The Opportunities For McGregor are Endless After UFC 257 Loss

               When discussing the “it factor” in the most successful athletes in the world, one of the biggest questions to answer is what is the “it” in question. For Conor McGregor, there are several things that could be in contention for giving him the “it factor,” such as his abilities on the mic in pre and post-fight press conferences or the pride he takes in his home country of Ireland and the pride that the fighting Irish have in him, but for me it’s his unpredictability which to his credit has allowed him to participate in some of the biggest fights in combat sports history. I mean look at his recent history. Take away the Cowboy Cerrone fight, his fight before that was the arguably the biggest fight in combat sports when he put on the 8 oz. gloves and boxed Floyd Mayweather for 30 minutes before running out of stream. Before that? Conor fought Khabib in the highest selling pay-per-view in UFC history. All of that being said, and generally understood by even those who don’t follow the fight game, I think it strikes up the most entertaining question you could ask any UFC fan, “What should the UFC do with Conor McGregor after his loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257?”

               Before we can even talk about what the UFC should do with Conor McGregor, I think it’s important to discuss what the UFC should not do with Conor McGregor. First, I think it would be straight up foolish to let him walk away right now and do another boxing exhibition like he did with Mayweather. Thankfully, this theory seems to look like less of a possibility as time goes on because the name that mostly gets attached to Conor returning to the boxing ring is Manny Paquiao who seemingly is in talks to fight Ryan Garcia currently. Outside of the boxing route, the other big mistake the UFC could make with Conor is the same mistake they made in 2020 by allowing him to go inactive despite expressing a willingness to fight. Specifically, in 2020 Conor said that he wanted to fight at least three times and all that Dana and the UFC managed to give him was one fight against Donald Cerrone that only lasted 40 seconds. While this inactivity may have been unjust to the fans, it was also completely unfair to McGregor, and although I refuse to make excuses for him, the lack of real fight time in the octagon may or may not have affected his rusty performance against Poirier.

               Now that we’ve discussed what the UFC should not be doing with Conor, it’s important to look at his options through the lens of time. Conor just fought, and although that doesn’t usually mean much, Dustin really damaged his leg in their fight and the growing fear within the community is that he might have fractured a bone in the leg. If true, we could be McGregorless for 6 months, however with negative x-rays we could see the medical suspension reduced to only 45 days.

               So, contingent upon the fact that Conor’s leg is fine and that he will be capable of fighting multiple times in 2021, we can finally discuss who that should be against. If you ask Conor and his team what their ideal path is at the moment, it appears that they want the trilogy rematch fight against Poirier potentially in May or June, hopefully from a position that Dustin is the champion of the division at that point and that there will be gold on the line. Honestly, if you want my real opinion, solid plan. Get yourself right physically and mentally, correct the mistakes from the last fight, and redeem yourself. However, from the UFC’s perspective, the result at UFC 257 was pretty emphatic in favor of Poirier, so as opposed to Figueredo and Moreno, who Dana White said would be running that fight back as soon as possible, I think McGregor’s situation is a little bit different and he is going to need a fight in between to reassert himself as a top contender for that belt.

               Assuming that this logic applies to the situation, who can Conor compete with that accomplishes this goal for him? From a business perspective, perhaps the biggest fight that the UFC can put on is another McGregor trilogy. Although his trigger fingers may have turned to Twitter fingers in the recent past, Nate Diaz announced that he wanted to make a return to the UFC in 2021 and to no surprise he wants to do it at 155 because it appears Conor’s days of moving up to 170 are over and it seems Diaz is hungry to avenge his most recent loss to McGregor. This fight definitely passes the eye test because from just a glance all the elements of a good story are there. Specifically, these two dudes flat out do not like each other, and what better way to get Conor back on his feet than to allow him to compete against a formidable foe in Diaz, in a grudge match nonetheless. Moreover, I think this fight should be enticing to McGregor because it would be contested at a much more natural weight for him. Recently Conor’s conditioning has been criticized with one of the pinnacle pieces of evidence being his first fight against Diaz which saw him run out of gas and get finished. However, prior to this fight Conor was in the 145 division and the 155 division so at the least he had to pack on 15 pounds for the fight which can undoubtedly make a fighter seem sluggish and more out of shape than usual because they’re toting around that extra weight. So, in allowing these two to compete and finish this trilogy at 155 I think Conor has an advantage because he should be quicker and more fluid than he was in either of their previous two fights, and I can only imagine he would be salivating at the opportunity to finally shut Diaz’s mouth.

               Say Nate isn’t the answer, I wouldn’t mind seeing a bronze medal match from UFC 257 pitting the main event losers against each other in McGregor and Dan Hooker. Contrary to the Diaz fight that seems like a supernatural alignment of the stars, there is an unpredictable element to this fight in that after his loss to Michael Chandler Dan Hooker exited the cage and turned around to throw his gloves back into the cage, seemingly giving the universal signal for retirement in this sport. So, assuming Hooker isn’t retiring and will fight again in the UFC this fight makes a lot of sense because it would be a battle to retain relevance. First, both men are coming off of a loss, and Hooker is coming off of back-to-back losses, yet despite an off performance against Michael Chandler, Hooker has been one of the most consistent fighters in the UFC and actually fought Poirier better than Conor did in my opinion. Stylistically, I think the two matchup well as strikers, with Hooker reigning from City Kickboxing and training with other stars of the sport such as Israel Adesanya, and I think the way that Hooker fights puts McGregor in a position to immediately have to correct his mistakes from his last fight or see his leg brutalized again leaving him unable to move how he likes and probably having to cope with a similar outcome. Additionally, I think making this fight would give us as fans a chance to see how badly Conor wants to compete because The Hangman is a tough night out for anybody and without the fear of takedowns haunting him like they did in the Chandler fight I see this fight making its way into the championship rounds and both fighters picking up significant injuries, so if Conor truly does want to be in the organization, fighting at the highest level in the sport, going through Hooker would be a great way to test his character as a fighter at this stage in his career.

               Still, if not Hooker or Diaz then who? One of the options that could be in store for him may be a legitimate contender who moves up from 145. First, Alexander Volkanovski has expressed an interest in sharing the octagon with McGregor, however the waters on this one are muddied by the fact that Volko already has a fight lined up with Brian Ortega to defend his title in February, so unless we see this fight towards the end of the year this is one I’d keep in the back of our minds for early 2022. On the other hand, the Ortega V. Volkanovski fight may set up something more interesting in analyzing what the UFC will do with Max Holloway. Max just fought and put on a record setting performance against Calvin Kattar on ABC, self-proclaiming himself the best boxer in the organization. In spite of this, Volkanovski has refuted any claims that he’ll fight Max again because although their second fight was largely controversial Volkanovski has beaten him twice. So, what does that leave for Max at 145? The answer as it seems at the moment is not a title fight, and even if it is, Max being the competitor that he is I don’t think will want to sit around and wait, leaving his fate up to Volkanovski and Dana White. Moreover, Holloway has expressed an interest in moving up to 155 eventually and what better time to do it than when opportunities are limited at his current weight class. To make things even more entertaining, these two already fought once back in 2013 at 145, and if the Poirier fight taught us anything it’s that the time in between fights has given each the opportunity to evolve and improve their game. So, personally, if I had to call for one of these fights at the moment I think it would be this one because it would be an all out slugfest to determine who belongs in the highest echelon of boxers in the promotion.

               Finally, if all else fails, if none of these fights I’ve already proposed finds its way to fruition there is one man that will bet on himself against anybody in the world and fight his heart out, and that man is Tony Ferguson. Given the shared of dislike for Khabib between the two, this seems like a fight that has to be made, but there are several other elements that should spark an interest in this bout. Particularly, both men are at a crossroads moment in their careers where both the fans and the UFC are largely curious to see A. How badly these guys want it and B. How capable they both are of still fighting at this level. Moreover, from a fan’s perspective I think it is undeniable that these two would set off fireworks in press conferences and face-offs and attract a lot of attention to a pay-per-view card. Stylistically, they match up well, and it almost seems like a disservice that at this stage in both of their respective careers that we haven’t seen this fight yet. So, Dana, the ball is in your court.

               All in all, as a whole I think 2021 will be the year we all expected 2020 to be for McGregor, and as long as the UFC doesn’t allow him to escape away into the world of exhibition boxing or sit on ice for no justifiable reason, I think we could see Conor back in a position to compete for the belt in late 2021 or early 2022, regardless of the Poirier loss.

 

How UFC 257 Showed Us Nothing New About Dustin Poirier

               There are few things that are more irritating in the sports world than the “I told you so” fan. I heard an interesting quote Chael Sonnen used to describe these types of spectators in which he said you didn’t tell anybody anything unless you were willing to put your money where your mouth is. Moreover, he said in the mixed martial arts industry particularly that unless you were willing to part with your money that you didn’t tell anybody anything, rather you were just talking and no one was listening. In its original context, this quote was used to describe the influx of people who claimed to have predicted that Dustin Poirier would knock out Conor McGregor in their UFC 257 headlining bout. Admittedly, I went 0-3 that night betting on Jessica Eye to beat JoJo Calderwood, Dan Hooker to finish Michael Chandler, and worst of all I bet on Conor to finish Dustin in the 3^rd round of that fight. While I could sit here and try to defend those decisions, the money’s already lost so what’s the point in crying over spilt milk, right? That being said, myself amongst other people owe Dustin Poirier an apology because UFC 257 didn’t show us anything we didn’t know about him as a fighter.

First things first, in one of the promotionals leading up to the fight, Dustin flat out said he knew he could scrap and for whatever reason we refused to believe him. This was clearly evident in the fight because although McGregor ended up losing, I scored the first round 10-9 in favor of Conor and he did land some shots. However, despite being in positions to take damage Poirier never deserted his game plan and always had an answer for whatever Conor was going to throw at him. Additionally, we never mention the name Poirier in the conversation with fighters like GSP and Khabib who weaponize pace and I’m not even arguing that we should, however we owe Dustin the credit he’s due for refusing to give Conor ground in that fight. Again, it was clear Poirier showed up to scrap, and not that McGregor didn’t, but Dustin was very confident in his ability to back down McGregor and his ability to exchange shots with him in positions that neither of them were willing to back down from.

Furthermore, while I’m framing this conversation in the lens of UFC 257 and this specific fight between McGregor and Poirier, Dustin didn’t do anything in this fight that was unexpected and uncharacteristic of him. Take for example his last fight with Dan Hooker. Poirier V. Hooker was a fight of the year candidate in 2020 and the second round of that fight was probably the best fought round of 2020. In that fight, however, Poirier showed his true colors as a fighter by having his face bloodied and still managing to go to decision and win, despite the damage. I think the biggest thing that could’ve been taken from that fight that was largely overlooked was Dustin’s chin and his ability to take big shots from Hooker and still return fire. The only reason I bring this to your attention is because Dustin’s chin was a big factor in the McGregor fight.

Although Conor’s mental toughness is usually something to be praised, and even can be in this fight after you look at the way Dustin damaged his leg and he continued to try to fight through it until the knock out, I believe that Dustin’s chin and his ability to absorb some of his shots mentally broke McGregor. The analogy I find appropriate is that Conor looked surprised, like Justin Gaethje did in his title fight against Khabib, that his shots weren’t causing more damage and impacting Dustin more. Going into the fight, even the casual fans of the sport, like my mom who regularly referred to McGregor by the first name Ewan as in Obi One Kenobi in the horrible Star Wars prequel trilogy, knew about the power Conor had, particularly in his left hand, and in the fight Conor landed some big left hands. Specifically, in the second round there was an exchange where Dustin was moving forward and Conor was giving ground and countered with a left hand very similar to the one he used to put out Jose Aldo in 2015. He connected with the left and in the fight you can almost see a look on his face of “how are you still standing?” So, all in all, while this fight clears up some questions, like Poirier being next Iine to compete for the lightweight title, it also created many questions like where does the UFC go with Conor from here. Regardless, in a world that constantly sees so much changing, after UFC 257 I think it’s fair to say that one thing in this industry is consistent and that is that Dustin Poirier, win or lose, will show up to scrap no matter who’s across from him in the octagon.

Is The Dream Over for The Reem

 

Is The Dream Over for The Reem

 

Alistair "The Demolition Man" Overeem

One of the hardest parts about 2020, outside of the whole global pandemic thing, was watching some of the greatest martial artists in the history of the sport fight under the UFC promotion for the last time. Of these legends, names like Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, and Anderson Silva all made their final walk for the UFC in 2020, and if early 2021 is indicative of anything it seems as if it will be a year that sees more heartbreaking retirements from guys that have aged out of their athletic prime. Specifically, one of the biggest names I think we could see officially leave the sport this year is The Demolition Man himself, Alistair Overeem, particularly because of his performance on February 6, 2021 against Alexander Volkov.

Alistair Overeem taking a punch from Alexander Volkov (February 6, 2021).

Before we go any further, it’s important to note that the bout between Overeem and Volkov might be an isolated piece of work, meaning that it might have just been a bad night for Overeem or Volkov could have preformed better than usual, however given the current trajectory of their respective careers it seems unlikely. Additionally, Volkov’s long limbs and fighting style may have caused problems for Overeem that other fighters in the heavyweight division may not, but Overeem’s inability to slip shots or get any momentum going offensively was frightening for a 40-year-old with a goal of extending his career and hopefully earning a championship before he calls it quits. Sadly, for Overeem, it doesn’t seem like that title shot is going to come any day soon because unlike other wily veterans who have reinvented themselves to remain at the top of their division, beating the best of the best in their weight classes, guys like Glover Teixeira, Overeem is a dying star slowly running out of gas.

Overeem lands a big left hand against Brock Lesner during his first fight in the UFC (2011).

The biggest reason that Overeem’s performance against Volkov is so detrimental to him achieving his goal of becoming the heavyweight champion of the world is because there aren’t a lot of good matchups that present themselves for him to reinsert himself into the title picture. Looking at Overeem’s career over the past few years, his most significant wins have come against Augusto Sakai (September, 2020), Walt Harris (March, 2020), Aleksei Oleinik (August, 2019) and Sergei Pavlovich (November, 2018), guys who are currently ranked 9, 10, 11 and 14^th respectively in the heavyweight division. Although these are some of the toughest men on the planet and I mean no disrespect by these comments, Overeem’s recent resumé is not incredibly impressive in a way that would warrant a title shot, particularly because these wins weren’t strung together and there were scattered losses in between. 

Overeem gets his hand raised after defeating Walt Harris (April 2020).

Speaking on his losses, the contests Overeem ended up unsuccessful in are more damning to his title shot than his lack of an impressive resumé because over his lengthy career the general body of work speaks for itself. However, given the current standings in the division, Overeem was ranked number 5 and just lost to number 6 in Volkov pretty emphatically, so even best-case scenario he drops to number 7 or 8 and potentially worse given the performance itself. Outside of Volkov, Overeem has been gotten over on by just about every other major contender in the division. In an almost inverse relationship to his recent wins, Overeem has lost to almost every fighter in the top 5 of the division including Jairzinho Rozenstruik via KO/TKO, Curtis Blaydes via TKO, Francis Ngannou via vicious first round KO that left Overeem limp, and last, but certainly not least Stipe Miocic who also knocked him out in the first round back in 2016. So, while Overeem may be interested in continuing to fight the best of the weight class, I think he’ll have a difficult time finding a rematch with any of these guys who all also have their sights set on the belt.

Francis Ngannou delivering his viral knockout shot on Alistair Overeem (2017).

Moreover, looking at the timeline of when the heavyweight belt will be contested, Miocic V. Ngannou II is currently scheduled for March 27, 2021 and will be the next time that the belt is up for grabs. After that, UFC commissioner Dana White has said that Jon Jones, the newest addition to the weight class, will walk straight into the next title fight. The reason I bring this to your attention is because even if Overeem is somehow still a name in contention for a title shot, his opportunity wouldn’t come this year and probably would barely come in the first quarter of 2022. This is significant to note because Overeem is currently 40 years old and will turn 41 in May of 2021, so, despite being unlikely, if Overeem were to get the next shot at the title after Jones he would be almost 42 years old making him the oldest to ever contend for a title since Randy Couture set the record at 45, further pointing to the conclusion that Overeem’s dreams of gold should be dead at this point.

Randy Couture defending his Heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar aged 45 (2008).

Regardless, if Overeem does decide to keep going his options will be limited, but not nonexistent. First, the only fighter in the top 5 of the division that he has not fought yet is Derrick Lewis. The Black Beast is currently scheduled to fight Curtis Blaydes in a main event on February 20, 2021, and if he wins I think he moves himself out of the realm of possibility for Overeem, however, if he loses, Overeem Vs. Lewis might be Alistair’s last shot to put himself back in the title picture. The issue that might arise in this fight is what Alexander Volkov wants to next because he could lobby for his rematch with either Blaydes or Lewis, and moreover any of these three could set their sights on Ngannou, Rozenstruik, Miocic, or Jones depending on what happens to the belt. Outside of Derrick Lewis, Overeem could embrace somewhat of a gatekeeper role where he fights the young up and comers in the division, giving them the opportunity to prove their worth to the promotion, similar to what Junior Dos Santos has been doing recently in taking fights against guys like Ciryl Gane. Likewise, Overeem could fight Gane, although this seems unlikely with rumors pointing to Gane being the backup for the Miocic/Ngannou title fight as well as being on the rise in the weight class; on the other hand, Overeem could also fight Dos Santos in a battle of heavyweight legends.

Overeem sporting the gruesome injury he received fighting Jairzinho Rozenstriuk (2019)

So, as a whole, is it impossible of Alistair Overeem to work himself back into title contention and potentially accomplish his goal? No. However, given his recent performance against Volkov, it is clear that he will have some ground to make up before it is a realistic possibility again. But, Father Time seems to be working against him because with age Overeem has lost power and the ability stamina wise to produce high output performances. Additionally, in his most recent losses The Demolition Man was demolished taking some dangerous shots and receiving some severe injuries. All in all, while it may hurt to say, the same way it did for guys like Anderson Silva, it seems The Dream for Reem is over.