MMA News Discussion Thread

[Cory]

Agreed, that entire card was everything 200 wasn't and needed to be. I had it 47-47 Draw, but fight of the year for me.

[Jon]

Agreed, that entire card was everything 200 wasn't and needed to be. I had it 47-47 Draw, but fight of the year for me.

I had it 48-47 McGregor.

1st, 2nd, 4th to Conor.
3rd and 5th to Diaz.

No way was that 3rd round a 10-8 round for Diaz. That's absurd to me. If that was a 10-8 round, then Conor's 1st round was a 10-8 round.

[Cory]

I had it as a 10-8 in the 3rd because if it was 30 seconds longer Diaz would have finished, 10-9 I don't think Diaz was as done in as McGregor was in the third to give it a 10-8.

But looking at the stats, Diaz 271 Total strikes to Conors 190, 178 significant strikes to 161, Diaz with the only takedown landed too.

I mean at the Bar I had it 47-47 or 3 to 2 for McGregor but the stats are surly leaning in Diaz's favour here....its so bullshit how blood can sway things....Diaz has almost as much scar tissue on his head as Abdullah the Butcher.

At the end of the day both guys won here with a trilogy fight which will be yet again multi-million dollar paydays for both.

In the mean time I want to see McGregor/Aldo II and Diaz/Alvarez.

[Duckman]

Great fight.  Stayed up late to watch it and me and my buddy were not disappointed.

I could have seen a draw, 3-2 McGregor, or 3-2 Diaz and they would've been fair results.  It was a razor close fight.

I had McGregor 3-2 - winning 1, 2 and 4.  I thought round 2 would be the 'swing' round so to speak.  McGregor did drop him twice, but Diaz wasn't in trouble, whereas Diaz came storming back in the last minute of the round.  But I think McGregor did more in the first 4 minutes of the round to win it...but it was close.  3rd Diaz owned and if he had 30 seconds more I think he'd have finished him, McGregor was exhausted more than badly hurt, but he was in a ton of trouble.  I could see that being scored 10-8 to Diaz but I went 10-9.  4th Conor did rally and got his second wind, for a while at least and landed the better shots.  Diaz looked really tired in the 4th - like he'd blown through too much energy to get that dominant 3rd round.  5th was Diaz 10-9.

A great, great fight that lived up to the hype and proved a lot about how Conor is as a fighter and how tough he is because make no mistake, he was dead on his feet for large parts of the second half of that fight.

I'm glad we can get a trilogy fight in a few months - I'd go with Aldo v McGregor at UFC in NYC cause they've got to get that FW title scene sorted out.  Then go with the 3rd fight at 155.  Conor needs to get away from 170 for the good of his career - he's just far too small at that weight but also seems to struggle to keep up his pace at that weight.

All in all I'm not sure if it was better than Lawler v Condit in terms of pure drama and how close both fighters were.  But in terms of hype, personalities, drama and then the fight itself, it more than lived up to the hype and will probably be fight of the year.

Rest of the main card was really good - finishes, quality fights and Rumble Johnson looks absolutely terrifying again.

[Cory]

Seeing that Rumble performance really shows how badly the sport is going to miss Rumble vs Bones

[Black Death]

word is ... no third fight is going to happen

[Cory]

word is ... no third fight is going to happen

lol...Dana is just pissed that McGregor doesnt want to defend the 145 belt and likely never will cut down to that weight.....and the no third fight is for everyone who thinks it'll be each of these guys NEXT fight. My guess was the 3rd fight would be on Super Bowl weekend but with Conors 6 month medical suspension I'd expect that 3rd fight to be at the end of 2018.

[Duckman]

Oh they're doing that 3rd fight for sure.  Just not right away.  Got to build it all back up again.  I'm sure Conor will fight once before he goes back to Diaz.  Diaz on the other hand, sounds like he'll just sit out, enjoy his money and wait for Conor.

[Cory]

Oh they're doing that 3rd fight for sure.  Just not right away.  Got to build it all back up again.  I'm sure Conor will fight once before he goes back to Diaz.  Diaz on the other hand, sounds like he'll just sit out, enjoy his money and wait for Conor.

still think him vs Alvarez is a $$$ fight

[Jon]

Anything with Conor McGregor is a $$$ fight. It's THE $$$ fight.

[Flins.]

Dana still pretending like he is in charge. Great fight, pretty clear decision in my eyes, but nobody really loses in fights like that. I think Conor might be one of the biggest draws in fight sports now, like Jon said, anything would sell.

[Cory]

Anything with Conor McGregor is a $$$ fight. It's THE $$$ fight.

I was talking about Diaz/Alvarez....Diaz doesnt care about belts but that fight for Nate makes the most sense....it'll do excellent buys.

He certainly doesnt NEED to fight after clearing $2 million but my god that'd be an awesome fight.

[Jon]

I think Diaz should have to earn a title shot and most certainly shouldn't be given one following a loss to the FW champ at WW.

[Duckman]

If we're talking about the sport, rather than the entertainment side, Alvarez should fight Khabib next for the Title.  That guy has been due a title shot for a long, long time.  He's more than earned it.  Granted, it's not a huge money fight but given how Conor's held up FW, I don't think they want to do the same at LW.  And waiting for Diaz to recover from this fight, and then get the money deal to get him in the cage will take some time.  He's not making £2 million fighting Alvarez, even if it would be an awesome fight.  And I don't think he'll be interested in fighting for less than £2 million now - why would he?  He's made more money that he'll ever need and could retire today.  He's said time and time again that titles and fighting don't interest him.  He's only got one real big money fight and that's the 3rd with Conor.  Or if they can offer him something like GSP in his first fight back.

For me, it's got to go Conor v Aldo for FW Title, Alvarez v Khabib for LW title and Nate Diaz vs USADA for vaping during the post fight press conference!

[Duckman]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/24/welterweight-rory-macdonald-quits-ufc-bellator

Another one off to Bellator.  Rory MacDonald appears to have signed for Bellator.

Thoughts?