I see people on here and on other social media saying McGregor and Holm got exposed.
Let's get real, we already knew before last night's fights that both weren't the best grapplers, right? So we didn't need to see them actually lose by RNC last night to know this, we've all followed MMA for years and we know how styles make fights. So how did they get exposed again?
Did anyone on this forum really look at Conor like he was the most unstoppable, most skilled fighter we've ever seen before? No. We knew his boxing and trash-talking game were top-notch. But with the exception to Mendes who also took a short notice fight, all of McGregor's victories occurred exclusively in the stand-up. Neither Holly or Conor really proved themselves as grapplers and from what we've seen and read, it's safe to say neither is winning an ADCC, EBI or Olympic wrestling gold medal anytime soon.
Professional fighters on here, correct me if I'm wrong, but MMA is a three pronged sport: stand-up, ground and what I call the transition arts (freestyle wrestling, judo, Greco Roman, etc.), the arts where you don't really finish the fight so much as you transition from stand-up to ground and vice versa, basically controlling where the fight is fought. All three are needed at any given time in this sport, all three can be used strategically to throw someone off their game and hardcore MMA fans get this.
I was just surprised to see so many people on
here - the hardest of the hardcore MMA forums
- act like these guys were exposed for the first time, like we haven't already seen this movie before.
