It’s just not true, Conor looked great until mid point of round 1 when he got taken down. It wasn’t “vicious” ground and pound. It was nice, and likely won Dustin the round but Conor got back up with 30 sec left and we know what happened.
I remember a very good half round by Conor. Leg kicks, timing was excellent, obviously boxing was there.
Listen, it’s much easier to hate a Nate Diaz (whom I love now) then a Dustin Poirier. In Dusty we Trusty. Think he will/would beat Charlie. Just so anti-climatic and super disappointing everyone is on this “CONOR WAS GETTING DEMOLISHED” in R1 narrative.
At this point does it really matter? Conor doesn’t take care of his body or properly trains so he has no one but himself to blame. He’s won 1 fight since November of 2016. He was on his way to another stoppage loss even if he didn’t get his leg broken from the checked kicks. Conor is done, and has been done since the Diaz fights.
We will never see that fighter who beat Aldo and Alvarez again. I get it, it’s hard to see your favorites start to decline.
So for about the first minute, both guys looked fine. Conor is a good ring-general and was doing his thing, at first.
Dustin seemed to be kind of feeling it out, maybe even baiting Conor a little.
Once Dustin started pouring it on, Conor was backing up and clearly in at least a little trouble.
From the clinch on, Conor was out-matched.
I don’t think the Guillotine was close to sunk.
Conor is not known for being great on the ground or with subs.
He seemed to be looking for half-guard during the guillotine attempt, which was not a good strategy.
Conor did land a couple good elbows from bottom.
But Dustin’s G&P probably did 3 times the damage as Conor did the entire round.
Several good elbows and punches landed from top position.
So if you want to say Dustin didn’t “dominate” every second of the fight – I agree.
The first minute was feeling out – and one might argue Conor looked good – which he usually does when he’s moving on his feet.
He has very good control of distance, and good balance through a dynamic range of striking.
Basically, Conor is pretty much always going to “look good” if he is moving on his feet and not getting his ass kicked.
But looking at everything that occured before the leg break, Conor pretty much got beat up.
And if the break started with a checked kick – that’s even more advantage to Dustin.
I’m not saying he won the round, all I’m saying is it wasn’t 10-8 unless you just don’t like Conor.
10-8? Not that round. Great start to round and ended round on his feet being the aggressor (not a punch drunk aggressor either)? GTFO
Nobody knew he broke (or started to) his foot until the end of the round, which was from a fair and equal exchange on the feet.
If Conor didn’t get his bell ring or get bloodied/pieced up or get exhausted, it can’t be a 10-8 imo.
Conor got his leg broke not by Dustin this time, but by Conor. Conors offense. Doesn’t mean anything was a fluke. Isn’t it reasonable to think Conor stops those take downs with a fully functional foot?
In a game where leg kicks and checked kicks are required learning, and can sometimes lead to injury, kind of hard to call it a fluke.
Not a common occurance either – but certainly within the realm of knowledge and understanding among trained fighters.
Had Conor rolled his ankle on a bad spot on the mat – that would be a fluke completely unrelated to the competition.
Throwing a kick and hitting a guys bent knee with anything below the shin – deliberate check or not – there is a known risk there.
If I telegraph an overhand right – and you drop your chin causing me to break my hand on your head – good on you.
Rare injury or not, it’s all part of it.
I wouldn’t complain about a 10-9… but again, 10-8 shouldn’t be controversial here.
Conor basically had nothing after the clinch and a guillotine attempt that wasn’t close to sunk.
He was game, but getting busted up on the ground.
The only reason he got to his feet is Dustin let him up near the end of the round.
Also, Dustin was backing him down after the first 60 seconds or so of standup.
Hurt leg part of that?
Sure, maybe.
But according to Conor it wasn’t an issue till he rolled it.
Also, Herb was moving in when Conor was getting pounded – obviously concerned he might have to stop it.
He didn’t, nor should he have.
But Conor was clearly taking an ass beating.
It’s all kind of moot at this point.
If they never fight again, Dustin has the better of Conor.
But I wouldn’t mind a rematch at all.
