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

[Lyoto Cerrone]

Hard to believe. Your mindset changes once you've reached the top. Conor took the fight seriously but no way he was as hungry and determined as he once was.

Many fighters have gotten a belt and failed to defend it. Multiple defenses should be the standard for the real top. If Conor defended four or five times sure, you could say he lost the hunger.

Truth is Conor was never able to defend his belt. He is a great striker but he can’t overcome unfavorable matchups with top guys. Not a hunger issue.

 

[Drugstore Cowboy]

Conor was gifted his way to two titles, and now he's fighting guys who are just better than him.

Do you realize he beat the guy who just beat him, in his run to the first title, ye?

 

[Heavy Hands]

Like I pointed out in a thread before. His body is shot because of years of alcohol and cocaine abuse, and his chin is gone because of the Floyd fight. He's slower, weaker and not durable. He even lacks the heart he had in the Mendes fight and the Diaz rematch.

All thats missing from this list is that his piece has became flaccus since the weigh in boner era. Add this as a now diminished attribute and the man literally has nothing left.

 

[Zanderlini]

... which he didn't?
Because prior to the fight, all ya all Conor sacklickers were claiming that he only lost to Khabib because he had a shitty camp/crew and was doing too much crack & booze, but it was now over because Conor was more motivated & sober than he ever was, and you even made up the whole "Conor 2.0" stuff after he beat Cowboy.

But now, Conor actually had a shitty camp/crew against Dustin Poirier as well? Seems legit

It says a lot about the society we live in that guys like McGregor get such a fanbase. Guy punches old people, if he wasn't Dana's lil cash cow he would have never fought in the ufc after that.

 

[Stixx]

I believe that he probably was the best version, but still not as well-prepared as Dustin. Ring rust might definitely have been a factor as well, but once again Conor's lack of mental toughness was exposed. I don't think he will ever be able to fix that for the rest of his career.

 

[JonJonesNeedle]

Well from the coach himself.

Conor came out good the first round, until he got taken down and put into the clinch situation. At that point fatigue was kicking into both fighters. Thing is, Dustin has better cardio/recovery. Dustin also chopped him down with leg kicks.

Conor won the first round, but he is primarily a 1-2 round fighter so it should be expected, whereas Dustin ramps up as rounds go.

I don't get where this "Conor was slow or looked like shit" is coming from, he looked much quicker and more precise than Dustin (who is a great striker in his own right) until he got taken down. Dustin went for the takedown intelligently and Dustin beat the best Conor using MMA. Fuck all these people and their excuses, Dustin was the better man that night and showed that he is the better complete MMA fighter and Coach Kavangh admits it.

No Conor does not suck, he is still a great fighter, but he is not this near invincible LW that everyone imagined. People started overrating him due to the Alvarez fight, but that same year he got finished by short notice Nate in under 2 rounds and barely won the rematch. in which he ran away multiple times multiple rounds. Alvarez was a great stylistic matchup for him, the best among the LW's.

There were similar/better performances from RDA/Pettis against Prime Cowboy (who has beaten that same Eddie Conor beat), in which both fighters starched Cowboy in under a round, with RDA doing it in about 1 minute. In fact, RDA starched and dominated Prime Cowboy, Pettis, Benson, and Diaz but RDA was never seen as a near unbelievable LW like 2016 Conor was.

Both Conor and Dustin are great fighters, Dustin simply beat Conor using MMA instead of keeping it pure striking (in which Conor was winning, before getting taken down)

 

[Zanderlini]

Lol, imagine being a mcnugget fanboy.

We live in a strange world.

 

[JonJonesNeedle]

I think Firas had a good point in his breakdown that Conor essentially folded when he faced adversity from Poirier. Sure, he got knocked out but he was wilting right before the final shots landed.

For sure, he compared it to how Dustin handled the adversity against Hooker in the second round, only to come back and win.

 

[Glass Heart]

He looked sloppy as hell in the second round, and was swinging wildly with bizarre uppercuts and huge lefts that were all missing.

I have never seen him look more inaccurate and sloppy, and that was by far, one of his worst performances.

 

[taugrim]

To some extent, this could be construed as "not my fault" from the coach.

 

[Cat Biscuits]

Honestly, this was the most delayed outcome for Conor since he wasted so much damn time avoiding it.

This would have come sooner had he actually remained active and defended a belt.

Now all we have are his fanboys claiming he was past his prime. Yet had he landed a good shot and won the fight you would've been chanting CONOR 3.0 for months...

 

[Stagliano]

You must be new around here.

 

[DarkRaven]

lol, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Poirier fucked him up twice and outlanded him by about 2-1 in both fights.

The fights were almost as easy as this.

Who gives a shit how much Dustin did out struck Alvarez. When first NC happened Dustin was on fence hurt and rocked going down. In 2nd Dustin is i think in full mount on fence taking damage.

1st was stopped because Dustin couldnt continue, 2nd one Eddi was stood up from full mount by ref. Practically calling Eddi bum because he lost to Conor is move of jack ass.

Also dont see point in this gif, are you thinking you are hurting or inflaming someone???

 

[FightsFTW]

Eddie was fucking up Dustin both times. Dustin was going down when illegal knee and NC happened and in second he had Dusting in full mount on fence when ref stood them up for 12-6 elbow.

But did he? The answer is no. He lost. My point was that Eddie had trouble in pretty much all his UFC fights aside from RDA.

 

[CasualBot]

 

[King.]

Its how he lost. TKO standing was very bad. The fact he was gassed out in 2 rounds sort of makes Kavanaugh's words laughable. He might have worked hard in camp but that does not mean it was the best Conor in the ring.

Not disputing that. Like I said he was up there and now he's not anymore. Not surprising considering his lifestyle and priorities. Btw I didn't see him as being gassed out so much as having the shit kicked out of his leg.

 

[pointblankstrike]

Maybe it's time for Conor to leave his camp, and train somewhere better.

 

[King.]

Well from the coach himself.

Conor came out good the first round, until he got taken down and put into the clinch situation. At that point fatigue was kicking into both fighters. Thing is, Dustin has better cardio/recovery. Dustin also chopped him down with leg kicks.

Conor won the first round, but he is primarily a 1-2 round fighter so it should be expected, whereas Dustin ramps up as rounds go.

I don't get where this "Conor was slow or looked like shit" is coming from, he looked much quicker and more precise than Dustin (who is a great striker in his own right) until he got taken down. Dustin went for the takedown intelligently and Dustin beat the best Conor using MMA. Fuck all these people and their excuses, Dustin was the better man that night and showed that he is the better complete MMA fighter and Coach Kavangh admits it.

No Conor does not suck, he is still a great fighter, but he is not this near invincible LW that everyone imagined. People started overrating him due to the Alvarez fight, but that same year he got finished by short notice Nate in under 2 rounds and barely won the rematch. in which he ran away multiple times multiple rounds. Alvarez was a great stylistic matchup for him, the best among the LW's.

There were similar/better performances from RDA/Pettis against Prime Cowboy (who has beaten that same Eddie Conor beat), in which both fighters starched Cowboy in under a round, with RDA doing it in about 1 minute. In fact, RDA starched and dominated Prime Cowboy, Pettis, Benson, and Diaz but RDA was never seen as a near unbelievable LW like 2016 Conor was.

Both Conor and Dustin are great fighters, Dustin simply beat Conor using MMA instead of keeping it pure striking (in which Conor was winning, before getting taken down)

I don't think anyone ever saw Conor as invincible by any stretch of the imagine. Especially after that Diaz ass whooping. He just used to be really, really good in a select number of things and, as it turns out now, not so good in a number of others .

 

[VVarhead]

That was evident. Conor looked sharp as hell in there, a shame he can only go 100% for barely a round.