Category 3- MMA Careers
This category comes from cmvideo75. Pick a career of a fighter that showed the largest difference between their peak and floor. So a career that fluctuates between an extremely high peak and extremely low floor would be perfect for this category. Use the write up, any videos, charts etc. to present your case.
A. @Tito Orcheese
Conor McGregor
We all know about the financial success that Conor McGregor has achieved in his life, but he would've never known such wealth if not for his ability to win a fight in a cage. Ya, maybe the brash personality had a hand in that as well, but that kind of grating confidence does exactly jack shit for you if you can't back it up on fight night. Conor was very much able to do that without fail; for a time, at least.
After winning the featherweight and lightweight belts (imagine that) fighting in Cage Warriors, McGregor finally got the call up to the UFC. Fans and fighters alike soon found out that this guy was a nightmare on the feet with a powerful left hand, speed, timing, and accuracy. He rattled off six wins that included victories over the likes of Max Holloway, Dustin Poirier, and Chad Mendes. He finally faced a little adversity against Mendes when he was taken down and ate some heavy elbows. Mendes said in an interview that Conor was talking shit the entire time, saying things like, "Is that all you got?" Mendes became another knockout on McGregor's record the next round.
The win versus Mendes secured Conor's shot at the featherweight champ, Jose Aldo. Aldo, who had already defended the belt seven times in the UFC, was, and still is, considered by many to be the greatest featherweight of all time. Let's see how that went.
A brutal, 13-second knockout versus the GOAT? Ok, then.
Conor went on to fight at welterweight against Nate Diaz for a couple of fights when his bid to become the first double champ in UFC history was put on hold due to Rafael dos Anjos getting injured. He was choked out in an upset during the first bout, but then come out victorious in a hard-fought rematch. Any shine lost was regained, setting the stage for his shot at double-champ status against Eddie Alvarez.
Now, a large percentage of people thought Alvarez was going to be able to eat anything McGregor could throw at him and just bully him around the cage. Let's roll the tape.
Total domination. Eddie got picked apart like a rotisserie chicken in there. McGregor showed he was just on a completely different level that only a few in the fight game ever reach.
Now, fast-forward through all the Mayweather stuff and let's get back to MMA. That brings us to Khabib -vs- McGregor. Many could tell it was going to be a bad time in the cage for Conor as soon as we saw him drunkenly attempt to get through a press conference for the fight. You could tell he was not the same guy mentally we had seen in the build-up to Aldo or Alvarez. But what about his skills in the cage? Had they taken a hit as well? I think I have some video footage somewhere.... Ah, here it is!
The stand-up sniper getting sent to the canvas by a wrestler is not a good sign. Maybe he'll be able to turn it around....
Ok, ok.... Let's just calm down and think about this. He's been away from the cage for two years doing his boxing and whiskey thing. He's going to regroup and be back better than ever.
Conor ended up getting booked to fight Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone a little over a year later. Only problem was that "Cowboy" stayed home while Donald showed up to cash a check. Kind of hard to tell if a fighter is truly back to form after a fight like that. Let's move on to the his second fight with Poirier to get some real data.