it in his Monday Morning Analyst video.

 

[Know Your Enemy]

The fact that Conor turned away from Diaz when he was side-mounted instead of towards him says something about his ground game.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

I don't think his guard is very good. Mendes cut him up before he gassed and Diaz made it look easy. 155 has some ridiculously good grapplers.

RDA
Khabib
Cerrone(when he uses it)
Tony Ferguson

are all dangerous on the mat. Especially with top position.

 

[tmurfin]

I think Luke Thomas and JLauzon have it right with Conor. Everything he does, it's to mask the left hand, that's his only really weapon, he uses his kicks to corral opponents to his power side, and his right hand is basically used to parry other than the odd lead uppercut. Watch Luke Thomas' fight breakdown against Diaz. It really shows that Mac has some serious holes in his striking and relies a ton on his chin and left hand, and his striking is very predictable, lean right=overhand left, lean left=left uppercut.

Smart top level guys who have chins are going to start eating him alive if he doesn't adjust. His power is a great equalizer, and he's going to knock guys out still, but the aura is disappearing and fast.

 

[Kitten Mittons]

I think people are overanalyzing the loss. McGregor looked good throughout the fight, he was just too cocky with his hands down because he is used to fighting smaller guys. He was looking for a knockout instead of a win and overestimated his strength against a chin that can only be broken by Josh Thomson's shin. Diaz himself said he punches hard.

Him getting submitted or giving up his back is not a measure of his BJJ; he was exhausted and dazed, not really fair to judge.

 

[Virtanen18]

I think people are overanalyzing the loss. McGregor looked good throughout the fight, he was just too cocky with his hands down because he is used to fighting smaller guys. He was looking for a knockout instead of a win and overestimated his strength against a chin that can only be broken by Josh Thomson's shin. Diaz himself said he punches hard.

Him getting submitted or giving up his back is not a measure of his BJJ; he was exhausted and dazed, not really fair to judge.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[MD thaivuN]

This is some of the best analysis of the fight you're going to find

 

[member 51464]

I finally got to watch the full Diaz/McGregor fight. First thing that jumped out was how much bigger Diaz is, frame-wise, than everyone Conor has faught. And, second, Conor seemed to make some effing poor choices. Had he been patient and just kept working that busted up eye, who knows what may have opened up for him. All respect to Nate! Well done by him to hang in there, see his opening, and make it happen. That went to **** for Conor pretty damn quick once Nate landed that first clean shot.

 

[kmart]

i am not a regular follower of the ufc but i thought conner was more of a "complete" fighter giving the hype he got. of course i dont saw all of his fights but he sure looks like a stand up guy only.

 

[YNWA14]

His specialization is in stand-up, but in all honesty Conor is a more complete fighter than people like to think. The problem isn't that he doesn't have the tools to be a complete fighter; the problem is that (IMO) he fell into his own hype a little bit and started trusting his left hand too much.

If you watch McGregor before he became the hype machine that he is he was a lot more intelligent and complete in his striking, ring generalship and movement. He wasn't just looking to constantly set up the bomb that would put his opponent to sleep -- that just kind of came naturally.

Hopefully this fight will give his head a shake a little bit and he'll smarten up, and not turn into a one dimensional fighter like Rampage did.

 

[MurrayBannerman]

McGregor doesn't have complete striking. He has no lead jab. He's never had one. That's why he had trouble against Nate.

 

[YNWA14]

He had trouble with Nate because he threw every punch to knock him out, used techniques that weren't going to land (wheel kicks) with full force, and then he kept his hands down and gave Nate no respect. Not to mention Nate has some of the best boxing in MMA, and is tough as nails. There's a lot more to it than that, but it wasn't his lack of a lead jab hurting him.

Go back and watch some of McGregor's earlier fights and you'll see it's different. His movement, his change of tempo to break rhythm, his change in levels (his body shots probably won him the fight against Mendes for example).

I think he let the fight against Aldo go to his head, he got overconfident, and he spent the entire time against Nate pretty much trying to knock him out and loading up on everything. McGregor displayed some very complete striking leading up to this point, though, yes, and often sets up his left hand with a probing right hand as a jab or a hook.

 

[LSCII]

He had trouble with Nate because he threw every punch to knock him out, used techniques that weren't going to land (wheel kicks) with full force, and then he kept his hands down and gave Nate no respect. Not to mention Nate has some of the best boxing in MMA, and is tough as nails. There's a lot more to it than that, but it wasn't his lack of a lead jab hurting him.

Go back and watch some of McGregor's earlier fights and you'll see it's different. His movement, his change of tempo to break rhythm, his change in levels (his body shots probably won him the fight against Mendes for example).

I think he let the fight against Aldo go to his head, he got overconfident, and he spent the entire time against Nate pretty much trying to knock him out and loading up on everything. McGregor displayed some very complete striking leading up to this point, though, yes, and often sets up his left hand with a probing right hand as a jab or a hook.

This is exactly right. He bought into his own hype. He read his own press clippings and felt he was invincible. It cost him. He'll learn and go back down to fighting guys more his own size and be fine.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I think Conor sacrificed a lot of endurance when he jumped up two classes. There were moments where he could have finished, or at least done a lot of damage to Diaz, but he either got cocky, didn't trust his own energy, or both.

 

[Ensane]

I think Conor sacrificed a lot of endurance when he jumped up two classes. There were moments where he could have finished, or at least done a lot of damage to Diaz, but he either got cocky, didn't trust his own energy, or both.

That could be the case, but if so, I suspect would have had fatigue issues against RDA at 155 as well. I mean, he was initially fighting a guy at 155, and wound up fighting a guy who's fought at 155 most of his career and likely could have made that weight if he had more than 2 weeks to do so. Ultimately, it's more like he jumped up one weight class.

 

[MurrayBannerman]

He had trouble with Nate because he threw every punch to knock him out, used techniques that weren't going to land (wheel kicks) with full force, and then he kept his hands down and gave Nate no respect. Not to mention Nate has some of the best boxing in MMA, and is tough as nails. There's a lot more to it than that, but it wasn't his lack of a lead jab hurting him.

Go back and watch some of McGregor's earlier fights and you'll see it's different. His movement, his change of tempo to break rhythm, his change in levels (his body shots probably won him the fight against Mendes for example).

I think he let the fight against Aldo go to his head, he got overconfident, and he spent the entire time against Nate pretty much trying to knock him out and loading up on everything. McGregor displayed some very complete striking leading up to this point, though, yes, and often sets up his left hand with a probing right hand as a jab or a hook.

Except he doesn't use his right hand much at all. Especially in the Diaz fight where he didn't really set up anything. Not even using feints.

 

[YNWA14]

That could be the case, but if so, I suspect would have had fatigue issues against RDA at 155 as well. I mean, he was initially fighting a guy at 155, and wound up fighting a guy who's fought at 155 most of his career and likely could have made that weight if he had more than 2 weeks to do so. Ultimately, it's more like he jumped up one weight class.

I'm pretty confident that McGregor would knock out RDA. He doesn't have Nate's chin, slipping ability, and maybe more importantly he doesn't have the size (height and reach, not weight) and range that gave McGregor trouble.

 

[jw2]

Nate also stands right in front of you and doesn't wrestle.

Not sure how a stronger, quicker, grinding wrestler with KO power is going to be easier for Conor.

More excuses needed.

 

[MD thaivuN]

Nate also stands right in front of you and doesn't wrestle.

Not sure how a stronger, quicker, grinding wrestler with KO power is going to be easier for Conor.

More excuses needed.

It's not quite inconceivable that Conor defends takedowns and can starch RDA if he can force RDA to move backward. I don't quite think he's as effective if he's not controlling the cage.

Though, it's hard to even think RDA loses to anybody not named Khabib.

 

[I am the Liquor]

Nate was a bad opponent stylistically for Connor. Anybody who has a dangerous bjj ground game is a difficult opponent for Connor. Nate is right up there as far as that goes. If the fight stays on the feet Nate loses.

 

[MAHJ71]

Definitely seemed like Connor was somewhat gassed by the 2nd.. not his normal self in terms of movement, and a lot of deep breaths.

I still think he can beat RDA at 155. Would be a war though.

 

[MD thaivuN]

Nate was a bad opponent stylistically for Connor. Anybody who has a dangerous bjj ground game is a difficult opponent for Connor. Nate is right up there as far as that goes. If the fight stays on the feet Nate loses.

It's more of a bad matchup if you have very good BJJ, very sneakily good boxing, a very good chin and the ability to not fear to engage McGregor constantly on the feet. Until Nate, nobody hadn't crumble under McGregor's combination of pressure, volume, power and inability to give a **** about what they're going to do to him.

 

[Jules Winnfield]

I think Conor sacrificed a lot of endurance when he jumped up two classes. There were moments where he could have finished, or at least done a lot of damage to Diaz, but he either got cocky, didn't trust his own energy, or both.

I'm a fan of both Conor and the Diaz bros (been a fan of the Diaz bros for years).

That said, I agree with this. Conor was destroying Nate standing up. It looked like a scene from a Rocky movie. In that 2nd round you can see it. There's a point where Conor threw himself out (around the 3:00 mark) and he couldn't even keep his arms up anymore. Those shots he hit Nate with would've dropped almost everyone that weight class and down (other than Lawler lol).

Diaz has a killer chin and always had one. He waited Conor out and then lit him up when Conor couldn't keep his hands up to defend. Conor tried killing some time and survive the round by taking Nate to the ground. He did it with too much time on the clock (about 1:30). If he did it with :30 left he would've survived.

Bad matchup for Conor IMO. I was telling friends when the fight was made that Nate would likely win this fight unless Conor truly hurt him in the 1st round. The longer the fight went on the more it favored Nate.

When you fight guys like Nate and Lawler you can throw your killer left, H-bomb, or whatever great punch you have out the window. Those guys can eat **** the normal fighter can't.

 

[jw2]

Enough of the Conor excuses. He hand picked that fight, the weight, the time, opponent, etc. got owned.

Stop making excuses.

Aldo is a better striker, boxer, wrestler and probably has better bjj than Nate.
And Conor was losing on the feet before it went to the ground.