He’s obviously not the best fighter ever but he’s certainly the biggest star and I don’t think it’s even remotely close.
I agree that he was never the same after the Mayweather fight, although a few on here disagreed with my assertion that he wasn’t in his prime when he fought Khabib.
I think he gets somewhat underrated by some fans these days. His win over Alvarez at UFC 205 was sparkling. Absolutely stunning combo to finish the fight.
One of the best strikers the UFC has seen at his peak. Sharp, powerful, smooth. Yes his gas tank was questionable but he was a beautiful striker.
On top of that, he always delivered on the big occasion even when he lost (e.g. first Diaz fight). Hyped the living shit out of the Aldo fight and came in and ended a 10 year reign in 13 seconds. Moved up to lightweight at UFC 205 when NYC finally legalized MMA and destroyed Alvarez at the garden.
The sport has passed him by now and there are so many more well-rounded fighters now as MMA training has actually become a thing in its own right whereas in past times, there were far more specialists who transitioned to MMA.
This was incredibly evident in the third Porier fight where Dustin mixed in the wrestling and grappling so well and Conor didn’t have an answer to it as he was used to fighting sloppier wrestlers who could be countered more easily with good positioning and octagon control.
As I said above, I think he gets underrated by some fans due to his antics. He’s a despicable human being but peak Conor was an excellent fighter.
I agree completely. He didnt look remotely the same fighter. The Connor that fought Aldo and Alvarez was not the same fighter that turned up to fight Khabib
Lads, shat we saying? Aspinall winning today?
Should win easily. Gane is a tidy striker but he has basically zero ground game, as in genuinely one of the worst of any ‘top’ guy. I think the threat of a takedown should open things up nicely for Aspinall.
Gane making this somewhat tight would be quite a surprise for me. Aspinall kills him.
Would be really nice to see him against Pereira some day in the future.
I think Aspinall can probably just bum rush him and get him down. Gane’s stance makes a single leg pretty easy to get as he stands quite side on as is typical with your kickboxing types.
It would become interesting if Gane can somehow keep it standing and test Tom’s cardio as Tom has barely ever got out of the first round.
I just can’t see it though as Ngannou took Gane down so easily and he is much slower than Tom is.
Aspinall is good friends with Rico Verhoeven, and had him in his camp for this fight.
He’ll be ready for any of that kickboxing.
Even if he would have been. He was always going to lose to Khabib.
Ring walk coming up supposedly, fuck sake. No chance I’ll catch it.
Here we go.
Will Tom just mow him down, or will Gane pull off some kickboxing shit.
Did his eye pop?
His eye is fucked
No contest surely?
His eye isn’t blown, but I think Gane scratched it.
Fight over, no contest due to accidental injury.
Fucks sake
Just seen the double eye poke, that shit looked nasty. No wonder they had to call a stop to the fight.
Was shaping up to be a good fight too.
I didn’t even realise it was an early event (like 7am my time). Usually UFC is between 2 and 4pn so I completely missed it lol although I didn’t really have a lot of interest in any of the fights anyway.
And now Dana is chatting shit about Aspinall. Another heavyweight champion being treated like shit.