McGregor Vs. Porier 2 breakdown and analysis

By: Tyler Stark

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Conor Mcgregor will make his long awaited return to the octagon this Saturday against Dustin Porier at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi. This will be Mcgregor’s first fight in over a year. He and his opponent Dustin Porier have a  well known history as they met in 2014.  Although Mcgregor knocked Porier out in less than 2 minutes, both fighters have improved greatly since the first fight. This fight is basically guaranteed to be incredible entertainment, and an amazing first pay per view event of the year for the UFC!

This fight is basically guaranteed to be incredible entertainment, and an amazing first pay per view event of the year for the UFC! When looking at how this fight differs from the first fight you have to look at the mental aspect of the first bout. Conor definitely got into the head of Dustin in the first matchup. The insults were ruthless. Conor made remarks about Dustin’s “pea shaped head”, he proclaimed that he was “in Dustin’s head” all day every day.

If you’re familiar with Conor Mcgregor you know that this is what he does, he is known for his trash talk towards his opponents.  Dustin became very emotional because of all the mind games Conor was playing. It was very visible at all of their press conferences leading up to the fight. However, things are different now. Both men are much more mature, Conor has not been using those antics. Unlike the first fight there is a mutual respect between the two.

It definitely seems as though the mind games are an aspect from the first fight that won’t play a factor this time around. Despite the mutual respect, this is still a fight between two men who want to knock each other out. This is a fight that features two of the best fighters in the lightweight division. The success of both of these men is predicated on the same thing, their striking ability.

Both of these men have tremendous boxing, and they possess incredible power. What’s interesting is These men are opposites in the sense that Mcgregor starts fast, he steps on the gas pedal early and tries to knock his opponent out. Oftentimes he gets the knockout, but when he does not he tends to lose that energy going into the later rounds.

His punches just don’t have that same power that they did earlier, likely because he throws so many of them early on. On the other hand Dustin Porier tends to feel his opponent out early on and step on the gas pedal in the later rounds.

Porier is often praised for having a very entertaining fight style. It seems like every time he’s in the octagon he’s fighting in an all out war. The problem with that is obviously it means he takes a lot of punches.

Now, to Dustin’s credit  he can take those punches most of the time and come out victorious, but as Conor Mcgregor’s coach John Kavanagh says “there’s being hit, and there’s being hit by Conor Mcgregor.” Conor certainly had next level power. It’s going to be very interesting to see how many shots Porier can handle. At the end of the day I definitely have to give the edge to Conor in the category of striking.

While most people do feel that this fight will happen on the feet, it is interesting to look at these fighters grappling skills. If you look at the submission total you can pretty much tell right away that Dustin Porier is the better grappler. He has six submissions and Conor has one. Dustin is pretty capable when it comes to performing well in the wrestling department.

On the other side Conor is just not a good wrestler. All of his losses have come by way of submission. It’s no doubt his greatest weakness. It’s very possible to think that Porier will try to take this fight to the ground to get Conor tired and possibly try to submit him.

There are so many things to keep your eye on in this fight. The biggest aspect of the fight that I’m really intrigued by is the first round. I really want to see how well Porier can handle the flurry of shots that Mcgregor will no doubt throw at him. Every fight fan knows how tough Dustin Porier is, but as I previously mentioned Conor just has a different kind of power. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how Dustin handles the power, especially in the first round. !

I am also interested to see what Porier does if the fight enters the later rounds. Will he try to take Conor down and wrestle him and hope that he can submit him or at least tire him? Or will he just stand and exchange shots with him for the whole fight? There are so many interesting scenarios, and I can’t wait to see how this fight plays out!

While I don’t see this playing out the same way as the first fight, I still am going to take Mcgregor over Porier. This fight will definitely be entertaining and feature multiple striking exchanges and heavy punches. I see Mcgregor catching Porier with a flurry of shots that hurt him badly and force the referee to end the fight in round 3.