It’s cool to Conor bash now, and a lot of it is justified, but he is not a ducker. Conor is no Canelo or Jon Jones.
He fought all the tough guys and even fought injured. If I were a fighter’s manager, I’d respect the first part but I’d never agree to the second. When a guy like Dana is in charge, you can’t afford to needlessly risk your value if injured because you’ll get thrown unceremoniously in the trash heap.
I don’t think us civilians have any idea the amount of stress it must be to be a fighter. Especially one at the highest level. After all the build up, all the pressure you put on yourself, especially Conor who talks so much shit and believed so much in himself. The humility he had to face in defeat to tap to Khabib must have been brutal. I would imagine fighting must have such highs and lows. It’s a massive ego boost or blow depending on the outcome. Not to mention the emotional trauma of being in a fist fight inside a cage in front of a drunk, blood thirsty, audience. I get anxiety on Sunday nights about going to work on Monday morning. I can’t imagine fighting for a living. It’s not even something my mind can comprehend.
I think prime conor still gets smeshed. Im a huge fan of the diaz bros but man i have a hard time believing nate would beat khabib. They dont even fucking check leg kicks. For god’s sake change it up a bit. At least you could use the element of surprise. Think how surprised conor would have been in the 2nd fight if nate had a textbook perfect check to one of those kicks. The pain and surprise alone would have altered the path of that fight a lot.
Conor accepted the fight because he knew Chad wasn’t recovered from the Aldo fight. I don’t remember anyone thinking Chad had a chance if he couldn’t do it in the first because he had no camp. Maybe I’m remembering wrong.
the Conor fight. Yeah man, it was brutal, you know. Getting that call on 10 days’ notice. You know, cutting 25 lbs in a short amount of time, and just, you know, not being as prepared as I could have been to fight a guy like that. I know I could have beat that guy if I was prepared
His words, not mine. But I remember him being mostly a hunting guide and not training much (admittedly not deep inside info, just according to his instagram) before he got the call.
So yeah, I mean, I wasn’t really training a whole lot for a few months after that. Just letting my body heal… Getting a call at the last second doesn’t help anything.