Conor’s Ground Game: No trolls allowed

[chillyoo]

To argue, how many people claim Ragin Al to have elite grappling? But he survived 5 rounds with a Khabib

 

[Kneeuinthenutz]

The good news is that we will without question find out how good Conor really is in a few weeks.

Mendes gassed from only training a few days on short notice.

He caught lighting in a bottle with Aldo

He beat the ever loving fuck out of Alvarez.

Credit all around no matter the details. Big names. Big highlights.

Just surviving 5 rounds with Khabib earns a shit ton of respect with me. If this dude, finds a way to win, or even make the fight fairly close? He is a once in a generation fighter.

I guess we found out.

Again, I give Conor a great deal of credit for taking this fight. For me it shows true grit. His management should be fired for letting him take this fight, and WME IMG also should beat the shit out of Dana for being and imbecile. However the dude did show a lot of character for even accepting this fight. It's also apparent he's suffering from the same problem BJ Penn did. He has a bunch of ball sucking "yes men" around him instead of semi professionals with common sense.

 

[Hardkore]

Of course he’s elite, no one gets to where he got by being a regular joe...

I’ve been posting on the grappling forum from 2009, guys at f12 actually post out pictures and most of us post our promotions, mine is there...

Being more than a regular joe doesn't qualify as elite.

I apologize then. But you should know better than to say McGregor is good on the ground

 

[HIMBOB]

He's a legitimate brown belt in BJJ. In my book that puts him at average in the UFC for BJJ. In the UFC, you have black belts but there are levels to the black belts.
- I got my black belt in 3 years mcdojo black belts. The black belts that used their athletic ability and not BJJ to get by
- legitimate black belts. Guys who have over 10 years of pure BJJ experience.
- high level BJJ guys. The guys that make other black belts look normal.
- world champ black belts. The guys that make other good BJJ guys look helpless.

Now a legitimate brown belt might actually be black belt level but for one of many reasons just hasn't been awarded his black belt yet.
The one thing I took away from the Khabib fight is Conor isn't a slouch off his back and made Khabib (who is at world class level) work to either keep position or reachieve an already gained but lost dominant position. I also really liked his rubber guard. He made Khabib work and that's impressive.

Now BJJ and subs isn't all there is to a person's ground game. TD and TDD are other important aspects.

Considering that Conor has only been taken down by Chad and Khabib (he gets a pass on Nate because Nate took him down in the second fight when Conor was running on fumes at the end of the 5th round and in the first fight Conor initiated the TD and got swept to his back) that seems to be good evidence of solid TDD. The issue here is besides Khabib and Chad he's been matched up with mainly strikers who aren't going to attempt to take a person does unless something goes wrong with their game plans.

Besides a green Holloway I can't remember anyone else getting TD by Conor. But that's not his game plan.

Anyway
BJJ - B-
Wrestling - C-
Overall - C

Which is passing and average. Remember this is the UFC or the pinnacle of MMA.

Now considering his striking (MMA) is an A and Conor's overall skillset now jumps to B. But that's another conversation.

How do you explain not even touching Nate's or khabibs arms when they were choking him?

A heart issues not skill issues??

 

[Gervais]

below average. He is strong and athletic and that keeps him in. but also its easier to extend the ground survival when you are focused on only surviving

 

[Wicked_1]

You cant judge by the fight with khabib, as Khabib makes strikers look bad. The threat of the takedown and forward pressure is really big vs Khabib because they know he is the best at holding top position. I would say conors ground game is 7/10 tdd 8/10.

 

[Liverkick-king56]

Conor is actually very good off his back and has good ttd

He was able to get Mendes off of him in the first round when both were fresh and Mendes doesn't have Edgar or Aldo level top control but he's one of the best wrestlers in the division. Conor took very little damage from Khabib in the first round and Khabib has some of the most unorthadox and effective ground n pound. Khabib is a monster at creating space and Conor was able to stop him from doing too much damage until he got hammered with a monster punch standing, Mj and Barboza were overwelmed very early and are both solid anti-wrestlers

He stuffed Mendes' takedowns (#1 takedown artist at Fw in my opinion) and even with Mendes short camp that's still super impressive.
Khabib was even struggling to get Conor down at times and Khabib has shown to be unstoppable against the fence chaining together everything and anything, the guy almost never stops hunting for the takedown and Conor was defending really well.

Now I can't stand conorand hope he gets KTFO every time he fights but to say his ground game sucks is stupid. I personally think his striking is overrated but his ground game is very underrated.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

How do you explain not even touching Nate's or khabibs arms when they were choking him?

A heart issues not skill issues??

That's not heart that's cardio and that's another conversation. This is about the ground game.

 

[SG123]

That's not heart that's cardio and that's another conversation. This is about the ground game.

The fact that he didn't even attempt to fight it is clearly because he'd quit, rather than a cardio issue. The mental gymnastics you have to do to explain it away as a cardio issue is nothing short than his arms literally being paralyzed.

 

[Damon3388]

What would his ground game look like with elite cardio? Does he get out-played and out-worked on the ground because of poor technique and lack of knowledge and ability, or because he gasses or is trying to conserve energy?

 

[CodyMckenziesPrime]

Conor went from fighting the best boxer in the world to the best wrestler... what an idiot

 

[PrinceOfPain]

Khabib didn't do anything with his grappling!!!!! That's my point.

If you think laying in guard is a great measure of scoring, that's on you. Most intelligent people don't.

Most intelligent people realize the rules are heavily skewed to wrestling, unfairly so. You can be getting beat soundly, and then get a takedown and lay in guard for a minute and somehow still win a round. Hell, you don't even have to have a good shot, you can just drive to the cage and work.

It's pitiful, and everyone outside of those types of guys knows it.

If Khabib didn't do anything on the ground, Conor didn't do anything at all. One of them dictated how/where the game was played and the other failed to establish that context. The round was not close. The only close round was the round Conor arguably took.
Khabib took him down, kept him down, and steadily advanced position. Four of five minutes were spent were Khabib wanted to be. McGregor defended well, but you don't take rounds for running away.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

The fact that he didn't even attempt to fight it is clearly because he'd quit, rather than a cardio issue. The mental gymnastics you have to do to explain it away as a cardio issue is nothing short than his arms literally being paralyzed.

Kinda hard to do anything when you can't breathe. Conor's fighting style uses a bunch of energy. Empty gas tank makes cowards of us all.

 

[strongstylekarate]

Sub level tbh, he needs to hire high level wrestlers and submission artist if he wants to counter Khabib.

Their last fight is pure no contest when it comes to grappling.

Khabib's pressure took his energy.

 

[FighterTwister]

FACTS - http://www.ufc.com/fighter/Conor-McGregor

Has he got skills yeah but would be advised to train more and study each range of fighting if he chooses to continue.

He needs more experience in all areas not just his wrestling but his boxing.

It was horrible with Floyd when in the clinch he looks awkward going around the back and not knowing how to work the body for angles and K.O shots.

Basically less party more cross training time with serious time put in to get up to standard

Sharpen your skills as a fighter if you want to be in the limelight.

Cant rely on the left



He needs to study his last fight with Khabib and see his own weakness and cut the bad boy act and be pro

 

[BJJ_Rage]

Being more than a regular joe doesn't qualify as elite.

I apologize then. But you should know better than to say McGregor is good on the ground

What are you basing your opinion that he’s not good? I based my opinion in simple logic, I base my opinion on what I saw him display in the few times he had to use his ground game...

 

[Jonny Ninja]

He doesn't have a ground game. Its TDD and survival. And that is why he will never be remembered as an ATG fighter, hes too one dimensional.
People giving him credit against Khabib also need to factor in how much fence grabbing and other illegal things he was doing, and being allowed to get away with by Herb
He doesn't deserve any credit for his ground game against Khabib, he got owned. Just like he doesn't deserve any credit for the fight with Floyd because Floyd did not respect his power (lol at people who honestly believed he hit harder than elite level boxers). He wouldn't have taken the same risks against any of his boxing peers he fought at the elite level

 

[markg171]

If Khabib didn't do anything on the ground, Conor didn't do anything at all. One of them dictated how/where the game was played and the other failed to establish that context. The round was not close. The only close round was the round Conor arguably took.
Khabib took him down, kept him down, and steadily advanced position. Four of five minutes were spent were Khabib wanted to be. McGregor defended well, but you don't take rounds for running away.

So how was round 3 only arguably a Conor round then? He went 3/3 on TDD and proceeded to outland Khabib 3:1 when he forced Khabib into striking with him.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

He doesn't have a ground game. Its TDD and survival. And that is why he will never be remembered as an ATG fighter, hes too one dimensional.
People giving him credit against Khabib also need to factor in how much fence grabbing and other illegal things he was doing, and being allowed to get away with by Herb
He doesn't deserve any credit for his ground game against Khabib, he got owned. Just like he doesn't deserve any credit for the fight with Floyd because Floyd did not respect his power (lol at people who honestly believed he hit harder than elite level boxers). He wouldn't have taken the same risks against any of his boxing peers he fought at the elite level

Getting owned by khabib now means you have no ground game?

 

[Pious Augustus]

He had great defense against some of Khabib's tactics but he looked clueless at times, i think he spent more time on studying Khabib's ground offense specifically and how to counter/stop/minimize its effect rather than improving his overall grappling.
And even then, defense is only one aspect of grappling, thus i can't say he's a good grappler yet, i need to see more.