Conor had a very dumb gameplan. He was headhunting with power shots that like he said mostly hit arms and glove, throwing ineffective spinning kicks that mostly missed as well. He was having success working the body, abandoned it. He had success with his kicks working Diaz's legs, abandoned them. In the second round he came out and was putting it on Diaz, but midway through he had not KO'd Diaz and became badly gassed, leading to him becoming flatfooted and he kept his hands down in the pocket which led to Diaz finding his chin and rocking him, then Diaz poured it on.
In retrospect it was a very bad fight to take. Diaz had the excuse of a "10 day camp" so Conor had a lot of pressure to put Diaz away early in impressive fashion, but that only played into Diaz's hands. The fight basically played out like Nick Diaz vs Gomi.
Fighting at 170 was a mistake too, Diaz cuts from 180 or more and Conor was at 168. People that think Diaz didn't cut and fought at 169 lbs are not bright. Diaz has as bad a cut to 155 as Conor has to 145. So Conor was spotting 12-15 lbs to no advantage of his own. It was also the first time he had fought at that weight and skipped past LW.
McGregor will be back but he has lost his mystique and cost himself a great deal of earning potential. But he will still be a huge draw because of his fan friendly style and his willingness to fight anyone anywhere . He could work with the nearby Roger Gracie, and if he fights smarter he still has the best standup at 145 and 155.
Josh Gross @yay_yee
