OT: Conor McGregor To "Retire Young"
Just saw this from today. I haven't watched much UFC in quite a few years but I'm glad to see a guy making the smart move for long term longevity, although details are lacking on timetable. I feel like UFC has gotten increasingly brutal as there has been more and more parity in the sport. It used to be that there were such mismatches in style or talent or athleticism that a lot of fights ended quickly. I know there are still quick knockouts or submissions but a lot of these guys stand in and just go toe to toe pounding on each others faces round after round now.
The argument was always that the little gloves actually prevent injuries and no one has ever died in the octogon so it's so much safer than boxing and it's repeated blows to the head, etc. The article references that a guy died after a recent fight, I hadn't seen that anywhere before.
How the UFC doesn't come under as much or more scrutiny as the NFL is kind of silly to me. I know these are grown men and they make their own decisions but I for one would be glad to see McGregor go out while he still has all his faculties.
http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/15272422/conor-mcgregor-tweets-decide…
Lose once and you can't be the greatest ever. Why keep going if you're McGregor. Take your money and whatever health you have left.
Publicity stunt.
But if it was true...
Dana White would probably be 1 Jon Jones DUI away from jumping off a cliff at the rate UFC Superstars are losing/getting old/retiring.
Training Injuries are the biggest issue that Dana White is facing. Over the past 3-4 years that seem to have gone up dramatically, so many great fight cards have become horrible as fight after fight has to be postponed due to injury while training.
I don't think he minds as much about superstars losing, as one thing they do very well is hype up fighters to take the previous superstars spot.
I'm calling bs.
I mean his nickname was King for christ sake. A couple of shots in the mouth and work the bandaid looking X on his belly and he's done in under minute. Wow, some "King"....
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"How the UFC doesn't come under as much or more scrutiny as the NFL is kind of silly to me. I know these are grown men and they make their own decisions but I for one would be glad to see McGregor go out while he still has all his faculties."
They're just different beasts altogether. There aren't anywhere close to as many kids/teens fighting in MMA as there are playing football, MMA isn't in the same realm of popularity as the NFL and the long term health impacts of fighting in MMA still aren't really known, though one can speculate.
To be fair, UFC was banned in 36 states and it took until March 23 of this year for New York to become the last of those states to pass a law that allows ultimate fighting. It will be legal 120 days after the date it was passed.
No matter what "scrutiny" the NFL faces, they didn't get banned anywhere.
Also a very good point. Those bans did make some sense too, early UFC was BRUTAL. (And I'm a horrible horrible person and loved the hell out of it.)
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The guy was getting beaten in the side of the head but didn't get knocked out. He could have verbally tapped. In some of these fights you see a guy getting the shit beaten out of him and the announcers saying the ref should stop it. Well, the guy can verbally tap anytime and any time a ref stops the fight the guy's corner complains so let them fight I guess.
Beyond that they need to redo the weight classes and prevent so much dehydrating. Don't we have the technology to calculate how much water someone is carrying and just ignore water weight?
Here's the current UFC weight classes and the % difference.
125 to 135 8% jump
135 to 145 7.4% jump
145 to 155 6.8 % jump
155 to 170 9.6% jump
170 to 185 8.8% jump
185 to 205 10.8% jump
205 to 265 29% jump
Why not just start at 125 and go up 7 or 8% until you get up to 265? A weight class just below 205 that Jon Jones couldn't make at 6'4" would be nice as would more weight classes above 205 that might give some of the fat guys an incentive to lose weight.
I think the better option isn't really to change all the weight classes (though I don't have an issue with that) but simply weigh the fighters in a few hours before their actual fight. Removes the drastic weight cuts before the fight, and you'll have more and more fighters fighting at their actual weight, rather than cutting down for an advantage.
I've never really heard a solid reason why that can't be done.
As for the tapping issue, it's on the ref to protect the fighter period. Sure, a guy can tap out from head blows, but you hardly ever see it because they've been trained and told over and over not to do that. Not saying some of the blame doesn't go to the figher for not just giving in, but I put a lot more blame on the ref for not stopping the fight when he should have.
Not a chance this is for real. Setting up the big payday for his "last fight"
Loves the lifestlye way too much to retire. This is a joke. If isn't, Vince Mcmahon offered him a deal he couldn't refuse.
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I enjoy watching the UFC, and this guy is fun to watch. He talks a lot of smack, but it's funny/entertaining. I would rather watch his type of showboating than the Diaz brothers. I mean, I was hoping for McGregor to lose to Aldo because I prefer Aldo's style, but it's still an entertaining brand of fighting.
It's kind of odd to me how many people get up in arms about fighting/concussions, and it's not the same number of people who are against drug use. As far as I'm concerned, people make their choices of pursuits. If smoking weed or doing coke is okay because those people are only hurting themselves, then two guys who agree to kick each other in the head for 15 minutes should be allowed to do so, too. And if McGregor wants to call it quits before taking too many blows to the head, then good for him.
I don't take either side in the issue but one difference worth noting is there aren't millions of people watching drug abusers on TV. That is a factor in the discussion.
That's probably because it isn't legal. If drugs were made legal, then I'm sure we would see them quite a bit in movies and on television. Of course nobody's going to pay a bunch of money to watch who can smoke a joint the fastest, because it's not interesting. But I just don't think it's very relevant to the discussion.
Plus his weakness is tallerr rangy fighters, both of his losses were against rangy guys, against shorter fighers with a smaller reach he's good.
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He was also fighting up in weight vs Diaz. He was probably fighting at his walking around weight while Diaz had to cut. You could see him surprised when Diaz didn't drop in the 1st round from a few of those shots. Fighters in his own division would have buckled to the canvas.
April 19th, 2016 at 10:23 PM ^
April 20th, 2016 at 12:19 AM ^
You know this how? Oh yeah, you just made it up.
April 20th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
And you believe what UFC fighters say? Yeah, none of them were/are on steroids. Your weight can fluctuate by 5-10 pounds in one day depending on whether you just took a dump and are hydrated or not. McGregor is 5'9" and Diaz looks over 6'. McGregor was constantly talking about how his belly was full and he was fully hydrated before the fight and you don't know if Diaz watched his food intake and hydration to get down to 170.
April 20th, 2016 at 12:55 PM ^
The fighter that died after his bout was Joao Carvalho. It was in Dublin, Ireland on 4/12/2016, & McGregor implied that the ref should have stopped the fight earlier than he did.
The small gloves offer no protection for the head. They are merely to protect the hands and that's it. It's part of the reason some guys go down from shots that don't look that dangerous compared to what you see in boxing, yet they are clearly dazed. I'd argue that if there's anything "safer "about the small gloves, it's that it takes less of a shot to knock a guy out.
Having said that, this is about money. It's always about money. McGregor knows he's UFC's biggest draw and wants to be paid accordingly for what was to be the company's biggest show in years.
to the bank. This guy talks a lot and I wouldn't be surprised if it's ploy to make even more money, which if it works good for him.
I actually love MMA and now find boxing to be boring to watch. Most sports have inherent risks competing in them and MMA is probably higher then most. But I find most of these fighters respect each other and with good ref's guys usually don't get hurt too bad. They always have mandatory lay-offs after fights also so they can recover fully.
I think it's a choice and if these guys choose to compete, they also know the risks.
I personally like someone taking a stand against Dana White, if this is what Conor is doing.
Let's remember that Conor's the only one that wanted to fight Nate Diaz and not Jose Aldo. He had to vacate his belt to do so, and this was against the wishes of Dana White/UFC and his own coach.
He's taking a stand against Dana White by not promoting the fight? What if every fighter did that? You can't make an exeption for one guy.
He didn't vacate his belt.
Diaz instead of Aldo. Now Aldo is fighting Edgar for the interm belt.
Now we can quibble over whether Conor gave it up, but this is close enough to me.