I have watched MMA since I was 15 years old. The ladies had not yet discovered me in high
school, so my Friday and Saturday evenings were oft-filled with trips to
Blockbuster to rent UFC or K-1 tapes (yes, actual cassette tapes).
My favorite fighters when I was younger were BJ Penn, Nick
Diaz, and Fedor Emelianenko. Each had a unique
mixture of rage and confidence. BJ Penn
was the first ever non-Brazilian to be a Brazilian jiu jitsu world champion at the
black belt level, and was a heavy-handed boxer with a stout chin, preternatural flexibility, and a penchant for finishing fights. Penn was, like McGregor, supremely cocksure on matters of weight. He was the only current champion besides McGregor to challenge the champion a division above his own (a failed attempt against GSP in a fight in which GSP should have been disqualified for greasing--the rules were subsequently changed to encompass Saint Pierre's dastardly exploitation of the rules). Penn had already won UFC gold at 155 and
170 pounds (the only man to win belts in two weight classes other than Randy
Couture) at the time he fought Saint Pierre for the 170 pound title, and routinely fought larger opponents, including Lyoto Machida, the
former UFC champion at 205 pounds. Penn
was so confident that he seemed to treat weight as entirely meaningless. There were legendary stories of his accomplishments in the training room as well, which included choking out the aforementioned former UFC 205-pound and heavyweight champion, Randy Couture.
Nick Diaz is an incredibly tough guy whose black belt in jiu
jitsu has always seemed secondary to his boxing, which has always seemed in turn ancillary to his
desire to taunt his opponents to their faces. He is a true volume puncher; his shots don’t
look particularly fast or hard, but usually wear down his opponents until they simply crumble
(although he did also KO current UFC champion Robbie Lawler with a single punch). From his destruction of Frank Shamrock to his
beating of BJ Penn to his thrilling massacre of Paul Daley, Diaz always brings
the heat, both in terms of his firepower and his barely-controllable anger at the world.
Fedor was the power-punching Russian cyborg, able to come
back from the brink of defeat against Mirko Cro Cop and Kazuyuki Fujita, as
well as finish the late great Kevin Randleman mere moments after ‘The Monster’
suplexed him onto his
head. Fedor had the best combination
of skills I have ever seen in MMA; one-punch power, great takedowns, slippery
hips to block takedowns, fast submissions off his back, advanced head movement,
world-class grip strength to facilitate submissions, explosive transitions, and heart
for days. This was the man who willfully stayed in the
guard of Antonio Nogueira for 20 minutes, defying the man with the best
heavyweight jiu jitsu in the history of the sport (other than Fabricio Werdum),
and bludgeoning him with an unending assault of punches (remember, this was in
Pride, which did not allow elbows).
Fedor didn’t have a legitimate loss for ten full years while fighting
and beating the best heavyweights in the world.
As memorable as all three of those guys were (to say nothing
of fellow legends like Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Rampage
Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Nogueira, and others), MMA has never seen
anything like Conor McGregor. He
combines the hubris of Diaz with the explosive power punching of Fedor and the
incredible confidence of BJ Penn. Seeing
him lose to Nate Diaz was a bitter pill to swallow from a fan’s point of view,
although the Diaz brothers certainly deserve to get paid.
In the first round, Conor beat Nate senseless. There is something awe-inspiring about
McGregor; he was the smaller man, but relentlessly bullied and pummeled the larger
man. He landed repeated hard shots to
Nate’s head and body, slipping and countering with wonderful fluidity, badly
bloodying Diaz’s face in the process. There
seemed to be a certain inevitability in the beating Conor was giving Nate; just
as all of Conor’s previous UFC opponents had failed to make it to the final
bell (save for Max Holloway, who lost a lopsided decision in a fight in which
Conor tore his ACL), Nate’s demise, too, seemed inevitable. One of my friends with whom I watched was
celebrating at the end of round 1, just because he wanted to get his money’s
worth before Conor ended it.
In the second round though, Conor, for the first time I can
recall, started to swing and miss. He
was facing someone with advantages of 4 inches of height and 2 inches of reach,
to say nothing of the weight. Conor
didn’t cut any weight to make 170; he weighed-in at 168 pounds, looking not
only fully hydrated, but also a bit puffy. Diaz made the weight, but only after refusing
to fight at 155 or 160 because he was too far out of fight shape. This has been an area of constant debate in
the aftermath of the bout. Not being in “fight
shape” could be interpreted as meaning that Nate was fat or eating Cheetos on
the couch all day, or, as Dana White said, he was training for a triathlon but
he wasn’t on a strict enough diet to make 155[1]. Diaz however refuted the notion that he was
training for a triathlon, saying instead that he was on a boat in Cabo[2]. Neither Dana nor Nate is known as the most trustworthy of characters, so it is hard to say what is true and what isn’t as
it pertains to Diaz’s fitness level.
An interesting insight on the weight issue came from Nate’s
teammate Gilbert Melendez a few days prior to the fight. He said that when Nate is training for a fight
at 155 and is near that weight, Gilbert is competitive with him, but that when
Nate is not in fight shape and is much heavier, Nate destroys him, and
Gilbert’s punches don’t faze Nate. Diaz
is a sparring partner for Andre Ward[3],
the best 168 pound boxer in the world; he is used to getting hit hard by guys
much bigger than Conor, and that ability to take shots without getting
flustered or knocked out was what won him the fight.
As we saw in the bout, weight matters. Nate probably weighed over 180 in the cage,
while Conor didn’t cut any weight and weighed 168, looking much larger than the
weight at which he usually fights (I would guess he rehydrates to about 160
normally). The UFC is in an odd position
now; Conor will still be a mega-draw, but he cannot afford another loss. Nate Diaz is now a star, but if the UFC were
to put him into a title match at 155, it would be against Rafael Dos Anjos, who
battered a clearly not-healthy Nate Diaz several years ago. If they were to rematch and Dos Anjos were to
win, it would make Conor look bad for losing to a guy who isn’t even the best
fighter at a weight class a mere 10 pounds over his own. At least given that the loss to Diaz occurred
two weight classes over his own, Conor didn’t lose that much face. To preserve the idea (some would say a
fiction) that Nate is a 170-pound monster, and to capitalize on his stardom
post-Conor, the UFC should give him an immediate title shot against Robbie
Lawler.
Conor appears to be leaning towards a return to the 145-pound
division, which seems like the right decision.
McGregor did not fight poorly against Nate; he pursued and battered the
larger man, landing a number of shots that would have knocked out anyone at
145. He simply ran out of gas from
unloading all of his bombs, not imagining that someone could actually take his
punches. History tells us that when a
megastar loses once in the UFC, his drawing power is not particularly
diminished. The only stars coming close
to Conor in UFC history in terms of drawing power are Brock Lesnar and Georges
Saint-Pierre. Both suffered losses in
the UFC but were able to maintain their PPV domination[4]. The UFC must however pray that Conor knocks
out Aldo or Edgar or whomever else he may fight in his next contest. If he loses two in a row however, the party may be
over.
[1] http://www.mmamania.com/2016/2/26/11119154/dana-white-nate-diaz-training-triathlon-will-be-in-phenomenal-shape-ufc-196-mma
[2] http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/ufc-nate-diaz-conor-mcgregor-yacht-cabo-mexico-got-the-call-to-fight-030716
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MEJPz_oayI&feature=youtu.be&t=131
[4] http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/pay-per-view/
