Very informative, sound and impartial breakdown, highlighting some of the subtler aspects of Khabib's phenomenal wrestling and top control. Someone really should send this video to Mr. McGregor. Conor must've been huffing copious quantities of Cocaine and Proper 12 when he posted his "breakdown" on Instagram; he said something along the lines of Khabib being "blessed" to get the knockdown like it was some sort of freak ocurrence, as though God intervened and pushed Conor's head into the path of Khabib's right hook. It's as if Conor's ego can't handle the fact that he was dropped by a wrestling specialist whom he derided as having mediocre and sloppy striking. More of the same when Khabib and Conor have their rematch at UFC 250, methinks.
It seemed as though Conor was trying to wear Khabib out. That was quite apparent in the 2nd round. Had it gone to the 5th Khabib woulda been in trouble acctually.
I agree that Khabib clearly won round 1. I've already written this many times in other threads but I was surprised by Conor's intelligent grappling that round even though he couldn't get back to his feet. I watched that with my training partners at the BJJ academy and everyone agreed that Conor did a great job of using inside positioning with his limbs to stall Khabib's positional progress. Conor gets a lot of grief for having bad grappling but he did far better than most against Khabib, and also people forget that slick X-Guard sweep he hit Nate with in their first fight.
Conor needs to bin Kavanagh and switch to a new camp, sparring guys like Lobov and Danis has made him stale, it needs a fresh approach to move forward.
Absolutely. Been saying the same for a while but I’d keep Kavanagh. He’s a top coach and bloke(I trained under him) but you’re right about the sparring partners. Look at the standard Khabib is exposed to at AKA. McGregor can do two things: 1) if he’s hungry enough, switch to a top camp out in the US. 2) retire and enjoy his health, wealth and family.
Problem is Kavanagh wouldnt go with him to an american camp/gym. Your right he is a nice bloke, perhaps to nice, i think Conor needs an old school coach who can boss him a bit on the gym, i dont think he has the fire left to make that move though, too much going on other than fighting.
LOL. So it was Conor's plan to get completely WRECKED in rd 2 to tire Khabib out and then take over later in the fight ?
Only a complete deluded Conor fanboy or Conor himself would have the audacity to declare he won that first round. Khabib took him down within the first 30-40 seconds, kept him down slowly taking his gas away then landed a couple of hard g'n'p shots as the rd closes. What the hell did Conor do in rd 1 ?
Not as long as I did with some of the other guys from his gym. It was a few years before Conor and MMA/BJJ was young in Ireland. Kavanagh is a legend though. Great teacher, great ambition and changed the face of martial arts in Ireland. I think he’s good for Conor. Calm & trustworthy. Probably needs better fighters in his gym though.
The contract doesnt mean he has to do all 5 fights, he could do 2 of 3 more superfights then retire, he could do one, he could do them all but no one will force him to fight, he is free to retire when ever he wants.