http://fightland.vice.com/blog/ufc-189-how-mcgregor-stole-mendes-wind
UFC 189: HOW MCGREGOR STOLE MENDES' WIND
FIGHTLAND BLOG
By Jack Slack
Conor McGregor rallied to stop Chad Mendes at UFC 189 on Saturday night, and for a few glorious moments nobody knew what to make of it.
Then it all started again.
Conor McGregor couldn't stop a takedown, he got lucky. Chad Mendes came in with just a few weeks of training and gassed out, with a full camp he'd have McGregor's number for certain. McGregor was never in trouble and is, in fact, the greatest fighter to ever live. There are even some people calling the fight a fix, which is astounding.
To my eye, what the bout demonstrated amply was, partly how exhausting simply battling in the guard can be—particularly in the bottom man is actually throwing the elbows which are one of the few truly biting strikes from the bottom when upkicks aren't allowed. Moreover, this bout showed a completion of the shift in McGregor from counter puncher to a man who fights largely on the lead. And most importantly, Mendes versus McGregor demonstrated the age old truth in combat sports—you must push a kicker back or at least be a mobile target. Letting a strong kicker fight on the front foot is just asking to have your liver tenderized and your head turned into a hacky sack.
I will tell you now, in all seriousness, that Chad Mendes could have come in to the cage in peak condition, ready to compete in a triathlon, and he still would have wound up out of breath and lost out in the open were he taking those snap kicks to the body. I have been harping on about the front snap kick with the ball of the foot for years—it's no coincidence that in every fight they are used, the recipient ends up winded. Most fans didn't even notice Jon Jones using them in tandem with his jamming kicks to the knee and round kicks to exhaust Daniel Cormier every time he trudged straight forwards towards the clinch.
Not only does the front snap kick often land far more easily than a power round kick—because of a smaller striking surface and just not a lot of guys training against it as often—it requires less commitment of the hips into a thrust than the front push kick and is easier to recover from. You won't see thrusting front kick used much in MMA because it seems to easy to catch, yet in the main and co-main event of UFC 189 alone you must have seen about twenty or thirty snap kicks with the ball of the foot land in the midsection of Chad Mendes and Robbie Lawler.
The recovery on these snapping kicks allowed McGregor to move forward, cut the cage, and kick a man who no-one would want to give a leg to, while recovering the leg cleanly much of the time. It was aided by McGregor throwing a couple of obvious superman punches to keep Mendes from simply diving after the leg when he felt the foot connect. If you're still pretending that McGregor isn't an excellent kicker because his kicks don't look like Muay Thai, you're deluding yourself.
Now that is not to take away from Chad Mendes, he cracked McGregor clean on the jaw more times than the heap of brawlers McGregor has faced, and he didn't simply dive after the takedown constantly—which most of us would be a terrible mistake and asking for a knee up the bracket. And I'm sure everyone and their mother is ready to chastise Mendes for throwing away top position by diving on a guillotine so early in a round.
Just a few days ago I discussed Gunnar Nelson's genius in holding mount for a whole grinding, crushing round before allowing his opponent some space and attempting the guillotine in the last
thirty seconds. If your submission attempt results in you going to your back, don't do it when you could be milking top position for damage or simply not having to work to get top position again. Mendes' over-eagerness to use the guillotine was the perfect example of the old Jean-Paul Marat folly.
Excuse my original thread title, frens. I misinterpreted the third paragraph upon originally reading it.
Nice 
"Kill the body and the head will die."
As always a good and entertaining analysis, but I disagree with his breakdown of the main event, partly because it isn't internally consistent with the rest of his own argument:
"Chad Mendes could have come in to the cage in peak condition, ready to compete in a triathlon, and he still would have wound up out of breath and lost out in the open were he taking those snap kicks to the body."
Later:
"You won't see thrusting front kick used much in MMA because it seems to easy to catch, yet in the main and co-main event of UFC 189 alone you must have seen about twenty or thirty snap kicks with the ball of the foot land in the midsection of Chad Mendes and Robbie Lawler."
Interesting, then, that he blames the same technique that didn't gas Lawler out even going into the fifth round, and delivered by a larger and more powerful fighter, on Mendes sucking wind even in the first round (and I think MacDonald landed more significant shots to the body than MacGregor did even, though correct me if I'm wrong). Likewise, Mendes has worked top position in the guard plenty without gassing from it.
Also I am fully on board with giving the guy he covers at the end the boot. I didn't watch that event, and those gifs plus the blood spitting are just putrid and unacceptable. How does that fighter have a job?
What the fuck is this guy talking about?
"with a full camp he'd have McGregor's number for certain. McGregor was never in trouble and is, in fact, the greatest fighter to ever live"
So, against a Chad Mendes with a full training camp, Conor would have lost, however Conor is, in fact, the greatest fighter to ever live?
Is this the same guy that writes the Underground Blog?
He's giving examples of things people were spouting after the fight
bartatua - As always a good and entertaining analysis, but I disagree with his breakdown of the main event, partly because it isn't internally consistent with the rest of his own argument:It's hard to say that when Robbie badly hurt in the 3rd and 4th rounds, close to being stopped. I'm sure Rory's bodywork had something to do with his ability open up Lawler to the headkicks. The difference is that McGregor finished Mendes and MacDonald didnt finish Lawler.
"Chad Mendes could have come in to the cage in peak condition, ready to compete in a triathlon, and he still would have wound up out of breath and lost out in the open were he taking those snap kicks to the body."
Later:
"You won't see thrusting front kick used much in MMA because it seems to easy to catch, yet in the main and co-main event of UFC 189 alone you must have seen about twenty or thirty snap kicks with the ball of the foot land in the midsection of Chad Mendes and Robbie Lawler."
Interesting, then, that he blames the same technique that didn't gas Lawler out even going into the fifth round, and delivered by a larger and more powerful fighter, on Mendes sucking wind even in the first round (and I think MacDonald landed more significant shots to the body than MacGregor did even, though correct me if I'm wrong). Likewise, Mendes has worked top position in the guard plenty without gassing from it.
Also, trying to compare two fighters as if they're carbon copies doesn't hold up too well.
Sounds like fetusoffury needs to go posting the readingrainbow ground for a bit and then come back to read jack slack's articles
bartatua - As always a good and entertaining analysis, but I disagree with his breakdown of the main event, partly because it isn't internally consistent with the rest of his own argument:
"Chad Mendes could have come in to the cage in peak condition, ready to compete in a triathlon, and he still would have wound up out of breath and lost out in the open were he taking those snap kicks to the body."
Later:
"You won't see thrusting front kick used much in MMA because it seems to easy to catch, yet in the main and co-main event of UFC 189 alone you must have seen about twenty or thirty snap kicks with the ball of the foot land in the midsection of Chad Mendes and Robbie Lawler."
Interesting, then, that he blames the same technique that didn't gas Lawler out even going into the fifth round, and delivered by a larger and more powerful fighter, on Mendes sucking wind even in the first round (and I think MacDonald landed more significant shots to the body than MacGregor did even, though correct me if I'm wrong). Likewise, Mendes has worked top position in the guard plenty without gassing from it.
That's because McGregor landed WAY more shots to the body in one round than Rory did in the 5 rounds they fought. If Rory had landed that many in the first round I'm sure it would have had a similar effect, but he only landed about 3 body shots each round. McGregor landed three times as many in just 2 rounds.
GrilliamG -bartatua - As always a good and entertaining analysis, but I disagree with his breakdown of the main event, partly because it isn't internally consistent with the rest of his own argument:It's hard to say that when Robbie badly hurt in the 3rd and 4th rounds, close to being stopped. I'm sure Rory's bodywork had something to do with his ability open up Lawler to the headkicks. The difference is that McGregor finished Mendes and MacDonald didnt finish Lawler.
"Chad Mendes could have come in to the cage in peak condition, ready to compete in a triathlon, and he still would have wound up out of breath and lost out in the open were he taking those snap kicks to the body."
Later:
"You won't see thrusting front kick used much in MMA because it seems to easy to catch, yet in the main and co-main event of UFC 189 alone you must have seen about twenty or thirty snap kicks with the ball of the foot land in the midsection of Chad Mendes and Robbie Lawler."
Interesting, then, that he blames the same technique that didn't gas Lawler out even going into the fifth round, and delivered by a larger and more powerful fighter, on Mendes sucking wind even in the first round (and I think MacDonald landed more significant shots to the body than MacGregor did even, though correct me if I'm wrong). Likewise, Mendes has worked top position in the guard plenty without gassing from it.
Also, trying to compare two fighters as if they're carbon copies doesn't hold up too well.
I'm not trying to compare two fighters as though they are carbon copies, but i am suggesting that there is an important variable in play in one of those fights (lack of a full training camp/short notice fight) that shouldn't just be written off because strikes to the body were in play, especially whenciting the number of body kicks in the previous fight, which did not feature a fighter gassing, a paragraph down. Lawler almost getting finished didn't happen because of gassing either, not sure what the relvance is there
bartatua - Sounds like fetusoffury needs to go posting the readingrainbow ground for a bit and then come back to read jack slack's articles
LOL, it seems I do.
FetusofFury -bartatua - Sounds like fetusoffury needs to go posting the readingrainbow ground for a bit and then come back to read jack slack's articles
LOL, it seems I do.
Here i type that and then leave out words in my own post about reading. Vu for being a good sport though
For later
zebers3 -bartatua - As always a good and entertaining analysis, but I disagree with his breakdown of the main event, partly because it isn't internally consistent with the rest of his own argument:
"Chad Mendes could have come in to the cage in peak condition, ready to compete in a triathlon, and he still would have wound up out of breath and lost out in the open were he taking those snap kicks to the body."
Later:
"You won't see thrusting front kick used much in MMA because it seems to easy to catch, yet in the main and co-main event of UFC 189 alone you must have seen about twenty or thirty snap kicks with the ball of the foot land in the midsection of Chad Mendes and Robbie Lawler."
Interesting, then, that he blames the same technique that didn't gas Lawler out even going into the fifth round, and delivered by a larger and more powerful fighter, on Mendes sucking wind even in the first round (and I think MacDonald landed more significant shots to the body than MacGregor did even, though correct me if I'm wrong). Likewise, Mendes has worked top position in the guard plenty without gassing from it.
That's because McGregor landed WAY more shots to the body in one round than Rory did in the 5 rounds they fought. If Rory had landed that many in the first round I'm sure it would have had a similar effect, but he only landed about 3 body shots each round. McGregor landed three times as many in just 2 rounds.
Macgregor landing in more volume is a fair point, and would have been good for jack slack to detail in the article. Though i can't imagine the numbers being what you cite here. Fightmetric has macdonald landing 16 sig to the body as opposed to macgregor's 15. I'm on a shitty tablet and so am not in a good place for typing or looking things up, though. Are the total strikes listed somewhere?
To clarify, I think both the body shots and the short notice fight were significant factors in the outcome. Crazy, I know. I don't agree what Mendes still would have gasses in round 1 had he not taken the fight on short notice. He's went 5 rounds without issue and taken hard shots to the body before. The short notice is a more notable variable in my eyes because unlike being hit in the body, it was not a factor in his previous, non-gassing fights.
bartatua - To clarify, I think both the body shots and the short notice fight were significant factors in the outcome. Crazy, I know. I don't agree what Mendes still would have gasses in round 1 had he not taken the fight on short notice. He's went 5 rounds without issue and taken hard shots to the body before. The short notice is a more notable variable in my eyes because unlike being hit in the body, it was not a factor in his previous, non-gassing fights.
When was he hit like that to the body in his earlier fights?
FetusofFury - What the fuck is this guy talking about?Are you stupid?
"with a full camp he'd have McGregor's number for certain. McGregor was never in trouble and is, in fact, the greatest fighter to ever live"
So, against a Chad Mendes with a full training camp, Conor would have lost, however Conor is, in fact, the greatest fighter to ever live?
Is this the same guy that writes the Underground Blog?
In