Originally posted by One Big Mob
Uh huh. "Based on what we saw work". Yeah those 4-5 attacks.Khabib almost gassed himself out trying to finish a then at the time pretty uninjured Conor because Khabib was pissed off. Then he spent the next round unable to get a takedown because of that, while an also gassed Conor refused to throw any power behind his punches.
Khabib didn't have to go into that little rage though is the issue. We've seen him much more composed than that with a better gastank. What happens when Khabib doesn't punch the mat 100 times and instead just wears out Conor for the next two rounds? Just something simple like that would have sufficed.That's not what I said though.
And if Conor can't follow the gameplan but instead iyo runs head first into the best grappler in the division, then that doesn't exactly help matters. Your entire defense is criticizing him for what he did wrong, which is pretty much the exact reason I'm saying he sucks = basis.Conor winning rematch = ?
Okay, I guess I'm not explaining myself fully here. My fault. Let's remember one thing here: Conor won Round 3 on all the judges scorecards.
His front kicks were the most obvious tool, not the only tool. Khabib looked lost at long range apart from one punch, which was facilitated by his grappling threat. He let Conor cut off his angles, lead him into kicks, missed counters, never parried or avoided the kicks, and showed little movement once inside. Conor frames really well with his right hand, and it allows him to land shots while defending takedowns. It's defense and offense together. Additionally, he can mix up that kick with body punches, is good at landing quick knees in the single collar tie, and far better spacing/head movement than Khabib. Conor tended to dominate the kickboxing range. He just, for whatever reason, decided to pressure Khabib into panic wrestling most times.
As RD 3 showed us, Conor has the toolset to make this match competitive. I didn't pull this out of thin air. When he did the exact things I'm talking about, he won the round. Framing, stuffing takedowns as they come rather than forcing shots, getting underhooks immediately, using a variety of strikes to open Khabib up, maintaining distance with kicks, etc. The only real question here is, will he be willing to put his pride aside like in the Diaz rematch, and fight smart in a rematch?
And Khabib didn't waste energy or gas. He did what Khabib always does, and Conor surprised us in the 1st round. Conor defended that low single pretty well, and was counter wrestling with surprising fluidity. Khabib just hit the crackdown to double leg transition super fast, as his chain wrestling is incredible like I said before. Conor wasn't able to respond in time, although he impressively fought off the leg triangle a few times.
I just see this fight as Khabib doing 90% Khabib stuff, with Conor doing 30% Conor stuff. He looked great when he actually did his 30%. I certainly have speculation about certain things. Would going straight to full guard be better than the butterfly guard Conor used in Rd.1? Maybe. The other stuff is me observing the fight though.
I think we can reach agreement here? Maybe you think his odds are only 5%, but he definitely has tools available if he chooses to use them.