I’m not a Nate fan, but I’m not sure I agree with your position on how he does at 155. Leon Edwards is an excellent fighter, and if Gaethje moved up to 170, Leon beats him. So I don’t think you can so easily say that Nate would have no shot with the 155ers.
I think Nate loses those fights to the top names, but I think Nate vs Poirier looks similar to almost ever other Nate fight…he loses the rounds, but is competitive, talking shit, and lands enough big shots in the fight for people to still be happy with his performance. He’s not getting run over by anyone at 155 that isn’t named Khabib.
In my mind, Leon just ran over him, Masvidal certainly did, RDA did. I wouldn’t consider any of those fights competitive would you? Despite his awesome win against Wonderboy, Pettis doesn’t belong at that weight, and the same goes for Conor who outside of Alvarez we’ve never seen be competitive above 145.
He’s fun to watch sure, but it is mostly because he talks shit whilst receiving a beating. And fun as that is, it’s no reason to consider him a better fighter than a guy with his exact skill set who doesn’t talk shit
My definition of “run over” is beat him up badly enough that he’s not talking shit after about dudes point fighting him. Whether that’s a finish, or a 50-45 decision, it’s tough to say for sure, but you know it when you see it. Yes, RDA ran him over. Leon didn’t run him over IMO. He did more than enough to win the decision, but the significant strikes were 77 to 76, and Leon was the only guy who was nearly finished in the fight.
So yes, Nate lost, but the fight was competitive…meaning both guys were landing their share of strikes, both guys had moments, and it wasn’t a one sided beat down. So that’s what I mean…I don’t see anyone at 155 that is going to finish Nate, or put together a one sided beating where he’s never really in the fight.
I think you could match Dustin vs Nate, and while it’s likely Dustin wins 50-45, or 49-46, they’ll both have moments in the fight, and it won’t look like Nate doesn’t belong there.
Josh Thompson ran him over and Nate still talked shit about how he wasnt out and could have kept fighting I’d the fight wasn’t stopped. You’d have to kill Nate to keep him from talking shit and even then his ghost would come back taunting you.