In the days leading up to UFC 196, commentator Jon Anik put a bet on Conor McGregor.
Anik, believing in the UFC featherweight champion wholeheartedly, stated that he would get a “209” tattoo if McGregor did not defeat Nate Diaz.
Well, we all know…
In the days leading up to UFC 196, commentator Jon Anik put a bet on Conor McGregor.
Anik, believing in the UFC featherweight champion wholeheartedly, stated that he would get a “209” tattoo if McGregor did not defeat Nate Diaz.
Well, we all know how that fight went, as Diaz scored a second round victory via rear-naked choke. And Anik proved to be a man of his word, posting a picture of his ink on Instagram.
The news made Diaz happy, as the fighter was upset about Anik betting against him prior to the bout.
It’s still highly unclear whether or not former long-time UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will be returning to competitive fighting after vacating his title in 2013. With the massive UFC 200 event approaching this July, however, one would have to assume that the UFC is attempting to lure one of their biggest stars back to
It’s still highly unclear whether or not former long-time UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will be returning to competitive fighting after vacating his title in 2013.
With the massive UFC 200 event approaching this July, however, one would have to assume that the UFC is attempting to lure one of their biggest stars back to the Octagon.
Ironically, St-Pierre’s long-time head coach Firas Zahabi took to twitter recently, suggesting that the Canadian superstar could make a return this summer.
After reports surfaced implying that fan favorite bad boy Nate Diaz had been interested in a bout with “Rush”, Zahabi threw out the idea of a potential showdown between the two at UFC 200:
Diaz’s stock has recently risen to new heights after the Stockton native scored the biggest win of his career on short notice last weekend (March 5, 2016), submitting Irish superstar the “Notorious” Conor McGregor in the second round.
St-Pierre has remained out of action since a highly controversial decision victory over Johny Hendricks back at UFC 167, but at age 34, a return is still a very real possibility.
The back story to this potential clash is there as well, as “Rush” has previously engaged in a bitter rival with Nate’s brother, Nick Diaz, which culminated in a one-sided St-Pierre win when the two met at UFC 158.
Would you like to see St-Pierre return, and attempt to complete the sweep over the Diaz brothers?
UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor got involved in another heavy beef before UFC 196, mixing it up with Nate Diaz in a number of crazy interviews and press conferences. The Stockton bad boy was drafted in when the original booking with Rafael dos Anjos fell apart. The UFC lightweight champ suffered a broken foot, so
UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor got involved in another heavy beef before UFC 196, mixing it up with Nate Diaz in a number of crazy interviews and press conferences. The Stockton bad boy was drafted in when the original booking with Rafael dos Anjos fell apart. The UFC lightweight champ suffered a broken foot, so instead we were treated to a welterweight serving that could not disappoint. In the end, one of the greatest rivalries ever culminated in an action packed two round affair in Sin City.
Nate Diaz got the huge win though, as he sent the champion packing back down to the 145-pound division, once again ready to pick from the line of contenders that wait at featherweight. But what else came out of UFC 196? As is often the case with high level UFC fighters that get turned in to ‘hype trains,’ McGregor’s loss sparked an online backlash much like Ronda Rousey’s KO loss at UFC 193 did.
Just one example of hundreds of memes that flooded the mixed martial arts forums following Diaz’s victory over McGregor. So what gives? Yes ‘The Notorious’ is about as brash and brazen as they come, but at the end of the bout he was humble and spoke nothing but truth, giving Diaz his credit as the better man. Surely once the hype is stripped away, even the most outspoken characters are hard working and sincere fighters?
Yes, even the most hardened of warriors has feelings and emotions, and McGregor actually channelled the inner Romeo during a classic moment that flew under the radar.
continue the story to see the video of mcgregor finding love
A very interesting report from Bloody Elbow exposes what could be another BS statement from Dana White… With the dust finally beginning to settle on all the madness of UFC 196, the mixed martial arts world has been altered immeasurably. The UFC women’s bantamweight title changed hands for the second time in five months in
A very interesting report from Bloody Elbow exposes what could be another BS statement from Dana White…
With the dust finally beginning to settle on all the madness of UFC 196, the mixed martial arts world has been altered immeasurably. The UFC women’s bantamweight title changed hands for the second time in five months in the c-main event, as Miesha Tate throttled Holly Holm in to the land of sleep with a slick rear naked choke. Another champion, albeit not for the belt, in Conor McGregor also got choked in the main event. Nate Diaz was the perpetrator of the rear naked hold that rocked the MMA algorithm at UFC 196, as he halted ‘The Notorious’ hype train in a thrilling two round affair.
So Nate Diaz emerged as an unlikely hero from Las Vegas on Saturday March 6, and has now become a superstar. Even getting embroiled in trash talk with the ultimate fanboy Justin Bieber yesterday. The MMA community reacted in the way only they could, creating a number of tragic/hurtful Conor McGregor memes to celebrate another hype train going off the tracks. How did Dana White see it? Well, as reported by Mike Henken yesterday, the UFC president did his best to compare Georges St-Pierre to Conor McGregor, and also point out that even GSP wouldn’t dare do what McGregor did:
“That’s the thing — nobody wants to do it. GSP would never move up to 185 to fight Anderson Silva. He wouldn’t do it,” White said when speaking to Russillo and Kanell on Tuesday. “That’s what makes Saturday so fun. You know how many times we wanted to do the GSP-Anderson Silva fight? GSP would not do it. Would not do it. Guys don’t do that stuff. That’s what makes Conor McGregor so unique, so fascinating and so fun.
“For GSP he was moving up one weight class. Conor McGregor jumped up two weight classes.”
…
“Conor McGregor is so much fun in the fight business. Guys don’t do that. Guys who are making the money that Conor McGregor makes, has the money in the bank, and all the things that are going on with him, he has a world title, he just decides to jump up two weight classes and fight somebody else.”
Well it turns out that statement is full of holes. You might change your mindset of Dana White after the following report.
Conor McGregor’s decision to accept a welterweight bout with Nate Diaz at UFC 196 after spending his entire camp preparing to fight lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos didn’t exactly work out.
The Irishman tired himself out throwing power shots, ate …
Conor McGregor’s decision to accept a welterweight bout with Nate Diaz at UFC 196 after spending his entire camp preparing to fight lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos didn’t exactly work out.
The Irishman tired himself out throwing power shots, ate a series of hard punches and ended up shooting his way into a choke. Inefficiency with his gas tank was the major theme of McGregor’s reflective and perceptive comments at the post-fight press conference. “It was simply a battle of energy in there, and he got the better of it,” McGregor said in summation.
(Warning: The video below contains NSFW language)
Gassing out was the symptom, not the cause, of McGregor’s downfall at on Saturday. He fought an uncharacteristically reckless fight, the culmination of the increasingly more offensively focused path he has walked since entering the UFC three years ago. It finally caught up with him.
A night on which Nate Diaz crowned himself the new king of the moneyweight fighters left McGregor at a crossroads, his future uncertain and his identity as a fighter even more so.
Bleacher Report’s Steven Rondina and Patrick Wyman jump headfirst into the debacle. What does McGregor’s performance say about where he’s at, and how can he change in the future?
Patrick Wyman: Fundamentally, McGregor needs to decide whether he wants to be an all-time great fighter or the greatest action fighter of all time. Both are viable paths considering the tools he has at his disposal. Either way, he’s going to make himself a disgusting amount of money as his career goes on.
If McGregor truly wants to be an all-time great, he needs to shore up his defensive wrestling and grappling skills and commit to spending more time doing things other than striking.
The end of the fight with Diaz, when the American easily swept and took the back of an exhausted and rocked McGregor before tapping him, is frankly less worrisome than how easily Diaz took him down in the first round off a caught kick. It also overshadowed the success he had at the end of the first round on the mat, and how much more he might have had if he’d chosen to initiate a takedown before he was exhausted.
With that said, you can’t feel terribly comfortable with the end of the fight, either, even if the Irishman was gassed and rocked.
If he wants to be a great action fighter, then he just needs to keep working on the things he has improved in his last few fights, though obviously with more efficiency than he showed against Diaz. His combination punching and head movement were much better against Diaz, even if the end result obviously wasn’t what he wanted.
Steven Rondina: I’m reluctant to read into McGregor’s UFC 196 performance too much because, and let’s be honest, this wasn’t McGregor at his best. “Bought into their own hype” is a longstanding, oft-stupid cliche but if ever there were a time when it was true, Saturday was it.
My prediction for the UFC 196 main event read thus: “Unless this fight somehow ends up on the ground (which is unlikely since Diaz has only completed two takedowns in the last five years, according to FightMetric.com), I’m expecting McGregor to dance around, work over Diaz’s body and finish him late.”
Even after watching—and rewatching—the fight, I still feel McGregor has all the tools to beat Diaz; he just didn’t approach him correctly.
I agree with you that McGregor is at something of a crossroads, but I doubt he’s in his mansion wondering whether he wants to be the next BJ Penn or the next Matt Brown. The long-term plan for McGregor is to hold two UFC titles at the same time. That hasn’t changed.
The question in my mind is if the reigning featherweight champ will learn from this or if the reckless, spin-kicking, head-hunting McGregor is here to stay.
Patrick: I both agree and disagree with the idea McGregor bought into his own hype and that was the root cause of his struggles with Diaz at UFC 196.
I agree he didn’t quite look like the smooth, measured version of himself we’ve seen in the past, when he has maintained a great pace of 20 or more strikes per minute without blowing himself out. He was clearly trying to get Diaz out of there, and he forced combinations where in the past he would have waited for opportunities to present themselves.
I disagree, however, in the sense we’ve only seen McGregor play a smart and fully rounded game once during his eight fights in the UFC. That came against Max Holloway, and the Irishman blew his knee out in the second round. He didn’t shoot takedowns and work smothering, damaging top control in that fight by choice but because it was the only reliable path left to victory.
Regardless of whether it was because of the knee injury, he played a dangerous game against Chad Mendes at UFC 189, and the ease with which he blew through his other opponents concealed the fact he got hit a fair bit, often cleanly.
When I say that I think McGregor needs to decide, that’s what I mean. An all-time great version of Conor McGregor works takedowns and top control; he sticks and moves at range to get his gas back after a hard combination and strong dose of pressure, and he stays committed to his kicks and working the legs and body even when the opportunity to brawl with someone like Diaz presents itself.
Technically speaking, there was nothing much wrong with the McGregor who showed up on Saturday. The problem lay in his decision-making in the midst of the fight, which was uncharacteristically bad.
Am I crazy here, or does that make some kind of sense?
Steven: I didn’t mean to imply McGregor was acting out of character at UFC 196 or that what we saw from him was unusual. As you alluded to, McGregor has transformed from a cage-control-focused counterpuncher in Cage Warriors to the MMA equivalent of an eight-man blitz over the last three years.
McGregor’s all-offense style has always been unsustainable (or, at the very least, unnecessarily risky). And honestly, I thought he knew that.
I figured his fight with Chad Mendes was a wake-up call. I figured he learned in those first 10 seconds that flying knees and telegraphed spinning kicks weren’t the best way to handle elite-level opponents and I assumed his measured, body shot-focused attack after that was proof he learned his lesson.
Clearly, I was mistaken.
I agree with you on the notion that McGregor’s troubles against Diaz weren’t so much technical as they were strategic. What I’ll disagree with you is on where McGregor needs to evolve.
McGregor knows how to chain strikes into takedowns. He knows how to bait people off balance and capitalize. I’d bet you if McGregor just slowed down a bit and started combining his 2016 combinations and power into his 2012 pacing and patience, we’d have a man that could hold three UFC titles at the same time. For me, it’s basically a question of “will he learn from this mistake?”
Patrick: It’s not so much he has to learn totally new skills as he has to commit to applying the full breadth of his arsenal on a regular basis. Yes, his wrestling needs to be sharpened, and he needs to improve off his back, but the basic building blocks of an all-time great’s game are there.
You mentioned working strikes off of takedowns, but McGregor also has exceptional timing on his reactive takedowns.
He did that beautifully against Max Holloway in August 2013, and the finest example came against Ivan Buchinger in his last Cage Warriors bout in 2012. He used a series of strikes to push Buchinger toward the fence, missed on a spinning kick and countered Buchinger’s counter with a gorgeous level change and double.
For my money, that fight with Buchinger is McGregor’s masterpiece.
As we saw at the end of the first round against Diaz, McGregor knows what he’s doing from top position. He has great posture, he knows how to stay heavy and defend submissions, his passes are technical and quick, and he can drop absolute bombs. Why not use that more?
So yes, McGregor already has the skills he needs, but it’s not just a matter of going out and deciding to use them one day. He needs to work consistently on fighting smarter in his sparring sessions. His coaches need to push it, and he himself needs to buy in. The question is whether he’d rather do that or would rather work on the kinds of things he’s doing now.
Don’t believe anybody who tells you McGregor isn’t a great fighter or who questions his run in the UFC. He’s already great, and he could be even more.
Last Saturday night at UFC 196, two champions rolled the dice and lost. According to UFC President Dana White, one of them is fit for praise, the other for criticism.
For one person to reach contradictory conclusions on similar topics isn’t unusual; ju…
Last Saturday night at UFC 196, two champions rolled the dice and lost. According to UFC President Dana White, one of them is fit for praise, the other for criticism.
For one person to reach contradictory conclusions on similar topics isn’t unusual; just a few minutes of any current presidential debate will yield any number of them. However, White’s condemnation of Holm’s decision amid his admiration for McGregor is far off the mark.
First, the particulars. On a Tuesday edition of ESPN’s Russillo & Kanell, White called McGregor’s move to face Nate Diaz in a non-title bout “so much fun,” praising his willingness to gamble by fighting up two weight divisions in a bout he lost by second-round submission.
Literally seconds earlier, he had soberly discussed Holm’s failed bantamweight title defense against Miesha Tate. As transcribed by ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto, White said:
The sad part about that whole thing is, listen, [Holm manager Lenny Fresquez is] an old boxing guy who thinks he’s smart, and he is not. It’s one of those things. I feel bad about it. I feel bad for Holly because I don’t know if Holly really knows what she lost. I think she has so much faith in the people that surround her, she feels like, ‘Well, they got me here.’
We had this meeting, and Holly wasn’t even in it. Holly, that’s your life. You should be in that meeting. Don’t leave it to these people. Anyway, listen, Holly made a lot of money. She accomplished great things, she beat Ronda Rousey. But it could have been so much bigger for her, and the sad part is, I don’t even think she knows it.
These are completely contrary viewpoints on very similar situations, but a closer inspection shows a few key differences that are magnified given the source of criticism.
In the case of McGregor, he had been scheduled to fight lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos. For McGregor, who just captured the undisputed featherweight crown in December, the bout was seen as a risk, but a calculated one. If he emerged the victor, he would be the first man ever to concurrently hold two UFC belts. If he lost, he could take credit for attempting to make history but return to his division with his reputation mostly intact.
Instead, Dos Anjos fell injured. McGregor, who has always been willing to step up on short notice, never seriously considered withdrawing from the event even though his quest for history was over.
If there was ever a moment the UFC should step in to protect the image of a belt-holder, this would have been it. This wasn’t a champion defending on short notice; this was a champ going out of his way for the sake of an event. But the UFC didn’t do that, because they had a show to sell and McGregor was the one selling the tickets.
As a pure business decision, it is understandable, perhaps even defensible. The show must go on, after all. But if White was so quick to talk about money left on the table for Holm—more on that later—how can he dismiss the money the UFC left on the table here?
If they had sidelined McGregor, they could have moved forward with the Dos Anjos fight when he was healthy or moved straight to McGregor vs. Robbie Lawler at UFC 200 in July. Instead, McGregor will return to a division where his interest was already waning and where he does not feel at his healthiest.
Let’s remember, in December, only moments after McGregor won the featherweight belt, his coach John Kavanagh told White in the cage that McGregor would never fight at 145 pounds again, according to MMA Junkie‘s Mike Bohn.
That plan held straight through to last weekend. Only a day before the fight, as MMA Fighting reported, White noted again that McGregor would probably never again fight at 145 pounds.
So in the end, McGregor risked his shot at both Dos Anjos and Lawler for little reward. Sure, he got a huge paycheck, but that was coming against whichever opponent he faced. The UFC was fine with the Diaz match mostly because it plugged a main event hole. That has always been the UFC’s first concern.
If Holm had done the same thing, White would have praised her just the same.
In reality, Holm’s gamble was far more reasonable. For one thing, there was never a concrete timeline for the UFC’s preferred option—an immediate rematch with Ronda Rousey. For a short time, a July 2016 date seemed like a good landing spot, but that date quickly fell by the wayside.
As Holm weighed her future, she had to consider the news that Rousey would go forward with a break from MMA and commitments to major roles in films Road House and Mile 22. With that in mind, Holm was well within reason to weigh her options.
Soon after, a November Rousey return became the rumor du jour. For Holm, that was a significant consideration, as November would mark a year between fights.
At 34 years old, a year of activity cannot be seen as a positive. On top of that, she would have to be willing to assume Rousey (or the UFC) would not change the timeline again, and that both of them could get through a healthy camp and show up on fight night. In effect, she would be taking a passive role in her own career—a wait-and-hope-for-the-best approach.
With those complicated factors rattling around her head, it’s no surprise she took the sure payday—a guaranteed $500,000 purse, according to figures the Nevada Athletic Commission sent Bleacher Report, as well as a pay-per-view bonus that will take her total pay well into seven figures—and rolled the dice. She took it knowing full well that even if she lost, the UFC will eventually see a rematch with her and Rousey as a viable direction.
The relatively shallow pool of top-level talent in the women’s bantamweight division virtually ensures Holm and Rousey will meet again. So at worst, Holm risked her title knowing she will probably have another shot at Rousey if Rousey comes back and beats Tate for the third time. In short, she has a realistic chance of getting back to where she would have been in the first place.
McGregor can’t say the same. While he still wields sizable power within the organization due to his popularity and drawing ability, he has lost a bit of aura, and he has no clear path back to chasing multiple titles as he planned. And really, he risked it all for a single paycheck.
With all those zeroes, that’s no small thing, but if he wasn’t doing the UFC a huge favor in the process, do you really think White would be so pragmatic about it? Most likely not. Most likely, he would be the subject of the same criticism Holm and her team faced.
Holm made a simple decision: She put her career wants before the company needs. At a time when fighter’s rights are eroding, her decision is personal and meaningful, and, most importantly, it’s justified.
Conor McGregor’s decision to accept a welterweight bout with