Kavanagh prefers Nate over Khabib

wiggum - Conor is a great fighter and he has now slain great competition. But a Diaz fight is just nuts when he has Jose Aldo, Khabib, Tony Ferguson and, to a lesser extent, Frankie Edgar waiting for him in both divisions.

I agree with this 100%

scrapdo -
wiggum - Conor is a great fighter and he has now slain great competition. But a Diaz fight is just nuts when he has Jose Aldo, Khabib, Tony Ferguson and, to a lesser extent, Frankie Edgar waiting for him in both divisions.

I agree with this 100%

 

Lol what a pathetic coach, somehow they do not realize that all this fear just exposes them? Khabib or tony or jose need to fight conor next 

He's a black belt, he knows how good Conor is on the ground and he knows how good Khabib is. I'm not surprised he doesn't want this matchup.  Not at all.  

 I'm not saying Conor for sure loses but it's his worst matchup for sure style wise 

Can you blame him?

 

Conor at LW is a lot better than when he has to carry extra weight at 168/170. Hits harder and looks quicker. Nate is the money fight. Hes goHe's to sell the fight and the fans (main stream) are going to cough up more money for this fight.

 

Why risk fighting Khabib when you have a bigger and easier paycheck with Nate?

To be fair, Conor has crushed every wrestler he's fought but got destroyed by Nate, so you could make an argument that "fear" wouldn't seem to be the necessary factor in turning down a wrestler to fight Nate again.

And it's inarguable that a third fight with Nate would be much more of a draw than a fight with Khabib whom virtually nobody knows.

I bet he does

Acidic -

Can you blame him?

 

Conor at LW is a lot better than when he has to carry extra weight at 168/170. Hits harder and looks quicker. Nate is the money fight. Hes goHe's to sell the fight and the fans (main stream) are going to cough up more money for this fight.

 

Why risk fighting Khabib when you have a bigger and easier paycheck with Nate?

Lol what a champion mentality lmao. Phone Post 3.0

orcus -


To be fair, Conor has crushed every wrestler he's fought but got destroyed by Nate, so you could make an argument that "fear" wouldn't seem to be the necessary factor in turning down a wrestler to fight Nate again.



And it's inarguable that a third fight with Nate would be much more of a draw than a fight with Khabib whom virtually nobody knows.

Khabib is light years ahead of any wrestling he has faced when it comes to grappling. I'm not counting Mendes either, he was out of shape. Phone Post 3.0

Shanebone - 
orcus -


To be fair, Conor has crushed every wrestler he's fought but got destroyed by Nate, so you could make an argument that "fear" wouldn't seem to be the necessary factor in turning down a wrestler to fight Nate again.



And it's inarguable that a third fight with Nate would be much more of a draw than a fight with Khabib whom virtually nobody knows.

Khabib is light years ahead of any wrestling he has faced when it comes to grappling. I'm not counting Mendes either, he was out of shape. Phone Post 3.0


True, but if there's one thing Conor and his team have, it's confidence. I wouldn't be so quick to assume that the reason they prefer the Nate fight is fear. 

BlakeKy -
MojoSoDope - Khabib means less money and the end of his fighter being 155 champ. Conor can beat anyone else in my opinion but Khabib. He drags him around like a little boy. I"m a fan of conor but if you"re not that"s your guy. The only way to end his hype is dominate him. I mean hit a take down 20 sec in and never let up. Khabib is the guy. He would make conor look ridiculous and we all know it. Conor would have the start of every round to land a shot and that"s it. Once the Russian is on top it"s over. Phone Post 3.0

I thought this too, and I think it's still a likely scenario however, people have said similar things about a lot of his opponents. I am also a fan, but I really thought Eddie might be it. Now I know Eddie isn't near the grappler Khabib is, but he was supposed to be a super bad matchup and he never even had the chance in that fight. I am done doubting Conor. I will of course never say that Conor will maul Khabib or dominate him. But I will say it's almost certain that the fight would be better than most people think. And from what we've seen over and over, it really could go either way. 

Disagree. Every single opponent he has fought was willing to stand with him which is a huge mistake. It was easy to see that Conor would beat Alvarez. Someone known for getting hit and being in wars is not the guy to beat Conor. They all seem to get emotional with him. Even aldo did.

 

if Khabib stands too much because of bravado and ego, he gets slept as well. If he secures the takedown early, its game over.

 

the matchmaking for conor has been brilliant. Very much how championship boxing is done.

 

Conor has been very beatable but as long as his opponents insist on standing with him, and/or he is matched with inferior strikers, he will keep evolving and the world will think hes actually the most complete fighter out there. And given enough time with these ideal matchups and dumb gameplans by his opponents, he will be.

StrikingMMA - Even Kavanagh knows that the gravy train ends with Khabib. They will avoid that matchup as long as they can.

Nurmagomedov would send him back to 145.

BlakeKy -
MojoSoDope - Khabib means less money and the end of his fighter being 155 champ. Conor can beat anyone else in my opinion but Khabib. He drags him around like a little boy. I'm a fan of conor but if you're not that's your guy. The only way to end his hype is dominate him. I mean hit a take down 20 sec in and never let up. Khabib is the guy. He would make conor look ridiculous and we all know it. Conor would have the start of every round to land a shot and that's it. Once the Russian is on top it's over. Phone Post 3.0

I thought this too, and I think it's still a likely scenario however, people have said similar things about a lot of his opponents. I am also a fan, but I really thought Eddie might be it. Now I know Eddie isn't near the grappler Khabib is, but he was supposed to be a super bad matchup and he never even had the chance in that fight. I am done doubting Conor. I will of course never say that Conor will maul Khabib or dominate him. But I will say it's almost certain that the fight would be better than most people think. And from what we've seen over and over, it really could go either way. 

I thought similar going into the fight as well, but when they both got in the cage Conor looked massive compared to Eddie, it was almost as if Eddie was the one coming up from 155. There is no way Eddie is the 5'9 that that he is listed at he is probably closer to 5'7 and I would imagine similar weight to Conor if not lighter, Khabib you would imagine would come in 10-15 pounds heavier then Conor. All your points are valid though would favor Khabib but Conor could definitely end the fight on the feet early. I think similar to MJ once he gets taken down and battered for 3.5 minutes if that is to happen he will be extremely diminished the rest of the fight. Phone Post 3.0

orcus -


To be fair, Conor has crushed every wrestler he's fought but got destroyed by Nate, so you could make an argument that "fear" wouldn't seem to be the necessary factor in turning down a wrestler to fight Nate again.



And it's inarguable that a third fight with Nate would be much more of a draw than a fight with Khabib whom virtually nobody knows.

Khabib would be the first wrestler to be heavier than him most likely, and size is one of the advantages Nate brought. Would be interesting IMO. Phone Post 3.0

TheGuvna -
BlakeKy -
MojoSoDope - Khabib means less money and the end of his fighter being 155 champ. Conor can beat anyone else in my opinion but Khabib. He drags him around like a little boy. I"m a fan of conor but if you"re not that"s your guy. The only way to end his hype is dominate him. I mean hit a take down 20 sec in and never let up. Khabib is the guy. He would make conor look ridiculous and we all know it. Conor would have the start of every round to land a shot and that"s it. Once the Russian is on top it"s over. Phone Post 3.0

I thought this too, and I think it's still a likely scenario however, people have said similar things about a lot of his opponents. I am also a fan, but I really thought Eddie might be it. Now I know Eddie isn't near the grappler Khabib is, but he was supposed to be a super bad matchup and he never even had the chance in that fight. I am done doubting Conor. I will of course never say that Conor will maul Khabib or dominate him. But I will say it's almost certain that the fight would be better than most people think. And from what we've seen over and over, it really could go either way. 

Disagree. Every single opponent he has fought was willing to stand with him which is a huge mistake. It was easy to see that Conor would beat Alvarez. Someone known for getting hit and being in wars is not the guy to beat Conor. They all seem to get emotional with him. Even aldo did.

 

if Khabib stands too much because of bravado and ego, he gets slept as well. If he secures the takedown early, its game over.

 

the matchmaking for conor has been brilliant. Very much how championship boxing is done.

 

Conor has been very beatable but as long as his opponents insist on standing with him, and/or he is matched with inferior strikers, he will keep evolving and the world will think hes actually the most complete fighter out there. And given enough time with these ideal matchups and dumb gameplans by his opponents, he will be.

Khabib did say he "wanted to make a point" with MJ that he could stand with him, and him wanting to do that almost got him Ko'd.

I do agree with you though if Khabib comes in with the mindset to get the takedown 10 seconds into every round I think he wins. Phone Post 3.0

I would line up Diaz for the Ronda card. Then give up both belts and take the year off. Have a plan to fight for the 55 belt next New years eve.  He gets his big money fight, the UFC gets their division unraveled and Connor gets his time off. I would not fight Khabib next. No reason to risk it now and have to dwell on it for a year on the couch. 

orcus - 


To be fair, Conor has crushed every wrestler he's fought but got destroyed by Nate, so you could make an argument that "fear" wouldn't seem to be the necessary factor in turning down a wrestler to fight Nate again.



And it's inarguable that a third fight with Nate would be much more of a draw than a fight with Khabib whom virtually nobody knows.


True, I don't mean "fear" as in Connor is scared of anyone. But he clearly wants the fight he believe Connor has a better chance of winning since he likely feels Connor has figured Nate out...which is another story.

Its just silly now that #1 contenders and interim champs have to "make their case" to fight the champ. The Nate rubber match will happen eventually. It should not happen next with Aldo, Khabib, Ferguson, Edgar etc in the wings.