My take on the fight was far different and I went in thinking it was just a theatrical fight. I now remember the McGregor thread adarq opened showing and discussing his attention to movements, detail, and body awareness. I had forgotten all about that but will say that the fight renewed my intrigue with McGregor and I definitely came in more passive if not pessimistic about the fight.
I was actually inspired by McGregor's effort and confidence. I think his mental strength is outstanding in that he believed he could win until the very end. That along with his detailed training inspired me more than anything. If anything, the Victor Ortiz fight was truly a farce, much more than this one. I thought that was a boxer who went in for the payday and mentally just imploded or maybe just gave in not thinking he could win. To this day I still don't know what happened there.
Well, Victor Ortiz is a known head case. He can't stand the pressure. He was actually putting it on Floyd a bit - though Floyd was letting him "BLOW HIS LOAD" (the popular terminology these days lmfao). Once Ortiz got dirty, he just became too apologetic and he let his guard down when the fight was back on.. And one thing you don't do with Floyd, is get dirty with him. He's the king of retaliation. Floyd's said it hundreds of times on video, he doesn't initiate anything dirty, but if someone gets dirty, he can give it back 2x. Ortiz violated the first rule of boxing, "protect yourself at all times", and Floyd ended him. Ortiz might have been able to continue physically, but mentally he's a quitter, he's proved that a few times. That's why I was surprised Conor even made it to the 10th, i thought he'd be done by 8. I saw Conor quit against Nate in their first fight. He did redeem himself in the second fight with Nate, so that put the "quitter" mentality to sleep a little bit. One could say he quit against Floyd in the 10th, he didn't throw a punch, didn't clinch, looked woozy af, didn't protect himself - that's just begging for a stoppage. But me personally, I think he was just toast. I think Floyd rocked him good with some clean shots & Conor was very fatigued, so he was just in that hazy dream-state, bell rung, no energy, just wobbling around the ring trying to survive. So i'd agree, don't think he quit.
McGregor just posted a recap of the fight on instagram and I just think it shows he's actually an athlete. You can tell he's been thinking about why he couldn't last 12 rounds "under stress" which is the first thing that came to mind for me.
"Just coming back around after a whirlwind couple of days. Thank you to all the fans for the support of the fight and the event! Without your support we as fighters are nothing so I thank you all! Thank you to my team of coaches and training partners! I had an amazing team and It truly was an amazing and enjoyable camp, and honestly I feel with just a little change in certain areas of the prep, we could have built the engine for 12 full rounds under stress, and got the better result on the night. Getting to 12 rounds alone in practice was always the challenge in this camp. We started slowly getting to the 12 and decreasing the stress in the rounds the closer it got to 12. I think for the time we had, 10 weeks in camp, it had to be done this way. If I began with a loaded 12 rounds under much stress I would have only hit a brick wall and lost progress as a result and potentially not made the fight. A little more time and we could have made the 12 cleanly, while under more stress, and made it thru the later rounds in the actual fight. I feel every decision we made at each given time was the correct decision, and I am proud of everyone of my team for what we done in the short time that we done it. 30 minutes was the longest I have fought in a ring or cage or anywhere. Surpassing my previous time of 25 minutes. I am happy for the experience and happy to take all these great lessons with me and implement them into my camp going forward. Another day another lesson! Congrats to Floyd on a well fought match. Very experienced and methodical in his work. I wish him well in retirement. He is a heck of a boxer. His experience, his patience and his endurance won him this fight hands down. I always told him he was not a fighter but a boxer. But sharing the ring with him he is certainly a solid fighter. Strong in the clinch. Great understanding of frames and head position. He has some very strong tools he could bring into an MMA game for sure. Here is a toast of whiskey to everyone involved in this event and everyone who enjoyed it! Thank you to you all! Onto the next one! "
great write up by him.
he definitely is analytical, introspective, etc.. he doesn't just rely on his coaches or other people to tell him what's what. He's got more of that nerd-athlete mentality, instead of raw athlete, that's for sure. Well he has a combo of both, which is very impressive. nerd-athlete + raw-athlete = beast.
I disagree completely though about him being able to last 12 rounds.. The kind of stress he needed, would be a 10 round prize fight, and then a 12 round prize fight. They couldn't "risk" the money though, so they would NEVER do that .. and thus, could never achieve 12 round preparation for this fight. Plus, if he had to prepare against pro boxers who actually fight at 154, he'd be fighting some monsters - not guys who he would outsize. Also look at how sharp/fresh Floyd was in the 10th.. If he was worried about not being able to get Conor out of there in the 11th and 12th, it would have been an absolute onslaught of vicious punches.
It's cool that he's confident he could go 12 with someone like Floyd .. I think being "dumb/naive" about things is important. Is it self belief? Is it naivety? Or both? His self belief made it much more entertaining, that's for sure. But the cold reality is that, he was going to learn the hard way. From all accounts, Floyd wanted to end him in round 10. Let's imagine that's true, that he in fact did try to bet 400k on himself for a 10 round KO, and they prevented it, and he had his friend make the bet. That adds a whole new dynamic to it. It'd mean that Floyd had to make sure that Conor didn't die in round 6, 8, 9 etc. It also meant that Floyd had to turn it up in round 10 and get a stoppage. If all of that is true, the guy coming off a 2 year lay off, massive reach disadvantage, massive weight disadvantage, controlled probably 99% of the fight & basically was pulling strings on Conor.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/08/27/at-the-last-moment-floyd-mayweather-tried-to-bet-400000-that-hed-beat-conor-mcgregor/?utm_term=.3c7561b2096dSo IMHO, when it really comes down to it, Conor had no chance. Conor believing he had a chance & TRYING to change the outcome of the fight, is definitely respectable. Pro boxers went in there against a prime Tyson with full intentions on quitting. Obviously Floyd is no Tyson but, to go in there from MMA and fight one of the best ever in a boxing match, to me that's like fighting Tyson.
word!
