#ufc202
by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
Time for the UFC 202 main event between Conor McGregor andNate Diaz.
Conor comes out to some Irish warbling that turns into a rap song. Pretty much everyone is picking this fight for Nate, but the MMA gods are fickle and like to turn expectations on their head. Despite the outcome of the first fight, anything can happen in this sport and Conor held one of the longest camps I’ve ever heard to prepare for Diaz.
The current narrative is that Nate just stepped off a boat after drinking tequila in Mexico with Gilbert Melendez, ate everything Conor could dish out and still defeated him in the first. Nate does look more fit for this rematch.
As everyone knows there are two documented ways to beat a Diaz brother: kicking and rasslin’. Conor’s not much for rasslin’ so his ideal game plan would be to leg kick and circle away a la Carlos Condit againstNick Diaz or to aim for head kicks a la Josh Thompson againstNate Diaz.
There is security in the center of the ring, which I haven’t seen since latter-day Mike Tyson after he started doing crazy shit. I forget exactly which fight. It’s a bunch of theater on the UFC’s part, sort of like the cops they had onstage at the weigh-in. As if these guys would be chucking lattes at each other pre-fight if there wasn’t a ton of security in the ring.
Live coverage after the jump:
Round 1: Conor comes out with leg kicks. Nate lands a punch to the body. Nate is throwing some weak-ass leg kicks. Conor chopping away at the leg. Diaz checks a leg kick!
Conor lands a big left hand, then another one and Nate is on his ass, but Conor doesn’t want to follow him to the ground. Conor fighting much more patiently this time around.
Nate lands a left hand. Nate lands a shot to the body. Conor lands a big left to the body. The fighters exchange again. Conor lands another big left. Nate’s coming forward with some shots. Conor lands a big left to the body. Tons of leg kicks. Good game plan for Conor. Conor lands another leg kick, Diaz lands a left hand.
Diaz’s right eye is cut again, just like the first fight. Nate lands a jab. Conor lands a big right hand.
10-9 McGregor.
Round 2: Nate’s checking leg kicks now. He lands a right hand. Conor lands a right and scores another knockdown, but doesn’t want to go down on the ground.
Nate lands a jab, Conor lands a left to the body. Nate lands a right hook, but it was really slow. Nate is pushing forward, but Conor is weathering it so far. Nate is following Conor around the ring, beating him up against the cage and bleeding on the Irishman. Fucking Nate Diaz man. He just keeps coming forward. Conor is fighting a perfect fight tactically, but Diaz is still in his face.
10-9 Conor, but Diaz is coming on strong and Conor looks tired.
Round 3: Conor looks gassed. Does he have another big left hand? Nate is smiling and pointing. He pushes Conor against the cage again. Crowd is now chanting “Diaz”.
Conor is slapping his ear. The fighters break. Conor lands another big punch. Conor lands a leg kick. Conor lands a left. Diaz shakes it off. Conor is walking away sd Diaz lands one. Conor tries to land a spin kick while Diaz is talking shit to him, but Diaz catches it and pushes him up against the cage again.
Diaz drops to a double, but Conor defends. Conor lands a big elbow. Now they’re slow dancing against the cage. Nate lands a pair of punches on the break. Conor is turning and walking away. Diaz still coming forward. Diaz lands again. Conor looks extremely tired. He’s not even really keeping his hands up. Nate is pouring it on against the fence. He lands a huge body shot, then a knee. Conor is fucked up and lucky that the horn sounds to end the round.
10-9 for Nate Diaz.
Round 4: What a fight! Conor’s corner told him that he’s winning in the clinch. He’s not and he’s tired as fuck. The last thing he wants to do is start clinching with a guy like Diaz who can go another five rounds.
Nate’s face is cut up, as it always is. Nate is wiping his face.He’s still coming forward though. Conor looks flat-footed. Nate ducks under a big left and lands a bunch of punches. Conor lands a jab. Conor lands a push kick. Diaz’s face is a mask of blood.
Conor lands two body shots. Conor lands a bunch of punches. Not sure how well Nate can see. Nate working for the takedown, but Conor is defending. Diaz is landing shots against the cage. Conor lands a nice elbow. Diaz lands a knee. Conor turns him around. Nate lands a big left that rocks Conor.
McGregor looks fresh again somehow. He lands a big left to close the round.
10-9 for Conor McGregor.
Round 5: The right lands for McGregor. Conor throws a flying knee. Nate pushes him against the cage. Diaz is covered in blood. Nate pushes Conor against the cage again. Nate goes for a takedown, but doesn’t get it.
Nate’s following Conor around the cage, but he’s still throwing. Nate has Conor against the cage and lands a bunch of punches. Big right hand as Conor looks at how much time is left. Nate’s trying for a takedown again. He should just keep punching. He does keep punching.
Conor trips Diaz, Nate gets up and puts Conor’s back against the cage once more. Announcer Goldberg calls this the biggest fight in MMA history. It’s definitely one of the best fights in MMA history. Diaz takes down Conor and batters him as the round ends. Diaz helps McGregor up.
This is definitely one off the best fights I’ve seen in a long time.
10-9 Diaz.
These scores are going to hinge on whether the judges gave the second to Nate after that late flurry. My scoring should be taken with a grain of salt since I’m furiously typing. No matter what happens, people are going to be arguing about this one on the internet forever.
Official scores: 48-47 McGregor, 47-47, and 48-47 McGregor. Conor McGregor wins by split decision.
Stiff Jab official scorecard: 48-47 for Conor McGregor.
I think the win for McGregor was the right call, but what a close fight. Diaz’s cuts on his eyes seemed to be the difference maker.
Conor McGregor wants to fight Diaz again at 155. These guys are making each other millions of dollars
“They can’t have a motherfucker like me win. I’m too real for this shit. He should have finished me off,” Diaz said. Nate wants another shot. I’m sure it will sell a shitload of Pay Per Views. Great outcome for the UFC’s new corporate overlords.
UFC 202 Undercard:
Glover Teixeira came out and almost immediately walked into a terrifyingly massive uppercut from Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, the hardest hitter in the light heavyweight division
Teixeira was unconscious before he hit the ground. Officially a 13-second KO. That’s a title shot for Rumble. He chides the boys from the 209 for their antics at the press conference. Class act, Rumble Johnson.
Quick fight, maybe they’ll plug in the Monsoon fight from Fightpass. Nope, Chick Magnet Punk commercial. Can’t wait to see a thirty-seven year old who has never fought against a guy with a 2-0 record on a PPV card. Did you know that decorated martial artists Fabricio Werdum andUrijah Faber are fighting on this card? Nah, who cares.
CM Punk seems like an honest guy and it’s great that he’s trying something new, but does it really need to be on the main card? Yes it does, because it’ll probably be his first and last fight, and that’s the only way to separate WWE fans from their hard-earned cash now that Brock popped for a banned substance.
Oh maybe they’ll plug a fight in now. Nope Chick Magnet Punk commercial is followed by a Hands of Stone movie commercial. I love it when I pay seventy bucks for this shit and they still manage to put a bunch of commercials into it.
Donald Cerrone looks undersized at 170 lbs. in the cage with Rick Story. Rick Story looked decent in the first round (still think Cerrone probably won it though), but in the second round, Cerrone’s superior striking made the difference.
Story looked tired and Cerrone landed a punch to the stomach, a punch to the face, and a kick to the face in quick succession. Really great combination. He then swarmed on Story, kneed him in the face and finished the fight on the ground. Cerrone then says he wants to go back down to 155 lbs. to get the belt from Eddie Alvarez.
Tim “Dirty Bird” Means had a triumphant return from a tainted supplement scandal, where he was flagged for a banned substance and then his supplement company was acting so sketchy that USADA cut his suspension down to six months. He lit up Sabah Homasi with some really crisp elbows and left him a bloody mess before referee Herb Dean stopped the fight in the second round.
Tales of redemption abound as Mike Perry, who started training after getting out of prison, smoked the more experienced Hyun Gyu Lim. Perry looked like he was a weight class or two below Lim when the two were in the cage together. He also had to bite off one of his fingernails on the way into the cage since it was too long.
It didn’t look promising for Perry, but he was able to close the distance and land bombs both on the feet and on the ground to win by stoppage.
by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
This undercard didn’t look great on paper, but was hot shit from top to bottom, with the exception of the obligatory shit sandwich from main event team members Artem Lobov andChris Avila and a bit of a boring victory for Raquel Pennington. It’s a fucking travesty that these guys are on the roster, let alone on national television while Monsoon-Magny was relegated to the internets.
In the preliminary main event, Cody “No Love” Garbrandt did as expected and showed that you shouldn’t fuck with guys with neck tattoos. He basically took off Takeya Mizugaki’s head in the first round, winning by TKO. Cody then called out Dominick Cruz, who praised Garbrandt from the booth, but also talked some shit, as is typical of the Dominator. It will be interesting to see if Cody can land some serious leather on Cruz, because no one has really been able to in the past.
The Raquel Pennington fight sucked, but she won a pretty clear decision over Elizabeth Phillips. Pennington wasn’t really able to fight her fight and ended up wrestling. I’m a fan of hers, so hopefully she’ll have a little more action in her next fight.
Artem Lobov andChris Avila put on one of the worst fights I’ve seen that’s not on the very beginning of a Fight Pass undercard. It really sucked the air out of the prelims, which were great up until then.
Lorenz Larkin basically walked through Neil Magny. Both of these fighters are great and the bout shouldn’t have been on the internet. Larkin put on a striking clinic, kicking Magny’s lead leg to the point that he could barely stand on it and also landing some fantastic oblique kicks.
Finally Magny shot a McGregore-sque desperation takedown, ate a bunch of elbows and crumpled to the mat for the first-round stoppage. They should really try to plug this fight into the PPV telecast if there’s an early stoppage because it was short and excellent.
Randa Markos did not look impressive and I was glad that she was submitted in the first round with a slick armbar by Cortney Casey.
In the first fight of the night, 22-year old Marvin Vettori tapped BJJ blackbelt Alberto Uda with a head and arm guillotine in the first round.
by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
Fantastic night of fights tonight and some really unexpected results at UFC 199. In the main event, Michael Bisping knocked Luke Rockhold out in the first round.
That’s right, Michael Bisping, for whom the received wisdom has always been that he has great cardio but not a lot of punching power, finished Rockhold easily as a late replacement. Rockhold has never had great defense and Bisping caught him with a left hand as he was coming in, then followed up with another perfect punch to leave Rockhold unconscious against the cage at 3:36 in Round 1.
It was great to see Bisping finally get the belt after so many years. I’m now wondering if Rockhold was left slightly chinny by the cyclone kick that he took from TRT-era Vitor Belfort.
While there were lots of unexpected results tonight, the Uriah Faber-Dominick Cruz rubber match went pretty much as expected, with Cruz generally dancing around Uriah while doling out punishment to win a clear decision. Cruz rocked Uriah few times, but Uriah is still super tough and was able to avoid being finished on a few occasions.
Max Holloway looked super sharp against Ricardo Lamas. The biggest surprise of the fight was how effective Max’s takedown defense was. The fight ended with both fighters agreeing to stand in the middle of the Octagon and swing wildly. Great fight.
In the most heart-warming moment of the night, 45-year-old Dan Henderson KO’d Hector Lombard in the second round. Henderson landed a head kick, and then after Lombard caught his leg, Dan landed a quick elbow that put Lombard out. Dan then dropped another two elbows on the unconscious Cuban.
This was following a first round where Dan was almost knocked out himself. Dan even sort of considered retiring in his post fight speech. I wonder if he’ll change his mind now that Bisping, who he once beat decisively, is now the middleweight champion of the world.
Dustin Poirier continued his hot streak with a knockout of Bobby Green in the first round via a straight left.
In other news, Brock Lesnar is back for UFC 200 with an opponent to be determined. That should guarantee absolutely monstrous Pay Per View numbers no matter who the opponent is, and absurd numbers if they can talk Fedor Emelianenko into the fight.
Fedor is fighting June 17 on FightPass against Fabio Maldonado though, so I doubt they’d announce his next fight before that fight even happens. Other possibilities include Josh Barnett and Todd Duffee,whoAriel Helwani reported are both lobbying for the fight, as well as Mark Hunt and Stefan Struve, who are both available.
Big surprise (sarcasm), Conor McGregor will not be fighting Floyd Mayweather, the currently best boxer on Earth, after McGregor was outboxed by Nathan Diaz in his last fight. We remain amazed that so-called legitimate reporters were hyping that farce.
Conor’s fighting Nate in a rematch at UFC 202 in Las Vegas and posted a video slapping UFC boss Dana White on Instagram to celebrate getting paid.
Undercard results courtesy of Wikipedia since I’ve been drinking since noon and am going to pass out.
FeatherweightBrian Ortega def.Clay Guida by KO (knee) at 34:40
LightweightBeneil Dariush def.James Vick by KO (punch) at 14:16
Women’s Strawweight Jéssica Andradedef.Jessica Penne by TKO (punches) at 22:56
FeatherweightAlex Caceresdef.Cole Miller by decision (unanimous) 30-27, 29-28 (twice)
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
WelterweightSean Strickland def.Tom Breese by split decision 29-28 (twice), 28-29
Light Heavyweight Luis Henrique da Silvadef. Jonathan Wilson by TKO (punches) at 24:11
MiddleweightKevin Casey vs. Elvis Mutapcic (split draw) 29-28, 28-29, 28-28
LightweightMarco Polo Reyes def. Dong Hyun Kim by KO (punches) at 31:52
