Kavanagh: Conor was never more dedicated, motivated. Dustin bested the best version of Conor

Nightgunner05 said:
You do know Conor has knocked out Dustin before, right?
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FW Dustin was never a top contender like he is at LW. The only top FW he beat was Josh Grispi which was his first FW fight. He was a top 10 FW but never a true top 5 guy. He was #5 by UFC when he fought Conor but UFC tends to overrate some of their guys

https://www.sherdog.com/news/rankings/7/Sherdogs-Official-Mixed-Martial-Arts-Rankings-73041

Sherdog had him 8th going into that fight and thats more in line with how other media rankings and fans had him

Against other true top FWs he was 1-2 before fighting Conor losing to Cub and KZ. He finished Max but Max was 4-0 and 20yo in his UFC debut. He was far from even being considered a ranked FW back then. He beat some other decent FWs like Garza, Brookins, Corasani and Brandao but none of them were ever ranked. His best win after Grispi @ FW was Eric Koch. Good win and he was top 10 before getting murked by Lamas but was like 10-15 level when Dustin beat him

And I think the point of the guy you responded to is champs generally defend their title against top 3 guys mostly on stureaks. Conor has never defended in any promotion. Hes had some favorable matchmaking then seeks out random fights fighting LWs @ 170 and the like
 
This is serious question, and I ask for forgiveness for my ignorance: did Cavanagh's gym ever produce a good, high level fighter beyond Conor?
 
He’s eaten a lot of punches, people forget Floyd landed like 150 power shots in that fight.

Kinda forget that he sparked Eddie looking amazing after arguably losing to Nate 2x or it could be that at 155 he’s just average. Could he go back to 145? No way
 
jk7707 said:
Yea, 7 years ago a different weight class.
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You’re basically giving me an excuse. That would be like me saying Dustin only beat Conor because he’s over the hill. It doesn’t work like that. They are both 1-1
 
ExitLUPin said:
FW Dustin was never a top contender like he is at LW. The only top FW he beat was Josh Grispi which was his first FW fight. He was a top 10 FW but never a true top 5 guy. He was #5 by UFC when he fought Conor but UFC tends to overrate some of their guys

https://www.sherdog.com/news/rankings/7/Sherdogs-Official-Mixed-Martial-Arts-Rankings-73041

Sherdog had him 8th going into that fight and thats more in line with how other media rankings and fans had him

Against other true top FWs he was 1-2 before fighting Conor losing to Cub and KZ. He finished Max but Max was 4-0 and 20yo in his UFC debut. He was far from even being considered a ranked FW back then. He beat some other decent FWs like Garza, Brookins, Corasani and Brandao but none of them were ever ranked. His best win after Grispi @ FW was Eric Koch. Good win and he was top 10 before getting murked by Lamas but was like 10-15 level when Dustin beat him

And I think the point of the guy you responded to is champs generally defend their title against top 3 guys mostly on stureaks. Conor has never defended in any promotion. Hes had some favorable matchmaking then seeks out random fights fighting LWs @ 170 and the like
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Like I told the other guy, that is just an excuse. They have fought twice and are 1-1. You can’t just say that the first time didn’t count as much because of blah blah blah, because I could just as easily do the same about this fight.

As far as not defending titles, you’re right. He didn’t defend, but his run up to the title at fw was as legit as anything anyone has done in that division.
 
Not being able to fight guys smaller than Conor is proving a problem because he can’t starch them like he could at 145

(apart from an over the hill Cerrone)
 
That’s why this is a skill game, you can be motivated all you want but you need to have the right formula of skill sets in the cage to be successful.
 
jk7707 said:
I agree. Conor was gifted his way to two titles, and now he's fighting guys who are just better than him. It's what would have happened if he would have had to defend either of his belts. The UFC just dragged it out to make millions.
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I believe his 145 run to be legit, but this would have definitely happened had he fought a real contender at 155 that wasn't Eddie, no disrespect to him, but he wasn't exactly a world beater in the UFC aside from a fluke win over RDA.
 
Conor never climbed the ladder at 155. His run at 145 was great but he was really untested at LW.

His power does not translate there. Beating Eddie was the highlight of his career.. his win over Nate is weak AF (pointfighted and barely won) and Cerrone had already lost when he entered the cage.
 
Talent always beats hard work, BUT if you lose 2 years of your prime, and 2 years of training for drinking, cocain and partys hard work will beat talent. This is what happend.
 
Conor may have had a perfect camp, but you dont fight 3 times in 4 years and still come out as sharp as you could be.

Also, Porier's ability to absorb damage is far better at LW. I would argue that Conor hit him with far cleaner shots on Saturday, than the one which put Dustin away in 2014.
 
Anyone who watched him during his prime knows that isn't true though.

He's slower, one dimensional and he thinks he's a boxer when his kicks and karate stance/movement were a huge part of his game.
 
Kavanagh is right. I don't understand you guys and don't know what did you watch that night. It's pretty simple.

Dustin is on top level, specially with his stamina and composure. You need to beat him hard to win. Conor couldn't catch up his activity for sure with all preparation. Dustin reach high level. Khabib could beat him on the ground but other than that Khabib doesn't have advantage over Dustin in stamina, conditioning and all other things what you get when you all time have comittment for the game.

Conor strategy was boxing and when you watch the fight he was better than Dustin in boxing exchanges almost all the time, he hurt Dustin but it wasn't enough to finish the guy who made his strength with activity in Octagon. Conor was improved and I expected him to be like that - his hands were fast, he controlled that one TD, clinch was very good against strong guy and he was better in clinch, his cardio was pretty good because it was high pace all the time.

One detail made difference and it was calf kicks. He just didn't have answer for it. Dustin didn't catch him in last sequence before his leg gave up, first with last leg kick that leg gave up than Dustin saw it and went for the kill. Conor couldn't make good defense with moves on one leg and that was it.

So, stop with bullshit. Conor was good and Kavanagh said all good. Conor has solid base with his preparation and he should start training soon as he can if he wants to continue, while that injury go away. Because he was in good shape and now even if it hurts to get this result after all that preparation he has good base to upgrade.

Also, strategy department, he has to balance boxing with his kicks in strategy because it's not good to lean on boxing too much, you need to use all your tools. But it goes like that, win or learn.
 
ExitLUPin said:
Gunnar thats pretty much it lol
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Gunnar only trained with sbg for short time,started at home in iceland and moved to U.S. after his stint here in dublin
Sbg solely produced the likes of pendred,ash the bash,etc
Other than mcnugget,paddy houlihan is their best fighter.says it all
 
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