Am I the only one who sees that McGregor used the same strategy vs Mendes that Shamrock used against Ortiz. Both of them teed off on the feet where they had an advantage and then defended the takedown.....but only to a certain point. Once the takedown defense began to cost them too much energy they conceded it and then worked from their guards using a similar strategy. Each man used minimal effort to defend themselves and waited for opportunities to explode back to their feet. Once back on the feet it was bombs away.....just saying that McGregor's strategy was eerily similar to Shamrock's in his fight with Ortiz. Chime in and feel free to tell me how uneducated I am UG. I especially enjoy the expertise of the mudnamers........FLAME AWAY!!!! 
I saw someone who was unable to defend a takedown from a superior wrestler.
Whambo - I saw someone who was unable to defend a takedown from a superior wrestler.
no doubt he was the superior wrestler
but he did defend a few of his TDs
missed that part?
dermotfix -Whambo - I saw someone who was unable to defend a takedown from a superior wrestler.
no doubt he was the superior wrestler
but he did defend a few of his TDs
missed that part?
What I'm missing is what that has to do with anything.
OP was suggesting that it was part of some brilliant strategy to only defend Chad's TD's so much. Off the top of my head there was a TD where Conor literally had no time to even try to defend, he came fwd a lil sloppy in his striking and was taken down before he had time to react pretty much. There was another long TD exchange where Conor defended it as much as he possibly could but Chad was simply too good to defend.
Frank beating Tito from underneath him with the palm strikes and shit was more impressive imo
Conor owns massive physical advantages over a Mendes that took the fight on twelve days notice. He gave a great performance but there are mitigating factors.
My point was that the strategy on Connor's part to defend the takedown, but only in energy efficient ways was smart. Conor was smart enough to realize that he wouldn't be able to defend every takedown. Rather than use all his energy fighting a battle he would probably lose, he chose instead to use low energy tactics both defending the takedown and from his guard that forced Mendes to have a high energy output. Simply put, he forced Mendes to set a pace that Mendes himself would struggle to sustain. Having said all that, I was rooting for Mendes to win. It doesn't change the fact that Connor's strategy was both very clever and eerily similar to Shamrock's when he fought Tito.