re: UFC 229: Khabib Nurmagomedov (c) vs Conor McGregor

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Rewatch that Mendes fight, if he lets khabib climb on top of him that easy, it’s gonna be a super rough night for him. Conor was in deep shite with Mendes several times on the ground, khabib is much bigger. I agree he could catch him, after the AI fight, however, I’m expecting a much smarter khabib. You can learn to protect yourself better pretty quickly, you can’t become a world class grappler over night.

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Mendes is a MUCH better striker with way more power than Khabib could ever dream of having. When you have to worry about someone dropping bombs on your face it opens you up to takedowns, Conor won't have that problem with Khabib.

Khabib is better on the ground but Mendes is much better at leg takedowns from distance, he might be the best in the UFC. Khabib's takedowns from distance are just ok and they become much less effective and harder to land with each passing minute of a fight. His bread and butter is the body lock takedown and to do that you have to get in the clinch which gives Conor a shitload of opportunities to KO him stiff since you cannot protect yourself and try to get that close.

In the Mendes fight he had been training for an elite striker and was given one of the, if not the single best, distance takedown artist in the UFC. At that point Conor's knee was shredded, he could barely walk and he certainly couldn't train for stuffing Chad's takedowns after the replacement was announced. He has been training exclusively for Khabib this entire year and as far as we know he doesn't have any major injuries like during the Mendes fight. These things are huge for him and in every other fight he has had his takedown defense has been outstanding.

The last thing is you said "you can’t become a world class grappler over night" like Conor just decided to start training grappling when this fight was announced. Other than when preparing for his boxing match he has always been training in grappling and is a beast at it. He absolutely demolished Max Holloway on the ground and that was over 5 years ago, he shut down Eddie Alvarez, he butchered Chad Mendes from the bottom with elbows and always got back to his feet even with a bum knee. The only thing people can point to in his UFC career is the Nate fight but that had nothing to do with his grappling ability and everything to do with him gassing due to moving up 2 weight classes and fighting at 15 pounds heavier than he had trained for.

He fought. Everyone is banged up come fight time, and to your point, he could have one now and we wouldn’t know. I still think he’ll do everything he can to stay off the ground with this gorilla, which is smart. I’ll be Khabib’s biggest fan ever if he tackles him then taps him with a leg lock, SAMBO style. I’ll cheer like hell if Conor sleeps him, too. Very much looking forward to the fight, would be happy to see either fighter end it in dynamic fashion.

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mcgregor had a torn acl in the mendes fight.

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I think that was the Holloway fight when he had the acl

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think that was the Holloway fight when he had the acl

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He tore his ACL during that fight. For the Mendes fight, he tore his ACL 80% while training with Rory MacDonald... Supposedly

Off topic, but I guess you all have seen MG was charged with some serious crimes. Hope he can sort out whatever has him on that path.

Different mg, recently fought in public, charged with even more serious crimes now.

It’s a shitty situation and didn’t necessarily want this thread to show in a google search of his name. From the last thread about him, he has friends on the site, thought a few might be interested but didn’t want to completely hijack or start a new thread.

True, I don’t read tmz so I didn’t know until a friend sent it to me yesterday. Sorry for the breach in etiquette, I guess.

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Conor is tap machine, Khabib will make conor tap tap tap

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And that makes for a


fest