The King comes for the Unconquered
Disclaimer — reader discretion advised, I get a bit carried away sometimes (contains the occasional harsh language and dumb curse word)
Real quick, I did a quick recap on the UFC 229 Press Conference so if you guys want to jump into that, here’s the link.
What’s up, guys?! OH MY GOD UFC 229 is less than two and a half weeks away. With the event that most consider will be the biggest event in MMA pay-per-view history, I’ve decided to pay no attention to every and all blogging pundits advice on NOT TO POST MORE THAN ONE ON THE SAME DAY to start my never-ending journey of trying to bring casual sports fans into the MMA realm.
And what better time to do it than with a build up to the main event that has MMA hardcore around the world having a daily hemorrhage when trying to break it down.
Here are the rules, we’ll go into this three-round contest with a short description about both contestants for the reading pleasure of you white belts on this mat. Round two we’ll highlight their coaches and teams, and finish off this blog in round three by covering the match-up. Read my blog with 20% attention at all times and stick around to read the post-blog below to see something to get you hyped for today’s press conference. Touch gloves and let’s do this.
Round 1 — The main men
Fighter, are you ready? Fighter, are YOU ready? LET’S GET THIS GOING!
“The Notorious” Conor McGregor
Mr. Champ-Champ I, Mr. Pay-Per-View, Mr. Proper Whiskey, Dr. Left-hand shot — Whatever you want to call him, The Notorious one will probably turn around and tell you your names are basic and stiff. After apparently making over $100 million in his attempt to foil #MoneyMayweather’s perfect running.. *cough* *cough* … I mean boxing record, the self-proclaimed “Face of the Fight Game” has taken a year-long hiatus from fighting and will be returning next inside an octagon on October 6th.
Thus far along the build-up for this fight, of which there has been next to nothing but some trash UFC posters with flag animations in the fighters eyes, Mr. Mac himself has been fairly quiet… in person. That being said, we live in the glorious age of social media and keyboard warriors. Hence Conor has taken his shit-talking to his Instagram. Boasting about 26 MILLION followers on his profile, the Notorious One has spent the lesser part of his training camp posting about the following -
1) pictures showing off his work ethic
2) a few posts targeting his opponent’s dad’s and training partner’s integrity which cause 74% of Khabib fans to have an aneurysm
3) Burger King
4) his new whiskey Proper Twelve (available now in select stores across Ireland and the United States)
All this while he trains in camp at SBG Ireland, mauling his training partners with hyper uppercuts and phantom-death-blow knees.
Strengths —
1) THAT LEFT-HAND STRIKE
2) awkward stance and movement that has caught everyone off guard except Nate Diaz
3) talking smack that causes his opponents to over-extend and the fans to buy pay-per-views
Apparent Weaknesses —
1) Has shown the tendency of “gassing out” at time
2) Not known for his takedown defense
3) Not being able to get inside Nate Diaz’s head
Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov (Lightweight Champion)
With Demetrious Johnson taking his first L via a “goddamnit I hate these judges” split decision, Khabib stands tall as the only undefeated champion in the UFC. Hailing from the land which produced Ivan Drago (Rocky reference get with the program), the Eagle seems to possess the same unrelenting aggression and undeniable talent that the above mentioned fictional character. He is a literal monster and a nightmare for his opponents. 26–0, that’s his professional record!
The Dagestani Lightweight King has had a tough road to the title, being plagued with injuries, liver shutdowns due to ridiculously stupid weight cutting methods and having to fight almost every single fighter in the division’s top 15. That being said, he seems to have recently put all of his physical issues behind him, mauling through everyone but Tony Ferguson to the gold via sambo throws, single leg takedowns, and ground-and-pound. Khabib trains out of AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) with a bunch of killers like Mr. Champ Champ II Daniel Cormier, former Middleweight Champ and Ralph Lauren model Luke Rockhold, and former Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez. With all these future Hall-of-Famers (and training partners) swearing to have never seen Khabib lose around in training, it’s not hard to see the why the Papakha wearing mauler is a nightmare for most fighters.
Oh and he wrestled with bears when he was like 10 years old. Don’t believe me? Here’s the video. Never doubt me again.
Strengths —
1) Single leg take-downs
2) Sambo throws
3) Elbows to your face bouncing your head off the canvas like he’s Alan Iverson and your head is the basketball
Apparent Weaknesses —
1) Stand-up and striking because he got popped once in his whole UFC career by Micheal Johnson in 2016 (yeah, we’re still fishing here)
2) English
3) Tiramisu *chuckles*
DING*
Go to your corner. Deep Breaths. Time for round two, let’s go, time to punch a hole in the faces of people who said you have the attention span of a squirrel.
Round 2 — The Wizard vs The General
Straight Blast Gym, Ireland
SBG Ireland was founded by wizard himself, John Kavanagh (more on him in a bit). After being founded in 2001, the gym has become the premier camp in Ireland if not Europe itself for Mixed Martial Arts. It has thus far produced and/trains a great deal of talent beyond the Notorious One, such as UFC Fighters Makwan Amirkhani (145lbs), Brad Katona (145lbs), Artem Lobov (145lbs), Gunnar Nelson (170lbs) and Bellator fighters Dillon Danis (170lbs) and James Gallagher (145lbs). It is also home to stellar coaches such as Owen Roddy (Striking Coach and owner of SBG, Charlestown) and Sergey Pikulskiy (Wrestling Coach).
The Grand Wizard — John Kavanagh
John Kavanagh is a true-renascence man. He is the founder and owner of his own business (SBG Ireland), a black belt in karate and jiujitsu )Ireland’s first, and also an author of his book “Win or Learn” (worth the read, in my opinion). The humble, quiet sensei to Conor’s seemingly mad and over-the-top pupil, John has been Conor’s coach since day 1 of his MMA journey standing by him as family rather than as a student. A blend between Sirius Black and Albus Dumbledore to Conor’s Harry Potter.
For the upcoming fight, John like Conor has kept away from the media thus far to what, I assume, devise and implement a spell that will slow time down for Conor so he can catch Khabib on the chin. The only interview was shown on Conor’s media platform, The MacLife (link to interview), where Kavanagh alluded to the following —
1) Conor will not face “ring rust” because SBG Ireland trains hard AF everyday
2) Khabib will be a harder fighter to face than Nate because we all know Khabib will try to “shoot from the locker room” (wrestling reference)
3) Is looking forward to seeing how Khabib deals with a circumstance in which he loses a round.
BONUS 4) HE DOES NOT HATE INTERNET TROLLS! WHAT A GEM OF A GUY!
American Kickboxing Academy (AKA)
Sunny San Jose, California, is home to one of the most dominant gyms in UFC and MMA history. The American Kickboxing Academy, with head coach and all-around army general Javier Mendez, is the camp for phenoms like current UFC Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier (yes he is the champ for both Heavyweight and the 205 lbs division, nuts), Luke Rockhold (Former UFC Middleweight Champion, Strikeforce), Cain Velasquez (Former UFC Heavyweight champion, 2-times), Germaine de Randamie (Former UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion, Strikeforce), and of course our favorite bear-wrestling Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov (UFC Lightweight Champion). It is a camp of killers, known for their superior wrestling, unrelenting pressure, and inhuman cardio-vascular abilities.
“The General” Javier Mendez
Okay, I know some of you might be thinking that being the general is a bad thing. It’s not. Just look at the resume his fighter has its nuts. Javier Mendez is a disciplinarian and instills the same discipline in his fighters. If you’re not in it 100%, chances are he’ll push you to a place where you’ve never been before to make you stronger, which also might result in leaving the guy crying meaning you’re a definite no to Dana White’s “do you wanna be a fighter?” question.
In interviews on podcasts and other more legitimate media outlets, Javier has shown his practical side and mentioned how he does not think there is enough time for Khabib to catch up to Conor’s stand up game which in turn does add weight to what Kavanagh mentioned on MacLife. He also mentioned how intense Khabib is in training, leading us to believe that Khabib is straight up out to kill Conor for revenge on Bus-pocolypse 2018.
*ding*… *gasps for air* *sips water*
“Come on now, almost there. I want you to give me reads of 5 short paragraphs like you fucking want it! Go get him!”
Round 3 — Dollies and Championships break friendships
Notable interactions
2014 — While Conor was still at Featherweight (145lbs), Khabib and Conor seemed to get along real well. Here is Khabib tweeting a picture with Conor.
2015 — News of Conor coming to Lightweight (155lbs) has Khabib claiming that he would smash McGregor even though he likes him.
2016 — Backstage at 205 weigh-ins, Conor and Khabib get into a war of words.
2017 — Conor mentions a potential fight in Russia during May-Mac media.
early 2018 — BUSPOCOLYPSE! Conor smashes a steel dolly through the window of the fighters bus Khabib is on. This was Conor’s rebuttal when Khabib had an altercation with Artem Lobov, Conor’s good friend, and training partner during the week leading up to UFC 223. Khabib responded with the hashtag #sendmelocation saying he wants to hurt Conor be it in the ring or outside.
Match-up
THIS IS WHAT MMA IS ABOUT FIGHT FANS! FINDING OUT WHICH FIGHTER IS BETTER. WHICH TEAM IS BETTER. WHICH STYLE IS BETTER. Conor comes into this fight with an illusive stand-up and striking game, powerful shots, and a will to cement his legacy by taking out the 0 in Khabib’s loss column. Khabib is out to get revenge for Conor’s attack on him and with his unstoppable take-downs, relentless ground-and-pound, and recently added stellar jab to his game, this is bound to be a contest for the ages. The king (of pay-per-views) comes for the champs unconquered loss column.
So whether you’re a wrestling guy or an I’m gonna punch in the face type of gal, rest assured that which style is better will not be solved on that day and probably not before we solve the middle-eastern crisis. But what will happen is pure entertainment. The fans that are already hooked are going to tune in. I am going to tune in. And this is my plea to you, TUNE IN! THIS IS LIKE THE ALI-FRAISER FIGHT FOR THIS GENERATION. THIS WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY I GUARANTEE YOU, SO DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BUY THE PPV (or check out our friends in reddit for some help) SO THAT YOU CAN TELL YOUR KIDS HOW SORRY YOU FEEL FOR THEM FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO WITNESS AN EVENT OF SUCH MAGNITUDE!
*ding ding ding*
Congratulations you made it.
If you want to know more about Conor McGregor or Khabib Nurmagomedov’s entire career with a satirical flair, life about outside the octagon and more, stay tuned over the weekend for their fighter profiles. I’ll also link their profiles off the UFC website for those of you who want a boring statistical breakdown.
Don’t forget the UFC 229 Press Conference is at 5 PM EST. I’ll be watching even though it’ll be 5 AM where I currently am.
BONUS CONTENT
As mentioned above, the press conference is just hours away. I’m hyped. A lot of people are hyped. You should get hyped. To display how ridiculous people think this event will be, there are actual betting lines ground around just on the press conference. Shit is getting real fight fans. Below is a screen shot of some of the odds. If you’d like to know more, click here for the article on MMAfighting.com.
Also, by some miracle you actually enjoyed this, leave me a clap or something so I know I’m not slowly killing your braincells with my incensed rambling. I’ll be posting another one tomorrow to recap the press conference so keep an eye out for that too.
The above illustrated points are my thoughts on the fight and also my sad attempts at helping in it’s build up. Varying opinions are out there on how everything has and will play out, so do let me know your thoughts — if you agree, disagree, or have a different version. Also if I got anything wrong, hated this blog for wasting your time, or even if you just don’t like me, slide into my DMs here and tell me to f**k off.
