Boxing Off-Topic

[aholbert32]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

After taking time to process the fight, here are some quick thoughts:

Conor's hyped punching power. His power was nonexistent. I expected it to a degree, earlier in the thread I pointed out that MMA guys don't hit as hard as boxers, but even I was surprised how slappy many of his shots were. His jab was by far his best punch. I don't think Floyd ever felt threatened by Conor's power

Age has caught up with Floyd. There was a specific time where I thought to myself time just Ko'd Floyd. Think it was the 7th round or so and Conor landed a jab. Floyd was visibly frustrated with himself because he knows he should not get tagged by that kind of punch. It is hard to tell exactly how much Floyd has regressed because he fought a style I never remember seeing him fight with, but I do hope he stays retired.

Floyd gave away rounds. He gave Conor rounds 1 and 2, without question. You don't throw a combined 12 punches in two rounds otherwise. To a degree this is typical Floyd to be a bit passive early and adapt to his opponent like he is The Borg or something, but it was far more pronounced this time. And after thinking about it, that should not have come as any surprise considering his opponent, but I confess to not anticipating it.

Conor's stamina.Holy hell he has none. Look we all knew he would run out of gas, but he started sucking air in the 6th round. He was tired in the 8th and 9th, but dude was suffering a asthma attack in the 10th. Can't help but remember a poster claiming MMA was more taxing. Yes even in MMA Conor's stamina is subpar, but I have serious doubts that he could literally go the distance in boxing. If it wasn't called when it was he may have just collapsed in the 12th. Which brings me to...

Does Conor push himself in training? Granted the fight had something of a shorter than usual turnaround, but damn Conor you are 28. Get your cardio in son.

Still, Conor impressed me. May seem like I'm hating on Conor more than anything, but at the halfway mark it was a competitive and balanced fight. Conor landed some blows, most were weak but he landed them. His counter punching was damn good, and I think his jab is good for anyone, let alone a guy making his debut. Just needs to learn how to turn into punches to generate power. And do some cardio

The stoppage.It was early, but unquestionably the right call in my mind. Go back and watch the last two landed punches. Floyd hits Conor, then Conor tries to get his upper body upright but completely forgets about his arms. Wasn't defending himself at all. The ref could have waited and there is little doubt in my mind that Conor would have either hit the mat, or been held up by the ropes while Floyd teed off on him. The early stoppage robbed the fans the chance to see that, but it was a foregone conclusion at that point.

Boxing vs MMA. Not vs as in which is better, but Boxing is not simply MMA with only hands. Both sports have a mental and tactical component that is just as important as the physical, and the tactics don't carry over to the other sport. Floyd had a proper strategy, but I think Conor's strategy consisted of "hit Floyd, try not to get hit."
On the other side of it, I'm not a MMA fan so correct me if I am wrong, I highly doubt Floyd's early round strategy would ever work in the UFC.

Final thoughts. It was a good one off event. Floyd should hang up the gloves for good, and I also don't really have a strong desire to see Conor box again. I didn't watch the fight to see an academic boxing display, I watched to see two showmen entertain me, and yes Maximus, I was entertained.

- Regarding Conor's power, Floyd Mayweather is perhaps the worst boxer to try to show you hit with power. He's been fought 50 times and has maybe been rocked 4 or 5 times and 3 of those were before he became a defensive master later in his career. Also, Conor landed the straight a number of times and a couple of uppercuts that landed strongly.

- Yes...MMA is more taxing. Anyone who has trained both will tell you that. The grappling aspect alone makes it more taxing. Thats one of the reasons the sport doesnt go 10-12 rounds like boxing.

Using Conor's stamina as evidence that boxing is more taxing doesnt work either. In his 2 longest fights, he gassed at the 10-12 minute mark....which is right around the time he gassed here,

- Floyd's early round strategy cant work in MMA because you really cant afford to give away rounds when you only have 3 or 5 rounds to fight.

[aholbert32]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

Held to form....





Sorry...but Floyd threw a total of 28 punches through 3 rounds. If you call landing 5 out of 12 punches in Round 3 being active then we must be talking about a different sport.

No moral victories man. Conor got paid and set himself up to get paid afterwards. We knew that going in.

Did he look decent? Realistically, he showed little to no power. Floyd hasn't walked down an opponent in probably 15 years.

Watching the fight on youtube, Conor's punches seemed more like slaps to me. His upper cut looked strong. But any shots from distance looked like pillow shots.

I give Conor credit for these reasons:
1. He was game.
2. His jab was effective.
3. He didn't fall.
4. He didn't make excuses which I thought he surely would.

Beyond that, this was probably Floyd at his worst. If he's telling the truth, he didn't spar for the past month to save his hands and it showed.

But Floyd did what you said he wouldn't do which is protect his record (which you said he loves more than his kids). There was no shoulder roll and he took Conor's best punch (the upper cut) and walked right through it.

Glad I didn't pay for the fight because it did look like a glorified sparring session beyond all the glitter and hype. Strip everything away and there wasn't much going on.

I wasn't impressed with the fight. I wasn't impressed with Conor (in a boxing ring). What I did like was watching Floyd totally disrespecting the punching power of a guy who was clearly bigger and stronger than him by staying in the pocket.

Beyond that, I hope boxing can move on and quickly. GGG/Canelo needs to raise the bar.

Alot of people gave Conor the 7th (Showtime and me are included). Floyd threw 54 punches that round....did he give that round away too?

Also I wonder ho many of you guys watched the Berto fight where Floyd looked exactly the same and won every round?

[aholbert32]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

Great thoughts ggsimmonds.
I agree, I was really impressed with Connor's jab, counter punching and evasiveness (while he still had stamina).

Still, his boxing skills were at the novice level at best.
As you described, his punches resembled slaps more than punches.
In a post fight interview he lamented that he was never able to keep Mayweather at arms length where his power was better utilized.
Mayweather deserves credit for taking that space away.
But as good as McGregror's jab look, outside of slap-happy hands, he never showed any propensity to put together a decent combination. Not even a one-two.
With a smaller opponent forcing himself in, throw an uppercut. He did land one, but that's what he should have done more of the night.
Again, this is where his novice boxing skills were evident.

I said in a previous post that McGregor showed more skill than I expected from him.
But his boxing is still very raw and I stand by my assertion that Golden Glove champions would beat him.

Regarding his stamina, some people just don't have it naturally.
I can empathize with Connor. At various times in my life I've worked really hard on my stamina for various reasons; marathons, hockey, track, boxing...
It didn't seem to matter what regimen I followed, I've always struggled with it.

And Connor has a lot of muscle. I bet his body fat percentage is under 7%.
When you have that kind of muscle mass, it requires a lot more stamina to feed oxygen to those muscles.

McGregor should be proud of himself as should the UFC. They were represented well.
Especially with how gracious Connor was following the loss.
I was a fan of him before this fight and I'll continue to be a fan of his going forward.

So he lasted ten rounds with an alltime great but a GG champ would still beat him...ok.

It is what it is. This fight was polarizing so I knew I would hear takes that were all over the place until the fight. I knew that Conor wasnt going to embarrass himself even though multiple people in this thread and people all over the net were saying that was the case. With that said, I expected that to change after the fight but it seems like people are in their same corners. Boxing only fans saying Floyd gave away 4 rounds and MMA only fans saying that the stoppage was evidence of a conspiracy.

I'm just happy its over so I dont have to read this **** anymore. LOL.

[Dave_S]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

As pretty much an exclusive mma fan I thought the stoppage was legit. Most fighters I saw with high fight iq (like Lauzon) agreed with me, most fighters that I consider to have lower fight iq (like Weidman) thought it was early.


I like watching Conor fight, and don't care to see him take unnecessary damage and severe TBI. He wasn't really intelligently defending himself imo, but I base that off of mma, I'm not aware of boxing stoppage rules.

It was good, fun fight. People that don't respect Conor's performance never will, no matter what. I kind stand how he acts, but I think he's a hell of a fighter.

Schaub and Diaz trading words was kind of fun, I'd put money on Diaz, lol.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Boxing Off-Topic

Aholbert, You're too caught up in the hyperbole, man lol.

[JayBee74]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

Overall I'd say Conor had a pretty good night.

Conor PARTY

[sheredia]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

- Regarding Conor's power, Floyd Mayweather is perhaps the worst boxer to try to show you hit with power. He's been fought 50 times and has maybe been rocked 4 or 5 times and 3 of those were before he became a defensive master later in his career. Also, Conor landed the straight a number of times and a couple of uppercuts that landed strongly.

- Yes...MMA is more taxing. Anyone who has trained both will tell you that. The grappling aspect alone makes it more taxing. Thats one of the reasons the sport doesnt go 10-12 rounds like boxing.

Using Conor's stamina as evidence that boxing is more taxing doesnt work either. In his 2 longest fights, he gassed at the 10-12 minute mark....which is right around the time he gassed here,

- Floyd's early round strategy cant work in MMA because you really cant afford to give away rounds when you only have 3 or 5 rounds to fight.

i agree....like i said, if this fight is 4 or 5 rounds (which would make it somewhat fair), it becomes even more competitive with floyd not being able to give away early rounds. i was actually surprised conor lasted as long as he did. and why was this 12 rounds since it was nowhere near a championship fight by any means? if anything, it puts floyd's career somewhat in question since this fight counted toward's his record. it's laughable. they won't remember his 50-0 record, they will remember, "he's the guy that fought mcgregor". this fight pretty much sums up his career.

[Haz____]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

.... considering the fight didn't start until round 4

Wow, boxing heads are so insanely delusional.

[Haz____]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

Still, his boxing skills were at the novice level at best.

I don't think you truly understand what you're watching...

[Dave_S]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

After watching fight again I can't believe how terrible the officiating seemed, but I'm a mma guy. Luke Thomas brought up a good point about the ref not knowing where to stand and how to position himself. Even besides that I thought refereeing was pretty bad.

[aholbert32]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

After watching fight again I can't believe how terrible the officiating seemed, but I'm a mma guy. Luke Thomas brought up a good point about the ref not knowing where to stand and how to position himself. Even besides that I thought refereeing was pretty bad.

He was bad all around. He only warned Conor about hammer fists once. He didnt warn Floyd about turning his back and he wasnt willing to let either of them clinch for long.

[JayBee74]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

Wow, boxing heads are so insanely delusional.

Yes, we are the grasshopper, you are the master. (of hyperbole)

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

Alot of people gave Conor the 7th (Showtime and me are included). Floyd threw 54 punches that round....did he give that round away too?

Also I wonder ho many of you guys watched the Berto fight where Floyd looked exactly the same and won every round?

Not sure the point you're trying to get at (re: Berto).

As I said, I didn't think it was a good "boxing" fight. People are praising it because Conor lasted longer than expected and Floyd actually didn't counterpunch the entire match.

It's cool. I know you're just giving it back to the boxing guys in here but some of these MMA fans are really jumping out the window because their invincible hero was on Quit Street.

[aholbert32]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

Not sure the point you're trying to get at (re: Berto).

As I said, I didn't think it was a good "boxing" fight. People are praising it because Conor lasted longer than expected and Floyd actually didn't counterpunch the entire match.

It's cool. I know you're just giving it back to the boxing guys in here but some of these MMA fans are really jumping out the window because their invincible hero was on Quit Street.

You said this fight was Floyd's worst performance. I watched the Berto fight and that was the same Floyd that you saw last night. Now the difference is Berto (the accomplished former boxing champion) won 0 rounds against that Floyd.

Conor arguably won 4 against that same Floyd.

[ggsimmonds]

Re: Boxing Off-Topic

- Regarding Conor's power, Floyd Mayweather is perhaps the worst boxer to try to show you hit with power. He's been fought 50 times and has maybe been rocked 4 or 5 times and 3 of those were before he became a defensive master later in his career. Also, Conor landed the straight a number of times and a couple of uppercuts that landed strongly.

- Yes...MMA is more taxing. Anyone who has trained both will tell you that. The grappling aspect alone makes it more taxing. Thats one of the reasons the sport doesnt go 10-12 rounds like boxing.

Using Conor's stamina as evidence that boxing is more taxing doesnt work either. In his 2 longest fights, he gassed at the 10-12 minute mark....which is right around the time he gassed here,

- Floyd's early round strategy cant work in MMA because you really cant afford to give away rounds when you only have 3 or 5 rounds to fight.

-Conor's power. No man, just no. I don't care who you are in the ring with, slap boxing is slap boxing. Yes, he landed a few clean strong shots, but as a whole? His power was underwhelming. Floyd is not made of iron, if Conor's punches had power Floyd would have stopped coming forward.

- Boxing vs MMA stamina. Its like football vs soccer. Soccer unquestionably has the greater cardio requirement, but that doesn't mean it is more physically demanding. Same thing here. When it comes to cardio, boxing has a greater requirement than mma. That doesn't mean it is more physically demanding though. Just like a NFL DE expends more energy rushing the passer than a soccer player does, a MMA guy expends more energy grappling than a boxer does. But over the course of a full bout, boxing requires more stamina.

-Yes, you cannot afford to give away rounds in mma, but that is not what I was alluding to. Floyd's strategy wasn't to give away rounds, the rounds were just a by product. His strategy was do nothing, invite Conor to hit him, then go after him after he tires. I wouldn't think a mma guy could afford to be so passive and inviting like Floyd was (not because of rounds, but because the risk of submission mostly)