The reversal on Nate was a medium level move.
No. It wasn't. A basic xguard sweep is only "medium level" if we're in 2009. In this day and age, hitting that sweep on an opponent who chose to NOT defend it is pretty basic. Like I said, we have white belts at my gym who can hit that in both BJJ and MMA without much struggle. The game has advanced significantly and that's not an advanced move anymore. Had Nate tried *at all* to defend it, and Conor still pulled it off, then I would agree that it's a more advanced move. But that's not at all what actually happened.
So basically we still don’t know if he have a solid base.
Except we do know. He DOES seem to have a *very basic* grasp of the base fundamentals. Like a blue belt. Nothing more, nothing less. So I stand by my statement that saying he's "above average" is WAY too much credit. Does he suck? No. Not at all. Is he good? no. Not at all. He has the base minimum level needed in order to compete in MMA at the professional level imo.
Khabib did not advance any positions that's my point. The guy got outstruck 2-1 while doing nothing but managing to take Conor down.
I'm not saying Conor won the round based off the context of MMA judging - judging that vastly over scores takedowns and decides to score control for some idiotic reason. I'm saying he won by what fair judging would look like.
This is why you get lay and pray in MMA, because you reward it. Imagine if lay and pray was actually scored in wrestling or jiu-jitsu LMAO
A good portion of this is just outright nonsense. If someone can take a grown man (who also happens to be a high level, professional fighter), and hold him there almost effortlessly, while the guy on bottom is almost completely powerless to do ANYTHING about it - that guy on the bottom is getting his ass kicked and deserves to lose. Period. This isn't "idiotic reasoning". A key factor to any combat sport is ... you guessed it ... CONTROL. Is it fun to watch a GSP style human blanket match? NO. Not really. That said, physically controlling another human being like that is significant. Also - IDK about wrestling (I love wrestling but basically know f-all about it), "lay and pray" actually IS scored in BJJ. Because it's a form of CONTROL. In the IBJJF for example, side control isn't scored as a "position", BUT, I can get ahead by an advantage or sweep or something like that, get to side control, and ride out the round to win. That's a form of "scoring" for "lay and pray". In a lot of other orgs, when a grappling match goes to the judges (or referee's) decision, the person who had more time controlling the opponent is often rewarded with the victory.
I often find lay and pray about as exciting as paint drying (and it's a primary reason why I actually find GSP to be a bit of a dissapointment as a fan), but from a technical standpoint, if you don't understand why control of that nature gets scored like it does, you don't understand a very significant portion of the sport itself.
