That's the thing though, and illustrate what I was talking about.
Bashing Conor on who was training him is trash talking.
But telling Nate that his clothes are more expensive... what the fuck does that prove? Nothing. That's why IMO this is not trash talking, unless they were both rich economists gloating on who can make more money...
Mmm, but I didn't see what Diaz was trying to get at with that. He was talking about training with the best sparring partners in the world - as all fighters usually do - I bet if Conor said something like; 'not one of your team mates have won a UFC title' Diaz would have replied with something like 'eh, we don't fight midgets' even though Diaz is usually taller and has a longer reach than his opponents. Hickson Gracie was doing unconventional training methods and his son (whose name I can't remember) trains with Diaz and Conor made a reference to it which Diaz glossed over.
Well, the money thing would have annoyed Diaz as he's always being vocal about not getting paid enough and at that current time he was on 40K in total if he won. He even did an interview complaining about CM Punk being in the UFC - not for the fact he hadn't fought even an amateur fight, but that he'd probably make more money in 1 fight than Diaz had before he fought Conor. When they did go on that financial show, for whatever reason, Diaz had enough and stormed off. Though I'll give my opinion further down why i think he did.
I seriously think they both have some Mental disorder that makes huge introverts. They don't like it. But they are not an act either
I think both of them have some sort of anxiety related stuff going on. Diaz sr seems to be the worst affected by it. I've always noticed when he answers a question at a press conference he'll take a big breath in - which is panic attack prevention 101. After the 2nd press conference Diaz stormed off that 'money programme' and just before he did he was twiddling with his mic before he took it off and walked out. I felt like he was having a panic attack there - I have them myself - and that was what came to mind. Or I could be absolutely wrong.
I dislike guys like Conor who are NOT the personna you see in interviews, he chooses to act like that. And if you do that, it means you could act differently, be more respectful.
Closer to a fight you can see a change in his demeanour, for sure. I don't think that means he's putting on a persona, but more flicking the switch up a notch mentally. What interviews are you referring to by the by by being more respectful? Look at the outfit he wore before 205 and the Mink top on the world tour - I don't think many people would wear outfits like that and I thought before 205 that outfit was a bit gimmicky and it wasn't only until a couple of days later I seen the picture of Joe Frazier wearing that outfit.
I get why people dislike him. But my take on him is if he was as arrogant as he's perceived, you wouldn't have all those Irish folk coming over for his fights. I think a lot of it is just him fucking about and if he was so ego centric, he'd need to be fed the attention he supposedly craves on a regular basis. Folk were talking about how quiet he went when Ferguson and Nurmagomedov were talking about him, but he goes off the grid after his fights and you don't see him being pictured out and about at home or doing interviews.
I've heard Rogan say he's treated like a God in Ireland - he's not. Most of those fans who travel over for the fights are going to Vegas just as much for the piss up than to watch the actual fight
That's the thing. If Conor didn't dress up like that, talked like that and acted like that, no way in hell he would get where he is.
But he didn't get into the UFC without doing well on the regional circuit and I roll my eyes when people say he only fights for the money - seriously?
He would not get the same matchups, he would not get to the FW belt so fast (not without going through Frankie first) and would definitely not get a LW belt right after.
Same with Sonnen. If he didn't change his personna and became the guy he is today, he would have never gotten the first match with Silva, let alone the second one (and a title shot against Jon Jomnes and TUF, etc and all).
SO they did talk their way into those matches. But like you said, you gotta win them.... though you see that even though Sonnen never did (when it counted), he was indeed one of the highest paid fighters and it was all because of his amazing skills on the microphone.
I agree with the latter part of that, but you paint a picture that he was handed everything to him. He went out and did his media, drew attention to himself by slagging everyone in the FW division off and people tend to forget he could've pulled out of 189 with his knee - though he wouldn't have earned the money he did - at the end of the day, he signed to fight and, yeah, Mendes wasn't in camp and Edgar claimed Conor turned him down - same as Cerrone who mentioned he was turned down 3 times - but if he lost that fight, I'd have to think they would've still done the Aldo fight because of the build up and money spent, but he still fought.
Same as 196. In the lead up to 202, Florian on his podcast had mentioned that Conor had staph before the fight and was on antibiotics during part of his training camp. But he signed to fight Diaz, lost fair and square and didn't sit out and wait when a lot of fighters would have - though they're not in the same position Conor is financially. He said so himself he pointed to 189 and 196 as to why he should get the Diaz rematch immediately.
I agree in the name of sport that Conor shouldn't have got the title shot at 155. I don't know what everyone's personal take on that fight being made, but some folk were up in arms that Conor got the rematch with Diaz and pointed out it made no sense at the time and questioned how Conor could get a title shot after going 1-1 and winning the closest majority decision in MMA history. Anyway, I'm still trying to work out if Ferguson was injured when Alvarez got the title shot - it's the only reason I can think of.
New York has a huge Irish population, the ticket prices were ridiculous and would that event have sold out if it was Alvarez and Nurmagomedov - I'm not so sure. I don't think I've ever seen a Dagestan or Russian flag when he's fought and his looney manager points out how big of a draw he is by Embedded views. I'm not going to pretend I don't know why they let Conor fight Alvarez. He wasn't canvassing for it, it was Alvarez who called him out. It's situations like that why I think the UFC would be better off getting rid of PPV as it plays a huge factor in who gets a title shot.
Then you look at Conor's record of having 4 fights in 11 months compared to Nurmagomedov having 4 in 4 years. How Ferguson didn't get a title shot in that space of time only came up when his win streak got longer - I don't care if someone is a draw or not, but a lot of folk didn't give a shit about Ferguson at the time or there wasn't really a large out cry as to why he hadn't fought for the belt.