Full comprehensive breakdown of Conor sparring IBF boxing champ! Find out if Conor's boxing holds up

[James L]

STFU. You can't do so you shit on an immaculate effort? WTF is wrong with you? Your criticism of his conjecture, IS conjecture, you fuckin twat.

 

[Lost Dragon]

They should consider a sub-forum for "serious analysis" threads, to which only mods can transfer threads, and in which all trolling and other shenanigans are banned.

Yeah but this thread shouldn't be anywhere near it.

 

[Pravus]

LOL look at how many times TS types "Conor".

 

[James L]

Conor looks like he's trying really hard to come across as a boxer, but his MMA striking, movement and posture is still there. Chris is trying about half as hard as Conor and is still tuning him up. Its like a ping pong player trying to show up a tennis player and failing.

I think you were being too nice until the end. He honestly came across as a boxing fan boy who is sparring for the first time, atleast sparring for the first time against someone who knows how to box.

The TS comes across as inexplicably having Conor on this pedestal, seems that's why he didn't post Chris's interview about the sparring.


"16 oz gloves, the punches didn't faze me..AT ALL." (rough?) quote from the interview.



Seems like TS has alot of alts and is being overt about it..."other posters" compliments on his thread and himself are just TOO much.

 

[DwayneUSA]

I can give credit to Conor for trying to improve his game (guess he didn't feel ready for 200) but once agian his homo fans prance in and make it impossible to feel anything but disgust.

Bottom line, that boxer was going at about 40% and Conor still looked meh.

 

[Kemeticsoul]

Good thread TS.

We need more posters like you around. As you'll soon realize, there are a tremendous amount of wildashertards grazing any thread dealing with Conor McGregor, so the responses you're getting - consider it a successful analysis.

McGregor has got the skills, your post outlined it beautifully, the video is evidence. It's clear half of McGregor's haters didn't watch it or simply don't understand boxing.

 

[3pac]

Can we please stop calling this guy the IBF champion, he won an INTERNATIONAL championship, which if you know anything about boxing you know that means only a bit more than a participation ribbon

 

[Fallout King]

Cool story Conor nuthgger OP #854936885 Now fuck off, with your made up bullshit.

 

[Darth_Inv1ctu5]

Thanks for this. It's a good read. Probably lost on this crowd. You'll get a lot of didn't reads. But quality posts like this should be commended instead of ridiculed.

Yeah, I get the "this is some long shit" sentiments but when those are fully expected, why even bother adding any past the first one in a thread? Besides, the dude did say it was hella long, not like you weren't warned. Good job TS, good post.

 

[ejlarson249]

A lot of MMA fans dont know boxing. This ignorance has lead to posts like:

"Conor has bad boxing, bad defense, stuck in the mud" - what ever they can come up with.

Hopefully this thread educates the common MMA fan and we can get to the bottom of the truth!

I have decided to do a complete and thorough breakdown of every exchange during this fun sparring session, so MMA fans can go back, rewind, and better understand what was going on. Also to satisfy those who want that deeper understanding of what they were watching. The sparring was in good fun, this breakdown is in good fun

Its a very long read because im breakding down every moment. Trust me. Im covering it all

Just want to pre-face with this. Very rarely will we ever get to see a champion level MMA striker sparring with a championship level boxer on video. Very..very cool to see. I mean theres video of Anderson Silva sparring at Wild card and geting schooled by some no name amature. It really put to light how insanely over-rated Anderson was as an "MMA boxer" by fanboys, but sadly it left a stigma that MMA fighters cant box. Its awesome to see Conor come in with legit boxing skill and actually prove that wrong. Its great to see Conor undo the damage Anderson did. Boxing fans respect MMA because they respect Conor's skills. Up until this point we had never seen an MMA striker actually win the boxing sparring against a championship level boxer. Yeah I know, its just sparring, but still lol. Pretty special to see from Conor. Lots of fun to discuss. Its a fun watch. As an MMA fan you should get behind Conor representing MMA this well. Great to be an MMA fan/Conor fan. Enough of that. Now lets gets to it



- Conor opens up with a body jab

- Pay attention to 0:09. As Conor is cutting off the ring, he has an angle on Chris, Chris throws a right hook, Conor slips to his outside shoulder and counters with a left.

Very fluid the way Conor just slips (or leans) and drops the left - like its all one motion. Conor is a very smooth slick counter puncher - even by boxing standards, as Conor's sparring partner revealed in interviews afterwards

- At 0:16 Conor feints, feints, then uses his lead hand as a blinder to sneak a left to the body. Very slick boxing skill from Conor.

That is similar to what Floyd actually does. Floyd will throw a feeler right hand, and keep it out there to blind his opponent for a left hook to the side of the body.

Conor uses his lead hand as a blinder to sneak his lefts to the body.

Conor follows that up with a short left hook up top. Chris counters with a soft right. Conor rolls back with it.

- Starting from 0:20 the pace rapidly picks up. Both lossening up and getting into it.

-As Chris shifts weight to throw a body shot, Conor sees it and changes levels with him simultaneously throwing a body jab. Conor smoothers Chris' body shot and takes it on his inside shoulder

When an opponent changes levels, you change levels with them. For Conor to be showing this kind of subtle knowledge against an opponent of that level, it really demonstartes just how much Conor has studied different positions - their solutions, and truly understands the finer details of the sweet science.

- Instantly after, Conor probes with his lead hand. Chris counters with a right

- Conor picks up on this, and now knows Chris likes to counter with his lead and prefers his right hand to his left. So what happens next? Conor is ready with that brilliant timing. Chris throws his right again - a jab - and Conor slips to the inside of it and counters with a right hook to the body

Absolutely beautiful legit boxing skill/defense/countering being demonstarted by Conor so far.

Conor is winning the boxing exchanges in pure boxing skill against a former champion boxer. A far cry from the videos of Anderson getting embaressed by some no name amature at Wild Card

- 0:25 Conor bobs to his left side right into a right hook to the body. Chris follows up with a right. Because Conor is holding the phone with his left hand Conor picks off the right off his glove. Beautiful defensive responsibility by Conor.

(Conor actually does keep his hands up in positions that require it. WHEN Conor has his hands down - its when he knows he can - and can come back with a counter instantly)

- After the beautiful slip and right hook counter to the body from Conor, Conor starts circling to his right to get Chris to follow into a lead. At 0:27 Conor leads with a jab left straight combo. Chris did good of not following and pulling away from the left. Left misses

- Starting at 0:29 after Conor comes up short with the left lead, Conor steps right into orthodox.

Assumes an MMA stance lol.

Chris is completely bewildered at this point. Both are essentially at a stand off. Conor likely did this to draw out a rush, plant feet and counter. Conor is waiting like a boxing cobra for a rush, to slip and drop his counter.

- Conor doesnt get the response he wants. 0:36 Conor steps back into southpaw. This gives Chris oppurtunity to lead. Chris opens up with a body jab. Good safe low risk move.

Chris follows up the body jab with jabs up top. Conor is now utilising a philly shell defense. Conor hiding behind his lead shoulder and pulling away from all the jabs and pivoting out. Left follow up to the body from Chris almost glancing off.

- 0:40 Jab from Conor. Jab from Chris. They trade jabs

- Conor bounching on his feet. 0:43 Conor steps to his left, hoping to walk Chris into a lead. Conor has the left counter ready. 0:45 throws it but half cocks it after realising Chris didnt step in. Chris pulls away. Nothing comes of the exchange

- 0:52 Conor leads with a body jab. Leans away behind his lead shoulder picking off the counter jab up top attempt from Chris. Good stuff by Conor

- 0:53 Conor now probing his lead hand, which has many uses. You probe as a range finder, feeler, distance control, to time and snuff out etc.

- 0:54 Chris countering Conor's probing with lead hand by getting low and using head movement. This is what you do against someone probing lead hand out there.

- 0:56 Conor shoots a lead left straight. Again Conor half cocks it and stops when he sees that Chris did not step in.

Chris has good judge of range. Hes applying pressure but staying back just enough to not be in range or will pull back instantly. Chris is no chump.

0:57 Heres a great exchange. I reccomend everyone go over it in slow motion. Very hard to catch in normal speed. Chris leads with a jab. Hard to see if it lands clean, or to the side, or glances. But Conor actually changed head slots while shooting a simultaneous counter jab. If you pause just before 0:58 or at 0:57, you can see Conor's head now in the inside of Chris' jab. Conor counters over it with a left straight.

Brilliant skill by Conor. The level of legit boxing skill/defense/countering Conor has is absurd.

Again, Conor is displaying this against a former championship level boxer. If this doesnt prove how under rated Conor is in pure skill...well then I dont know what will..

So to go over it, Chris throws a jab, Conor shoots a simultaneous counter jab while changing head slots to the inside of Chris' jab, countering over it with a left. Just brilliant by Conor. If you pause at the right time you can see it landed clean.

Chris had already started pulling back after the left. Conor transitions to an uprising jab as he hops in after Chris. Conor's follow up, hop in, uprising jab lands too, BUT I still didnt like Conor chasing like that and his feet leaving the ground. The one mistake Conor has made so far

Conor throws another jab coming forward. If anything it keeps Chris pre-occupied while Conor covers distance or allows him to re-set when he wants to etc

- 1:02 As Chris jabs to Conor's chest, Conor attempts uppercut counter inside of it while out of philly shell stance. Conor now tucked behind his lead shoulder attempting to counter

Conor's uppercut counter just came up short.

-Chris then follows up with a right hook. This is the first punch Chris lands on Conor thats noticably clean (if youve been keeping track Conor has been out landing Chris in clean shots)

- As Chris lands the right hook Conor kind of moves with it and pivots out

- 1:04 Conor now working behind philly shell. As Chris steps around to throw a right hook, Conor pivots out to his right while picking off Chris' right hook from the philly shell. Again, awesome boxing skill by Conor

- 1:07 Conor goes back to using lead hand as a blinder to sneak in the body shot. Conor's tricks and set ups are a treat to watch

- 1:09 both hand fighting now. Chris shoots jab. Conor leans back from it

- 1:14 Conor shoots lead straight, Chris ducks it and shifts to his right as he counters with a right hook to the body, as Chris comes up from the body shot Conor cracks him with a right hook lol. Good exchange. Conor is in there against a high level boxer who KNOWS what hes doing and Conor is still winning out and showcasing legit boxing skill

- 1:16 even though nothing happens, its important to see. Chris changes levels and Conor changes levels with him + fakes an uppercut. Negating any set up or misdirections + getting Chris back upright. Conor has the IQ of a veteran high IQ boxer. Pretty surreal to see for an MMA striker

-1:17 this one was a real high light. Its like a defensive combo from Conor. Conor slips a jab to the outside, slips a jab to the inside, and then pivots out - making Chris miss due to the angle, as Chris can only touch Conor light to the body at the end of it all. Absolute beautiful slick defensive skill by Conor. Such beautiful head and feet movement in unison to make miss. Keep in mind this aint no chump who Conor is sparring.

So far Conor has shown great skill, defense, and countering. Conor is leagues better then Anderson Silva could ever have dreamed of being. Conor is far slicker, far more fundamentally sound, far more diverse, far more complete of a boxer, far superior IQ, far superior set ups and tricks, and just has a far far deeper understanding of boxing then Anderson ever had

- 1:24 This is small but nice. Conor takes a lateral side step to his right cutting off Chris' lateral movement to that direction.

Unreal how much of a complete boxer Conor is. We have seen Conor countering, using set ups, being defensive, being able to lead, cutting off the ring etc. Theres no facet of his boxing that hes truly weak in

- 1:30 Conor feints jab twice to set up a lead left. Chris did good of changing levels once Conor feinted, and likely slips the left from Conor. He certainly pulls back from it

1:34 Chris bends and goes for body jab, Conor attempts left straight counter up top. It misses to the outside of Chris shoulder due to Chris' head being off center line.

As Chris comes up, Conor JAMS him instantly with a little jab (great timing by Conor) Chris attempts right hook counter off the jab, and Conor counters over his right hook with a beautiful slick CLEAN left counter. Beautiful skill by Conor

Chris pulls away instantly after impact. It almost looks like Conor's left counter doesnt land but it landed clean. You can puase at the direct moment of impact. One thing Chris is good at is that after eating a shot he instantly disengages not allowing any follow ups. To judges this would also make it seem like the opponent didnt land on Chris when they did. Conor has landed clean counters on Chris so far

-1:37/1:38 Conor attempts lead left, Chris counters with a right check hook. Chaotic exchange lol. This is the second exchange Chris has won clearly so far

- Starting around 1:39 Conor uses lead hand to measure. Chris changes levels.

Both are doing all the right things. Its a matter of pure skill vs skill and Conor has been coming out on top so far with his skill

Continuing, Chris bends at the waist low to his right. Conor misses with a little uppercut and right. Good slick defense by Chris now. 1:41 Conor adjusts, stops punching and again puts his lead hand out there to keep track of Chris' head. Chris disengages. The third or 4th exchange Chris has won

If youve been keeping track for fun, so far Conor has out landed him and won the majority of boxing exchanges

-1:45 Conor leans away from a jab

- 1:48 Conor leans to his right taking his head off the center line (defensive responsibility) then Conor from that position leads with a left that lands. Chris however does a great job of recognizing Conor's head position and tries to land a left hook after. Conor at the same time shoots a right uppercut. Chris' left hook ends up hitting Conor's shoulder. Nice quick reaction from Conor to get his left arm in tight and deflect the left hook attempt

- Starting around 1:49/50 is a real highlight. Conor touch jabs Chris. Chris responds with a jab. Conor slips inside of it and counters to the body with a beatiful right hook down to the soul of the gut (Conor is going to GAS Nate out in the rematch with this combo) Anway, phenomenal slip and counter to the body by Conor.

Conor again demonstrating fucking beautiful slick boxing skills/defensive skills and countering skills. Conor very elusive with subtle head movement and ripping slip & counters

Instantly after that is another high light reel from Conor

- 1:51 After Conor lands the beautiful slip and counter to the body, Conor pivots out, plants his feet, tucked behind his lead shoulder in the philly shell, and fucking rips a BEAUTIFUL uppercut counter as Chris tries to step in with a left to the body.

Chris eats that slick uppercut by Conor and tries to muster up a right hook to the body. Conor is dominating the boxing exchanges now during this stretch.

- 1:53/54 Conor still in philly shell. Chris jabs. Conor picks it off his lead shoulder. More great defense by Conor

- 1:55 Conor's jab draws Chris into a high guard. Conor sneaks left lead through top of his head gear almost lol

Conor again uses lead hand as blinder but tries to follow up with a left hook instead.

When you use lead hand as blinder you generally want to follow up to the body where they cant see. Chris also recongizes Conor just left hooked, that his left is down, and times a right hook off it. Only second mistake made by Conor so far. Beautiful timing by Chris. Only the second CLEAN right hook Chris has landed on Conor so far

After Conor eats the counter right hook, Conor leans away from a follow up jab by Chris

Conor backs into the ropes. 1:59 Again Chris steps in with left hook to the body and again Conor has his feet planted ready to time him with an uppercut counter. It misses off the mark a little (due to Chris being off center when firing left hook to body) Chris follows up with right hook to the body. As Chris tries to combo with right hook up top Conor pulls away making it miss.

Conor has picked up on Chris' pattern of stepping in with lefts to the body when ever Conor disengages but remains in range, and is exploiting with uppercut counters. Beautiful counter IQ and counter work being displayed by Conor.

Starting at 2:01 more beautiful slick highlight reel work by Conor. Conor shoots the left almost like a jab, it gets Chris to slip to the outside. Conor then follows up with a right uppercut as he pivots out turning Chris with the uppercut.

Again, both doing the right things. Skill vs skill and Conor is winning the exchanges quite handily during this stretch with superior boxing skill and IQ vs this former champion boxer. Amazing

After Conor uppercuts+pivots and turns Chris, Conor is now moving to his right. 2:02 Chris follows and shoots a jab, Conor slips outside of it, lands beautiful uppercut counter + plants his feet, shoots a left straight as he changes direction and circles out to his left.

Holy snaps what fucking slick defensive skill, countering skill, and footwork by Conor.

If you understand the sweet science you will appreciate the skill Conor is displaying right now

And the sparring finally ends!!

Use my breakdown/cliff notes with times attached as reference points, so you can replay those moments again and again as you read the descriptions of what was truly happening to better see what was truly going on

Hopefully now that you can better understand what was going on you can better appreciate the level of slick boxing skill Conor has/showed.

If this were to go to a judges score card Conor handidly won this 10-9. Very impressive stuff to see. Conor has proven that his boxing skill is legit as fuck against this former champion boxer.

The things that really stood out:

1. Conor's timing and countering is a thing of pure beauty even by boxing standards

2. Conor has great footwork and superb defense. Conor's ability to slip punches and counter in one motion with such fludity is seriously impressive

Now flaws:

If anything, the only thing we can realy say is, Conor could really control exchanges with an iron fist and dominate far more effortlessly if he improved on these 2 things:

1. Using jab more offensively (instead of only for misdirections)

2. Controlling his out put a little better. Conor punches so much he gives countering oppurtunites, despite Conor's defense being slick enough and stiffling/avoiding most of it, its still something Conor could tighten up to really shut down opponents. Pick the right times to throw and make them all count. Control when the exchanges occur etc. But none the less Conor has very much developed into an OFFENSIVE COUNTER PUNCHER ALA GGG

Chris is no slouch, so all in all this was insanely impressive of Conor.

Its much different compared to Nick Diaz getting raped by Omar Henry in sparring and Anderson getting raped by a no name amature at Wild Card

Conor has been the most impressive MMA striker in boxing of all the sparring videos we have. Conor def has the best boxing of any UFC fighter past or present. Of course Conor isnt going to ever out box Floyd, but lets still appreciate the level of pure boxing skill Conor still brings into MMA. Cheers

If you were half as smart as you think you are, you'd be the next Freddie Roach.

 

[Captain Herb]

That guy starts opening up on Conor and Conor decides the session is over lol.

 

[MyJoinDateGlitched]

really sad the people that are going to buy into all this hype and actually pay to watch this fight. Reading the results and a replay will be good enough for me. It is going to be an 0-0 boxing novice vs floyd mayweather. Just saying it makes me laugh. Can't wait til it is all over and I don't have to read about it every site i go to.

edit: Not to mention Conor's MMA career has been pretty sleezy. Shows every opponent an incredible amount of disrespect. You can promote a fight and do it in a more fun and positive way imo. I actually give MMA fans more credit because this kind of marketing appeals to the lowest denominator. Kinda like a Trump strategy. Not to mention he was cutting an incredible amount of weight and he looked like a giant compared to his opponents. He beat some good guys but I wouldn't call what he did courageous. I am glad I got paid his dues when he fought Nate. Nate is a real fighter, and came from a fight anyone, anyday mentality. It is smart he got over that and is about money but at least he was real. Conor was never real. And don't get me started with Floyd. The guy's personal life you couldn't even talk about in front of kids lol. Anyways it is the sad state of affairs. Fights are great but media is really hard to read and I have an office job and MMA media is all I got to keep me sane MMA media the way it is going is going to turn me off of MMA, I am already getting less interested by the day. Like I use to watch events religiously, I would skip out on dates and other important stuff just to watch a fucking event lol. Now I will be playing a video game as it is coming on and be like eh fuck it ill just stream it on my laptop while i play. And then not even pay attention.

 

[TheyAllFloat]

You do realise that they would have prob sparred 10 rounds right? And filmed the whole thing- so you can assume they only uploaded the round where connie did his best.

 

[SH10151]

not gunna read all that TS but I did CTRL+F to see how many times you typed Conor and it was 202... thats some weird ass obsession. thank you for opening my eyes to how crazy I might appear when hyping a fighter. your bias is epic.

Id take Teddy Atlas, Freddy Roach, and Chris Van Heerden's analysis over yours any day.

 

[KONE]

View attachment 102671

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this gif since yesterday

 

[The Bard]

Nearly 90% of Chris' jabs (and right hooks) were shut down/slipped/deflected/avoided by Conor.

And the other 10% - 15% hit him hard. Several hit him flush and could have knocked him down. Getting hit hard by 10% -15% of your opponent's punches in boxing is really, really bad news. That could be 35-80 hard, square shots per fight. Not good. And you acknowledge it. Conor has some nice tricks, but his boxing doesn't look too good here.

 

[Fullmount Triangle]

posting in this thread to say that IBF champion is one of those things said to make a man sound more impressive. It wasn't a world title, it was an international title, which is a stepping stone belt. Lrn 2 boxing m8.

I'm not reading a text breakdown where you break up the timed portions to praise McGregor, geek.

 

[Fullmount Triangle]

i'd also like ot point out that this guy is clearly going 1 mph, as when he jabs, for example, he hangs his hand there for a while. You're acting like this is a real sparring session when it either very clearly isn't, or chris van heerden isn't great yo

 

[frontkick1]

Thank for posting your breakdown of the sparring video, even though I think it's wasted on this forum atm.
Even though Conor is the best pure boxer on the UFC roster you need to be careful not to take it too far in predicting how an MMA fight will go down, keep in mind that thought process (philosophy) behind striking in MMA is completely different than in Boxing.
Regarding the Conor vs Nate 2, I'm not sure it will happen. I'm convinced that Conor took a financial hit in their first fight to make that fight happen and I'm sure that will not happen for their next fight and Nate is asking for a lot more money now than he did last time.
If it does happen, I think it will be 50/50 who wins, both fighters have paths to victory in that fight, Conor with body work, leg kicks and better striking skills, but Nate can take this with clinch game and ground work where he will choose a position over submission and grind it out with points.
btw, good work and don't let the haters overwhelm you with their idiocy.

yeah we all know connor is a leg kick machine

 

[Sinthesized]

Nate has some of the best pure boxing in all of MMA. Good example!