Conor McGregor And His Flawed Understanding

After Nate Diaz agreed to join hands with Conor McGregor to save the card in the immediate aftermath of reigning Lightweight champ RDA’s withdrawal, the very foundation of UFC got severely rocked when the seemingly invincible Feather Weight champion was made to eat humble pie by the light weight fighter in Nate Diaz, who had zero preparation coming into the short notice fight. Ever since the loss, the MMA world has been reverberating with praise for Conor’s humility in the face of defeat and for not making excuses. While being humble was not a choice, and he tried to appear like one, he certainly was not. And there have been few inaccuracies with the feather weight champ’s words about himself, about the fight and about the man he lost to.

He Didn’t Jump Two Weight Classes; This Wasn’t a WW Fight

I couldn’t comprehend why even the punters kept blowing Conor’s trumpet by branding this fight a genuine welterweight, when it clearly was not. While 170 lbs is officially WW limit, everybody who follows MMA is aware that every fighter endures a punishing and grueling dehydration process to meet the divisional weight limits. While the welterweights do tip the scales at 170 during weigh in, they walk around 190 lbs plus on a regular day and their fight-day weight is close to it, if not exactly that.

It's an open truth that Nate and Conor stuffed their gut to the hilt to make welterweight limit yet fell short of the 170 mark by a couple of pounds. This was one of the rarest occasions where weight-add was pursued against the traditional weight cut for weigh ins. To make this clear, 170 lbs is what the light weights weigh on the fight day. Neutral pundits and fans of the sport would concur that this was a genuine light weight fight sans the weigh cut. Would perhaps call this a 160 catch weight, just to sound generous. Bottomline, this is a far cry from a genuine welterweight where the likes of Robbie Lawler, Jonhhy Hendricks and Stephen Thompson fight. They are bigger, thicker, stronger and hit harder.

For the record, guys like Frankie Edgar and most notably legendary BJ Penn have already shone in 2 and 3 divisions respectively. So, praising Conor to the skies and forgetting others that have already done this is doing a big disservice to their achievements. In fact, Edgar could just accomplish what Conor had been so vocally dreaming of – winning in 2 divisions, should UFC decide to give him the Conor fight as promised. 

Weight Didn’t Help Diaz To Walk Past Conor's Punches

It’s a universal fact that Nate Diaz, like his brother Nick, could eat a ton of shots and yet continue to fight as if nothing happened. These are chins of iron so to speak. Conor perpetrated a categorical blunder when he referred to Nate Diaz as “welterweight and a bigger opponent”. In reality, Nate is a legitimate light weight and if rankings were considered, #5 in that division and not that big at all. For the record, Nate Diaz has never been KO-ed in any division.

If you carefully analyze the opponents Conor faced thus far, the physical and reach advantage he enjoyed over them far outweighs the advantage Nate had over Conor. Nate, on paper, had a 3 inch height and 2 inch reach advantage and has a lean and mediocre frame. Now let’s see the advantage Conor had been enjoying over his smaller sized opponents in FW division. Please take a look at the table below. He’s enjoyed a maximum of 5” height and an insane 8” reach advantage at some point. Need I say more?

  

FIGHTER	HEIGHT	REACH	LEVEL	HEIGHT ADV	REACH ADV
Conor MCGregor	5’9”	74”	Elite	NA	NA
Jose Aldo	5'7"	70"	Elite	2"	4"
Chad Mendes	5'6"	66"	Elite	3"	8"
Dennis Siver	5'7"	70"	High	2"	4"
Dustin Poirier	5'9"	72"	High	0"	2"
Diego Brandao	5'7"	69"	Med	2"	5"
Max Holloway	5'11"	71"	High	-2"	3"
Marcus Brimmage	5'4"	71"	Med	5"	3"

Truth is Conor is one of the biggest feather weights out there exploiting his boxing and physical advantage to devastating effect. Irony is he becomes palpably smaller in the light weight division and his famous “touch of death” is no longer a formidable weapon. And Diaz could take his shots not because of his weight but his will to engage in war, his unrivaled experience inside the octagon and his underrated movement and boxing that has a beauty of its own. 

Energy Inefficiency Is Just An Excuse To Mask The Ignorance

One of the reasons Conor became an MMA phenom apart from his glib tongue was his alleged fight IQ and the ingenious ability to transcend conventional borders, which other normally wouldn’t or couldn’t. His idea of running over higher divisions was welcomed with open arms since he had been backing all his talks with fitting performances in the FW division. The outcome of UFC196 makes it clear that certain performances of his took “laws of attraction” belief beyond reality or he simply hadn’t mastered them enough.

I have always held a staunch belief there is a reason why different weight classes exist and also why people juice themselves out brutally for weigh ins which, at times, could prove fatal. They believe the talent levels of the fighters are so evenly matched so they try their best to gain even the slightest advantage in the ways possible. Such is the significance of weight and general size in a fight. When Conor challenged to mark his territory at higher divisions and while it looked disrespectful and unrealistic at the outset, the marketing man in him convinced most of us to buy his notion that “Size and weight don’t matter for a true martial artist”. It sounded cool. We’ve always wanted to see Superman in real. After all, his quickness, counter striking and KO power made him look like one.

He claimed to have an impeccable understanding of what he was attempting. As fate would have it, given the way his fight with Nate went, his basic understanding of weight divisions, weight cut, adding weight, jumping weight classes and conditioning was totally flawed and with this defeat, he’s been sent scurrying back to the drawing board in search for answers. He overestimated his own boxing, chin and cardio and underestimated Nate's. He either believed he possessed a never-ending gas tank or was over confident about his KO power that he felt he doesn’t need more than a round or two get the better of the opponent no matter who and how heavy he is.

Reality was his slightly misplaced understanding of fight science and conditioning led him to pursue a futile search of his trademark KO that put many a featherweight to sleep. It was a case of knocking himself out with exhaustion and the unshakable belief in his glorified “touch of death” led to his own demise. Truth be told, as much as he couldn’t take Nate out with his flurry of punches leave alone with one punch, his beard protected chin couldn’t take Nate casual-looking yet lethal and voluminous boxing onslaught.

Arrogance and Overconfidence

Conor has constantly maintained that even though he is cocky in prediction, confident in preparation, he’s always humble in victory or defeat. For starters, humility has no situational barriers; you’re either humble or not, there is no middle ground here. There’s no humility seen when he bullies and talks his way into title fights cutting queue. There is no humility when his fight promotion bid involves personal attacks involving opponents’ nationality, family etc. If this is his personality, so be it; let him not feign humble behavior.

All along his UFC tenure, except for few flashes of harmless entertainment, we have seen nothing but over confidence and arrogance define his personality. About his being humble in the face of defeat, he had no option, did he? His usual theme of attacks that included insults, lowing his own horn about his winning streak, crystal-ball prediction, KO power and his “super heavy-weight” pay checks wouldn’t fly when the opponent was named Nate Diaz. He is a veteran when it came to smack talk and mind games in this sport with a wealth of experience that no amount of bullying experience and simulation training could match.

Ever since Nate jokingly or seriously ambushed Conor with steroid accusation on their very first media conference, he has been on the defensive. While Conor may have had some success in appearing confident, it was becoming increasingly evident that his mind games and war of words weren’t working as much as it had worked on weaker opponents. In fact, it may have started backfiring, the highlight of which was the swing he took at Nate during the stare down. It was a sign of an angry man.

One of the important lessons that was taught and one Conor must pay heed to, according to many, was to never underestimate your opponent and to not take them for granted. On the contrary, his post-fight statement about how he would have definitely celebrated a victory had the opponent remained intact (RDA) meant he had still not made peace with the fact that he lost. It was a last ditch attempt to restore some value to his once feared left hand. Don’t get me wrong; he’s got a powerful fist and KO power, but it may not be as lethal as it was portrayed and believed to be. At least not in a division above 145.

Giving His Due

While he may be seen as someone so humble, classy in defeat and as someone who didn’t make excuses,  careful observation projects him in a different light. His humility was forced upon him, still took shots at Aldo and RDA after defeat and never gave Nate Diaz his due who beat him in his own game.

I may come across as a Conor hater, while in reality, I am not. I am a fan of his as I am of any other fighter. I sincerely respect everyone brave enough to step into the fight game and put on a show. While much of his behavior is getting repetitive and irritating at times, I have found some of his ways funny, brilliant and entertaining, too. Just like facts don’t lie about his negative aspects, they speak volumes of his specialty as well.

Conor has definitely been a constant source of motivation when it came to dreaming big and pushing the envelope. He never rested on his laurels and  is prepared to adopt and follow a work ethic filled with passion and obsession to realize his larger-than-life dreams. Becoming a UFC champ is one such example. He could still possibly try his luck in the WW category if he took time to prepare for that division. There might be a pressing need for him to unlearn some of his earlier habits and add a vital skill to his arsenal. It’s not Jiu-Jitsu or wrestling. It’s patience.

At least now, he needs to realize there is no fast track path to greatness and cannot shirk from the ethical responsibility of defending his FW crown, which should be made his top priority. He's still the reigning FW champ and a formidable force in that division. But if he’s got to be hailed as the greatest ever, he’s got to beat the greatest ever and stand the test of time in doing so. And this requires patience and preparation of magnitude par excellence. 

The Mystic Mac image he had built around his accurate prediction and clinical execution, which was a mainstay element in knocking his opponents off-balance mentally, has been shattered to smithereens.  Just like others, am curious to see how the FW champ bounces from this loss and marches forward. And also how he plans to re-build his lost sheen as Mystic Mac. Things should only get more interesting from now on.