Official Conor McGregor thread (part 5) *Read Mod Note in Post 1*

EagererBeaver

EagererBeaver wrote: »

Ah yes, the old "Irish begrudgery" card rather than "fair play to the men but he's a bit of an arsehole".

I think if you toot your own horn when things are going well then people will be very quick to point out when things are going badly.

A few years ago when Conor was still active and the other lads were winning a few fights, JK was pontificating as though he had the secret to success. He had figured out the smart way of training/eating/fighting, everybody else in MMA was dumb for getting injuries. He had all his silly catchphrases, 'upgrade the software' etc. If someone missed weight or pulled out he would be very quick to know-it-all about it on twitter.

Now they can't win a fight to save their lives. A bunch of them have pulled out with injuries. Daly missed weight, Smullen missed weight, Sinead Kavanagh missed weight. John Philips missed weight (by 13lbs !)

He has the young members of his gym sign a code of conduct agreeing to respect officials, represent the gym well etc. Conor jumps the cage and slaps an official, not a peep out of him. Conor and half the gym attack a bus, not a peep out of him.

mayordenis

Look I'm not going to go overboard in defense of SBG but there's a lack of context around this 0-7 or whatever number is being flung about. firstly it obviously missed a Nelson win in 2017, equally if we expand it to 14 fights I imagine we'll get a far fairer picture, but still arbitrary.

Ward and Lobov weren't fighting people that they had any right to be fighting, you can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. When you think Felder couldn't fight Khabib, but yet Lobov vs. Swanson gets the greenlight, Ponzinibbio out and out cheated to win, he may have won anyway but he certainly went to town on his eyes, even though I wouldn't have given Ward much of a shout in that fight it was a freak knockout.

finglashoop

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think if you toot your own horn when things are going well then people will be very quick to point out when things are going badly

I think this is it. Happy to lay the boot in when another gym/fighter does something wrong but is invisible when it relates to his own gym/fighters.

paulieeye

D'Agger wrote: »

https://www.sportireland.ie/High_Performance/2016%20Rio%20Review/Sport-Ireland-2017-Investment-Brochure.pdf

Irish Tug of War Association 22,000??!?

Ultimate Seduction

D'Agger wrote: »

https://www.sportireland.ie/High_Performance/2016%20Rio%20Review/Sport-Ireland-2017-Investment-Brochure.pdf

That amounts to just over 1000 per club in Ireland per year. Wouldn't keep the lights on.

EagererBeaver

paulieeye wrote: »

D'Agger wrote: »

https://www.sportireland.ie/High_Performance/2016%20Rio%20Review/Sport-Ireland-2017-Investment-Brochure.pdf

Irish Tug of War Association 22,000??!?

Horseshoe Pitchers of Ireland was the one that grabbed my eye!

rob316

Relative to population and the maturity of the sport in Ireland, I don't think SBG are doing too bad. As a whole though SBG worldwide aren't known for producing top class fighters.

Outside of Conor's UFC record SBG Irelands UFC record between Pendred, Egan, Ward, Lobov, Paddy and Aisling is 11-12.

John is painful and attracting that Z list celebrity status we all hate, but the guy has worked hard, really hard to get to where he is. Probably didn't make a scrap before Conor came along.

Mellor

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

That amounts to just over 1000 per club in Ireland per year. Wouldn't keep the lights on.

There couldn't be that many boxing clubs in Ireland.

Regardless, the money isn't divided out between all clubs equally. The smaller amount goes to the giver body and the larger amount goes to the high performance program. A select group of top athletes benefit from that. Maybe 20 seniors, and maybe the same again from the younger groups.

Sofiztikated

paulieeye wrote: »

Irish Tug of War Association 22,000??!?

You'd be surprised how big this is, especially in the border regions.

Subcomandante Marcos

Mellor wrote: »

There couldn't be that many boxing clubs in Ireland.
.

360+ clubs across 32 counties.

JohnMc1

rob316 wrote: »

As a whole though SBG worldwide aren't known for producing top class fighters.

This is why I always laugh at Matt Thornton's [the Founder of SBG] arrogance. He's been teaching for decades, produced no one of note and go on about how his "aliveness" method is superior to those other teachers "backwards and outdated" methods [even though they have probably more World Champions and World Class athletes that Thornton can only dream of having]If you're going to display that much arrogance you better back it up with a list of World Champions [aka Munidals, Pan-Ams, Abu Dhabi,etc] to back up your big mouth. For guys who claim to only deal in "Reality" and "Critical Thinking" Thorton and Kavanagh are very delusional.

Outside of Conor's UFC record SBG Irelands UFC record between Pendred, Egan, Ward, Lobov, Paddy and Aisling is 11-12.

That's why they retired. Just being attached to Conor would only spare them the axe for so long if they kept losing. Being one of Rousey's "Horsewomen" didn't spare Duke and Baszler from the axe.

Whelo79

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

360+ clubs across 32 counties.

373 clubs and aprx 15,000 members. I was doing a report recently and contacted the IABA on this info.

Subcomandante Marcos

Whelo79 wrote: »

373 clubs and aprx 15,000 members. I was doing a report recently and contacted the IABA on this info.

I just grabbed it from their website, they need to update it :P

Mellor

Whelo79 wrote: »

373 clubs and aprx 15,000 members. I was doing a report recently and contacted the IABA on this info.

I figured it was something like that. €1,000 per club would need 1,300+ clubs.
It's actually around €3,500 per club, hypothetically.


Just to be clear, I've no issue with boxing getting that funding. It's an Olympic sport, our most successful one at that. I clarifying that boxing does get quite a bit of funding.

Autecher

Conor's new house in Marbella. If I was John Kavanagh I would never say a bad word about Conor or else he'll never invite me over to stay in it! :eek:https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/inside-the-148m-pad-that-ufc-star-conor-mcgregor-has-reportedly-bought-in-spain-36920233.html

ardinn

cliggg wrote: »

Conor's new house in Marbella. If I was John Kavanagh I would never say a bad word about Conor or else he'll never invite me over to stay in it! :eek:https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/inside-the-148m-pad-that-ufc-star-conor-mcgregor-has-reportedly-bought-in-spain-36920233.html

Thats not a real house though - not one of those images is an actual picture

scudzilla

cliggg wrote: »

Conor's new house in Marbella. If I was John Kavanagh I would never say a bad word about Conor or else he'll never invite me over to stay in it! :eek:https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/inside-the-148m-pad-that-ufc-star-conor-mcgregor-has-reportedly-bought-in-spain-36920233.html

Imagine all his 'mates' who'll be using that gaff to 'lie low' or 'conduct business' :rolleyes::rolleyes:

VW 1

Mellor wrote: »

There couldn't be that many boxing clubs in Ireland.

Regardless, the money isn't divided out between all clubs equally. The smaller amount goes to the giver body and the larger amount goes to the high performance program. A select group of top athletes benefit from that. Maybe 20 seniors, and maybe the same again from the younger groups.

Further down the document it shows the separate amount, almost double the first one, for high performance programme in 2017.

Mellor

VW 1 wrote: »

Further down the document it shows the separate amount, almost double the first one, for high performance programme in 2017.

As I said;
"the larger amount goes to the high performance program".

ardinn wrote: »

Thats not a real house though - not one of those images is an actual picture

They aren't finished yet. He's bought off the plans. That's why they are talking about "options" like adding a spa.

brendanwalsh

Lukker- wrote: »

The very fact that JK is getting fighters in the UFC is a testament in itself.

I'm not sure for how much longer he will be able to guarantee getting lads into the big league. I think a lot of the goodwill towards conor and John which allowed aisling and cathal etc to get in seems to be gone. Of course at that time as well there was still a naivety about his fighters and the ufc weren't sure what their level was. Now it's clear Conor is an outlier in a stable of otherwise average / below average fighters and coaches. The delusion is strong in JK. Remember he guaranteed they would knock out the greatest boxer of all time. There was certainly an element of the emperors new clothes at that time. I think going forward sbg will have to have more substance to their products to get into the ufc.

hewhoscares

We'll see with SBG. He's hardly gonna be saying his stable is useless, but he really has hyped them to be of a certain level and they're not producing. They'll have the ability to be at it full time where the others before them wouldn't (sponsor and ticket seller oppurtunities now be much easier than 5 years ago when the others where coming through). So you'd really expect them to be able to kick on.

Gallagher seems the gem but again lots of noise and not much more. Machidas older brother is a decent win for a prospect but nothing to get overly excited about.

Mellor

brendanwalsh wrote: »

I think a lot of the goodwill towards conor and John which allowed aisling and cathal etc to get in seems to be gone.

Cathay and Ais both got to the later stages of their respective TUF brackets. Being signed for a few fights was pretty normal. No charity needed.

Remember he guaranteed they would knock out the greatest boxer of all time.

To be honest, anyone taking those comments seriously was far more delusional than the lads selling the fight.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

To be fair to SBG. Ireland has a population of 4.7 million, that would put us just behind the state of Alabama in population terms. There isn't a massive pool of talent to choose from in the first place. And because of Ireland's long history with producing world class boxers, it really makes any achievement an Irish MMA gym gets all the better.

SBG can consider themselves the pioneer MMA gym of Ireland.

Ultimate Seduction

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

To be fair to SBG. Ireland has a population of 4.7 million, that would put us just behind the state of Alabama in population terms. There isn't a massive pool of talent to choose from in the first place. And because of Ireland's long history with producing world class boxers, it really makes any achievement an Irish MMA gym gets all the better.

SBG can consider themselves the pioneer MMA gym of Ireland.

Who exactly are these world class boxers we have a long history of producing? We had a good Olympic team in 08 and 12. 3 or 4medalists in the last 30 years. Gary O Sullivan is probably our best pro boxer at the minute.

VW 1

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Who exactly are these world class boxers we have a long history of producing? We had a good Olympic team in 08 and 12. 3 or 4medalists in the last 30 years. Gary O Sullivan is probably our best pro boxer at the minute.

Michael conlon building himself up in the pros.

Andy lee was a world champ as was bernard dunne. Steve collins, mcguigan, matthew macklin.

Olympic success in Sutherland and egan. John joe nevin. Paddy barnes. Mcculloch and carruth. Jow ward a world class amateur.

Safe to say we have at least a recent history of world class boxers.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Who exactly are these world class boxers we have a long history of producing? We had a good Olympic team in 08 and 12. 3 or 4medalists in the last 30 years. Gary O Sullivan is probably our best pro boxer at the minute.

Well in fairness, boxing is literally the sport that Ireland is best at on the world stage (You could say horse racing too, but that's less of a sport in the strictest sense).

16 Olympic medals going back to 1952. You can't argue with that.

Ultimate Seduction

VW 1 wrote: »

Michael conlon building himself up in the pros.

Andy lee was a world champ as was bernard dunne. Steve collins, mcguigan, matthew macklin.

Olympic success in Sutherland and egan. John joe nevin. Paddy barnes. Mcculloch and carruth. Jow ward a world class amateur.

Safe to say we have at least a recent history of world class boxers.

Ya the Olympics I mentioned. we had a good team in 2008 and 2012 which had the boxers you mentioned. Katie obviously won gold and is now unified VB champ in the pro game

A long history of producing world class boxers though I don't agree.

Ultimate Seduction

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

Well in fairness, boxing is literally the sport that Ireland is best at on the world stage (You could say horse racing too, but that's less of a sport in the strictest sense).

16 Olympic medals going back to 1952. You can't argue with that.

What we are best at on the world stage and what we are world class at is different though. Rugby btw is what we are best at. I'd think of places like Mexico and Cuba. I doubt anyone outside of Ireland talks about our long history of world class fighters.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Ya the Olympics I mentioned. we had a good team in 2008 and 2012 which had the boxers you mentioned. Katie obviously won gold and is now unified VB champ in the pro game

A long history of producing world class boxers though I don't agree.

We have a long history with boxing. Especially so in comparison to MMA. I'm sorry, but this is a fact. We don't have a long history with any martial art really, except boxing.

Paddy Ryan became his sport's world's heavyweight champion from May 30, 1880, and he lost his title to John L. Sullivan (who's parents were Irish), and he lost his title to James J. Corbett (who's parents were Irish).

Ireland's medal history at the Olympics:
Boxing - 16 medals
Every other sport - 15 medals

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

What we are best at on the world stage and what we are world class at is different though. Rugby btw is what we are best at. I'd think of places like Mexico and Cuba. I doubt anyone outside of Ireland talks about our long history of world class fighters.

Mexico and Cuba have produced more world class boxers. I'm simply saying that Ireland have actually produced (many) world class boxers, and that it goes back 100 years. We have never produced a world class Olympic competitor in the majority of the other sports. Boxing is basically the only sport that we have won medals from without bringing an 'outlier' into it, for example the rowing brothers or Michelle Smith (drugs!?).

I love rugby, but there are barely 9 competitive world teams, so the term world class loses a little bit of its shine for me on that one.

Mellor

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

What we are best at on the world stage and what we are world class at is different though. Rugby btw is what we are best at. I'd think of places like Mexico and Cuba. I doubt anyone outside of Ireland talks about our long history of world class fighters.

Saying Ireland's most successful product is boxers. Doesn't imply that the best country at producing boxers is Ireland. A bit paradoxical, but it's correct imo.
One is comparing Boxing with other sports within Ireland.
The other comparing Ireland with the world. Two completely different scales.

Ireland most successful Olympic sport is boxing. Rugby is also a sport were we are elite (largely because it's a bit niche).
Mexico is 25 times the size of Ireland. Even if we were equally adept at producing boxers, their output would be much higher. Cuba has a phenomenal output for its size, but that's largely to do with the state run system they have.