He took three hard kicks square in the solar plexus in the first round alone. That sh*t kills unless you have abs of steel.I missed that part.. But you could tell he was a little gassed even in the first round
He took three hard kicks square in the solar plexus in the first round alone. That sh*t kills unless you have abs of steel.I missed that part.. But you could tell he was a little gassed even in the first round
He took three hard kicks square in the solar plexus in the first round alone. That sh*t kills unless you have abs of steel.
I thought he said he felt he was ready but he'd like to try it with a full camp. He mentioned it a couple of times, but it didn't come off as full blown excuse making.
Credit to him for stepping up tho'.
Physique wise he wasn't the same either. He looked the same from weigh-in to fight. He usually is much fuller. I doubt he had trouble making weight but his body composition didn't look as it has recently.I missed that part.. But you could tell he was a little gassed even in the first round
Yoel Romero could put weidman out. Ain't no need to be trying to match weidman up with any 205er let alone the greatest 205 of all time
There's plenty of dangerous opposition for weidman at 185
Mendez went from "I'm always in shape/I'm always ready" in the lead up to "if only I had a full camp" right away in the press conference
Souza, Romero, Rockhold and Weidman are all threats to each other. That division is really interesting.
I'm interested to see how WW plays out now. I'm not as hype about Hendricks vs Lawler 3 as most people. I'd rather see Condit v Lawler, Woodley v Hendricks and then Rory v Matt Brown.
Conor vs Aldo is obvious. I wonder if Franky v Mendes should happen, seems like a tough match up for Franky but there's such a gap between Conor v Aldo that it makes sense. Mendes deserves a chance to get back in the mix since he took the fight on short notice and did more damage to Conor than anyone has (thought I don't like the short camp excuse personally, Conor had two weeks to switch gears from training for a stand up fight to trying to defend against the best wrestler in his division so it's a two way street). The sleeper in that division is gonna be who comes out of Holloway v Oliveira, one of those dudes could make noise against top five opposition.
Gunnar Nelson vs Demian Maia would be a fun fight to watch. That's just a random thought.
Mendes had to switch gears as well. Go from not fighting anyone to fighting one of the best and most unorthodox strikers in the division. That plus the fact he had a very short training camp put him a more difficult situation than Conor.
That's essentially why I say it's a two way street. He gets short time to prep but Conor has two weeks to get ready for his absolute worst style match up in the division. Both took a big risk accepting the match. The fight would definitely unfold differently if they both had a full camp to prep for each other, but the advantage could go either way.
Both took a risk, but Chad was clearly at a bigger disadvantage going into this fight.
"Every fight Conor has had has been a great matchup for him. This is the first fight where you're like, 'Oh....' You're talking about the No. 1 ranked guy in the world, and there's a reason why Conor McGregor leapfrogged him for a title shot. Chad Mendes is a nightmare for him," he said
Only after he lost. Look at the lead up and a majority of fighters were picking Mendes because of the style advantage which left Conor no time to prep. Here's a good example
http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/...-conor-mcgregor-is-terrified-right-now-070715
It's a two way street. Conor was really wise to go heavy on the body kicks knowing the situation, but that game plan had a lot to do with Mendes gassing so quickly.
Both of their situations were not ideal, but Mendes was at a bigger disadvantage going into this fight. If you can't see that, I don't know what to tell you.
The body kicks did have an effect on him (did contribute to him gassing), but you could also see that he clearly wasn't at his best. Aldo dropped/hurt him (I believe) 3 times in their fight and Mendes still recovered, came forward and returned fire. His conditioning, speed, power, fluidity, striking combos, etc were on point in that fight.
A lot of fighters/fans/media were talking about the fact that Conor has had a full camp to train, while Mendes has had 2 weeks and how that could play a big role in the fight.