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Did anyone wise see the weigh ins? I thought Conor looked terrible. Really brutal weight cut. He may be a shell of himself tonight. Hopefully that iv ban isn't in place yet.
 
I didn't see the weigh ins. I read that he still needed to cut 27 pounds earlier this week. That's a lot of weight for the lighter weight classes.
 

rockviper

I got moves like Jagger
Hope Connor goes down hard; he might actually make some fans if he gets a little humility. Speaking of cocky... , with Rory's new haircut, he looks light a fighter now instead of a glamour model, but doesn't he know that the 'hawk shouldn't be so wide as to draw attention to what I call "rabbit tracks" (i.e. the bald areas around the widow's peak).
 
Did anyone wise see the weigh ins? I thought Conor looked terrible. Really brutal weight cut. He may be a shell of himself tonight. Hopefully that iv ban isn't in place yet.

Not until later this year for the IV ban. October, I think. They are still working out the details with USADA, wanting it to be "fair" for fighter that had already booked fights under the "old" rules.

Thought Conor looked okay at the weigh-ins . . . what really spooked me was Rory. Either he was wearing some kind of make up to shroud his eye sockets, or that dude is just possessed by the Dark Lord. Looked straight up EVIL on the scales. I think Robbie is in for a world of hurt tonight.
 
it sure was a great card, but i have a feeling that dana and co had a talk with mendes before the fight.

Yeah, i'm that guy.
 
I cannot believe that the judges had Rory ahead after the fourth. My group of buddies had it as, at BEST, 2-2 after a great fourth round from MacDonald. Two and three were DEFINITELY wins for Lawler in our eyes, and it was the first that was a coin flip. Horrible advice from his corner about "stick and move" tactics.
 
Prelim and fight pass fights were "meh". Standard-issue fighters fighting not to lose...

However, the main card was fantastic!

- In the Lawler/McDonald fight, I had it 2-2 going into the final round but my buddy had it 3-1 Rory by a very razor thin margin. It was cool to see the two fighters giving each other respect at the post-fight hospital visit. Unfortunately, it looks like Rory has GSP-skin.....The smallest hit to the face is going to cause massive amounts of bruising, swelling, bleeding. And it's only going to get worse in the future. In related news, Hendricks has already called out Lawler...

- I like both McGregor and Mendes - I recognize their superb overall skillset but I was not impressed with either of them last night. I can understand Mendes' short-notice preparation, but he constantly stood right in front of McGregor with minimal lateral motion. He seemed almost too tentative/tired/poor body language...again, i attribute this to the short-notice. McGregor was pure entertainment with all his trash-talking going on in the octagon. However, his defense of the ground game was worrisome. He needs to work on better takedown defense and/or ground escapes. Otherwise, active fighters (Frankie Edgar) will be his kryptonite.
 
Bluntly, McGregor should count himself lucky that Mendes did not have a full training camp or his hype train would have derailed horribly. Until he gassed, Mendes was controlling that fight, and Conor looked like a turtle on his back. Other than some elbows that seemed illegal in my eyes, Conor had no answer for Mendes takedowns.
 
Lawler-MacDonald went pretty much the way I expected it would. Rory really is a fine, well-rounded fighter, and I think that a decision could well have gone to him. But Robbie is just so relentless. I'm sure all his fights and all those MFS training beatdowns have taken their toll, but he is still an engine of aggression. You have to wonder about both of them after that. When Rory went down after that instant of hesitation, I got a chill. That's how you end up eating strained peas.

I'm with MrLara on McGregor-Mendes. It just didn't smell right to me. I don't exactly think that Mendes took a dive, but he wasn't ready for a five round fight with anybody. Knowing him to be a TAM guy, I expected him to come with a better tank of gas. But who knows what he's been doing before Aldo dropped out? By keeping quiet about his preparation, I filled in the blanks for him. I thought he'd been training as if he had a fight coming up. I thought he'd come in and power McGregor down over and over before finally pounding him out. If he stood with him, I didn't think he'd get tagged as much as he did. I guess that he just got the call from Dana, got fitted for his new Reeboks and turned up for the prefight show. I hope that his deal with Zuffa includes a guarantee that he gets the next fight with whoever wins McGregor-Aldo. Because I'm not sure that Zuffa should give it to him if they want to keep the Conor hype train running. I feel like I had a lot of questions about McGregor's wrestling answered by last night's fight. He looks very vulnerable, and, for a while, I think a top wrestler coming in with a full camp is going to have his way with him. Of course, McGregor knows that too and he'll be working to fill in that hole in his game. Mendes might have lost his best chance to dominate with wrestling.
 
Speaking of the Reebok fight kits, when I first read about them being debuted a couple weeks ago, I misread the Article title as MacGregor and Rousey debut new Reebok KILTS. I was so disappointed when it was a Kit. :lol:
 

brucered

System Generated
Bullet points on the card:

- outfits are awful but at least they have a few styles of shorts (boxer, cycle, Thai). I was hoping the colors would coordinate with their country and not be so monochrome.
- nothing like having a convicted rapist in the audience and drawing attention to him when the UFC is punishing someone for domestic abuse
- that Almeida fight was incredible to open the night, what a knee.
- Gunner walked through Thatch, not even close
- Burmudez and Stephens went at it that was a great back and forth fight. Again, what a freaking knee. Nice to see him overcome that big gash from the head butt.
- Robbie vs Rory was a good one after the first round. All stand up but a great fight.
- What was with the live singing intros? Connor makes for an exciting champ and I'm glad he won. I wanted him to beat Aldo, I still want him to beat Aldo and he's the most charismatic person in the sport right now. I believe he called it in round two and then delivered, doesn't get much better then that but man did Mendes ever crumble at the end. But like Anderson got caught showboating (and he had way more skill then Connor), he's going to get caught and probably soon or he's going to get outwrestled badly.
- Chad Mendes is a class act and an example for all fighters in his post fight loss interview.
 
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On your second to last point bruce. I'm really just nitpicking here, but conor is no champ. The interim "belt" is worthless in my opinion. He's just a glorified number one contender/paper champ. Just like cormier.

And until they take the belt from the real champs, those belts are just toys.
 
I agree about the "interim" titles. Either strip the Champ and put the belt up for grabs, like they did to Jones, or do not bother. To me it cheapens things.

Unlike McGregor, Cormier IS the Champion at 205. It may not have happened in the linear sense, but he IS the champ. to say otherwise is just silly.

Interesting to note the dichotomy in injury reactions . . . Aldo bruises/fractures a rib (will we ever know for sure?) and pulls out, citing his health as the reason. Criticism and praise on both sides of that argument. Magana fractures her collar bone, among other things, and fights anyway, citing the need to cash that cheque. wonder if the collar bone prevented her from cranking that arm-bar harder and securing the win?
 
Well, we can agree to disagree Orville. Cormier got beat by the champ. Only to get a gifted title shot, in most people's eyes he's not the real champ.
 

brucered

System Generated
On your second to last point bruce. I'm really just nitpicking here, but conor is no champ. The interim "belt" is worthless in my opinion. He's just a glorified number one contender/paper champ. Just like cormier.

And until they take the belt from the real champs, those belts are just toys.

If he gets to wear the Reebok jersey, he's the champ :tongue_sm.

I don't care for interim belts either but until Aldo comes back, I consider him the champ.
 
Well, we can agree to disagree Orville. Cormier got beat by the champ. Only to get a gifted title shot, in most people's eyes he's not the real champ.

Oh, I agree with you . . . to a point. Zuffa stripping Jones vacates the title, so they have to put it on someone. they picked the two best guys. Johnson, who was deserving of the next shot against Jones, and Cormier, who had just competed for the title and (I think) was higher in the rankings than Gus. Further adding to the Cormier case is the fact that Johnson had just smashed Gus in his previous fight, so there really was no other choice for who to pick to fight for the vacant title.

That is why I believe it is disrespectful to attempt to asterisk Cormier's legitimacy as Light-heavyweight Champion. I still think he gets destroyed by Jones when they eventually meet but, until they do, Cormier is the legit 205 lb. Champion. Lets say he fights Gus in the fall, and LOSES. Are you going to call Gus the illegitimate Champion? What if Jones goes to jail? What if he gets cut entirely by Zuffa?
 
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Even though Gus almost beat Jones, and gave him the worst beating he's ever taken. He still lost, and while I completely understand what you're saying and where you're coming from. They still haven't beat jones, and in my eyes they're not the real champs. Obviously it's not their fault that jones acted like a jackass and got the title taken away.

Now, if Jones goes to prison and doesn't comeback for a long time. Then I guess we have no choice to accept the guy who's holding the belt as the champ. But there's always gonna be that "well, they never beat jones" talk.

it's similar to the Cruz situation. Barao was never considered to be the real champ. And then Dillashaw beats the crap out of him and he becomes champ. Neither guy is at fault because Cruz keeps getting injured, but in most people's eyes. The legimacy of their belt is tainted because they never took it from the real champ. But it's not as bad as Cormier, because unlike them he already lost to the real champ.
 
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