UFC 229: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor & Tony Ferguson vs. Anthony Pettis RBR

Well I am a boxing fan who watches mma occasionally because my son loves it and my nephew trains in BJJ... but to stand them up, while more pleasing to my preferences would certainly deny many guys of thier styles and imposing of thier wills (even if not aesthetically pleasing to my eyes), and remove some of them from top flight levels.

 

Well, I'd imagine his jaw, or neck may have felt like it was about to snap. Neck cranks can be painful

 

Yeah I'm also more from a boxing background but have been following MMA 20+ years, I much prefer the striking aspect of MMA but enjoy watching high quality BJJ/grappling when guys are trying for subs.
I'm not saying the refs need to stand them up straight away but I think a warning should be given when the actions stops and then they should be stood up.
I would like to see more warnings given when there is no action with the stand up fighting also ,like in the old PRIDE days when they used to hand out yellow cards when fighters weren't doing anything which created some of the best fights of all time.

 

Mcgregor had a few better moments but took a worse beating. Iaquinta was at least able to stuff several takedown and make Khabib uncomfortable in the later rounds of their fight.

 

Mcgregor's gameplan in this fight was really poor. Just a bunch of lazy headhunting and pawing with the jab to setup a left that Khabib was never in range for. I was expecting a focused body-centric attack a la Mendez to wear Khabib out and set up up the left.

 

Khabib would own any version of McGregor. Chad Mendes on two weeks notice was taking McGregor down at 145. He just didn't have the cardio to last.