Jack Reacher
Guru
Menodes is a excellent wrestler and connor will learn from that but he's so athletic. He's like the novak Djokovic of the ufc, his striking is scary good and I thought his take down defence was okay is. Needs work but he's more than capable of improving.
What's your guys thoughts on him or do you feel the fight brought up more questions than answers?
McGregor proved he has a granite chin, at least at this weight division. He did surprise me a bit with his ability to scramble after take-downs.
Mendes coming in on two and a half weeks notice did affect his cardio, but not really the outcome. McGregor hurt Mendes in the first with those kicks. Even with a full camp, I don't think the fight would have gone beyond three rounds, McGregor would have still knocked him out. That said, if McGregor had been training for a "wrestler" he would have been better prepared as well.
McGregor was worn out from all the media obligations, which he alluded to at the post fight press conference. To be at his best, he can't be flying back and forth to NY and LA from Vegas several times over the last 2 weeks of fight prep. He did look stringy and drained. And he still won, still had his pin-point punching and kicking. As Mendes said at the post fight presser, McGregor is a very accurate striker.
Aldo is not as hard a puncher as McGregor, and not a wrestler like Mendes. It would have been interesting. As far as I am concerned, Aldo was worried about the drug testing. Just his physique alone when he shows up on fight day reeks of 'roids. The sketchy situation around his random drug test and the fact that it seems every Brazilian is on PED's to the max lends credence to this. Dana White claimed he didn't say what he said about Aldo's "broken rib" and drug tests, etc. But he did. He can't take back his tweets or recorded comments. Eff him.
Aldo pulls out of fights, then gets them rescheduled, a lot of them moved to Brazil. This helps him a great deal with the drug testing. And the UFC tends to look the other way when it comes to melanin enhanced fighters and bizarre drug test results that allude to PCT from steroid cycles, as has been shown with Jones, Cormier, Belfort and others. The only reason Jon Jones was popped is because his typical Tyrone behavior patterns were becoming a liability. I'm sure the UFC would have covered for Anderson Silva's most recent steroid foul-up if they could have moved more quickly.
Back to McGregor, he is better than I thought, but he had better learn to keep his hands higher, and work on his TDD. The fight did expose some of his weaknesses as well as showcasing his chin and power. The trash talking during a fight needs to go, though. One good shot lands when you're talking and you have a broken jaw.