MMA Fighting - UFC 264 Post-Fight Show: Conor McGregor Breaks Leg

Episode Date: July 11, 2021

With UFC 264 in the books, MMA Fighting's Jose Youngs and boxing analyst Teddy Atlas break down the top storylines following Saturday night's event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, including Dustin Poirier's TKO win over Conor McGregor in the main event after the former two-division champion suffered leg break at the end of the opening round. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Teddy Atlas: @TeddyAtlasReal Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-by journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Jose Young's here with MMAfighting.com. Stay next to a man who needs no introduction. legendary Teddy Alice here inside the T-Mobile Arena. Now, USC 264 just wrapped about an hour ago.

A little bit of chaos at the end, so we're obviously going to have to start with that. Connor Lossed to Dustin Porre after everyone here witnessed what we believe is his ankle. Dan always says it's his lower tibia snapped in half. What was your immediate reaction upon witnessing that? Another very unfortunate and gruesome, quite honestly. They're always gruesome, you know, difficult injury. Whether it's in football where you're seeing the quarterbacks, Joe Dyesman, going way back and Honest Taylor when he, you know, when he tackled him and other guys

and all when you've seen guys like Anderson Silva, you know, deal with these kind of injuries. It's difficult to see it. And unfortunate, because you want to see it play out to its conclusion without an injury. But up to that point, the one thing that I did take from it in my primitive way, you know, being that I always deferred to the brilliant people that you guys have covering MMA. I would never disrespect the sport or those fighters. I know boxing, but I do know fighting. But I don't know the MMA, obviously, to the level that you guys do.

But I know that in my business is always about geography. Who wins the battle of geography? You know, who gets to the area, the real estate that is prime real estate for them, for their skills? And for me, the way I evaluated, it wasn't too hard to do, is for for Connor to win he had to own the real estate on the outside. He's a great counterpunch.

He's a pure counter. I think people forget that. I think they started to make him into a sink and destroy missile. But he was brilliant as a counter puncher. That's how he made his bones. You know, he struck across the sky like a meteor in this business.

And it was counterpunched him. Taking advantage of guys making mistakes, making them make mistakes and making them pay for their mistakes. At a range, at a distance. He had long arms. You know, the guy, that have long arms, they can be good swimmers. And they go in there and they become great swimmers.

You put them in the right sport. He was able to be a great counter puncher with his long arm. There was a reason why he was actually winning after four rounds against the great Floyd Mayweather because he was able to use his long arms to keep a great counterpuncher from countering. Because if you keep him out of range and you keep him at the distance, there's not the counter.

So for me, it was going to be, I'd make it very simple geography. It was going to be, if Connor's going to win, he's got to keep range. And he's got to get Porriere somehow to make mistakes and be able to play the counter punch game. For Porri, if he's going to win, he needs to get close. You know, he's got shorter arms. So both on the striking and on the floor game, as far as on the mat, obviously he's superior on the mat. I don't have to go and tell you guys know all about that, Jiu-Jitsu and with the grappling and everything else.

Either way, he had to be in tight. And for Connor, he had to be loose on the outside. and the geography was being won in that first round by one guy. Porriere. Now, what did you make of Conner's comments immediately after he was still on the canvas? He said, I was boxing him up

until my leg snapped and half. He's calling for the rematch. He called out Dustin Porre's wife again. We just spoke with Dustin Porre just a few minutes ago. He said, we're going to fight again, whether it's in the octagon or on the sidewalk. Are you interested in a fourth fight between these two men?

And do you agree with Conner's assessment that he was indeed boxing up Dustin Porre until his leg snapped and I don't think that Conner was better prepared. His energy level was higher. You know, there was more urgency, more maybe desperation, quite frankly, but definitely more urgency, higher level of energy and more prepared. He, you know, he was using kicks.

He was trying to do to Dustin what Dustin did to him a little bit the first time. Take the legs away. You know, and but at the end of the day, for him, I thought he went over the line. You know, for me, you have a responsibility to act like a champion, fight like a champion in the ring or in the cage, but then behave like a champion in the cage and outside the cage or outside the ring. Behave. It's not just about, you know, the fighting ability. It's about you behaving like a fighter, a fighter of that elk, a fighter of a champion mold. And there's a responsibility.

You remember all those Nike commercials years ago and everybody, Charles, Charles. Parkland, I love Charles Paul, he's the greatest. And all those guys, they say, I don't want to be a role model and all that. But whether you like it or not, you know, you have a responsibility to behave like a champion, to behave like someone, because someone's watching. You are a leader. You like it or not. You're a leader.

And you do have a responsibility. And I take it a little further. Some people are going to think this is complex. And maybe they won't agree. Maybe they won't like it. What the heck? But, you know, at the end of the day, it's whatever. I believe, I believe that there's a physical strength and there's an emotional strength and a

spiritual strength, just a core strength of who you are. And I believe that that's been as part of the strength of Porriere. He's developed, he's evolved in a lot of ways from what he was seven years ago when he lost that first time to come, almost seven years ago. He's evolved in so many ways to his credit. But to me, his character, his greatest attribute has been his resiliency. To me, that's not something

that's got to do with striking or with grappling or jiu-jitsu. It's got to do a character. It's got to do with the substance of you. And to me, that's part of his strength. That's part of what got him here. And to me, maybe you judge people by longevity. and kind of i don't know if he's going to wind up having a longevity that maybe you need to be

really one of the greats and i really believe i'm not knocking him he's been brain he's been a meteorite but your character your substance your choices are part of that strength and part of what lends towards longevity it it is it's connected to it it really is it is part of your inner core of strength And some people have less or more. And that's something where I think that tonight Connor didn't show well in that area. He didn't show well in that area with his behavior afterwards. One final one on this fight.

Is this enough of a conclusion for this trilogy fight? Boxing, we've had a number of story trilogies. It's still relatively new and mixed martial arts. We've had a lot, but they've had definitive endings, not like this. Can fight fans officially put the Conne McGregor and Dustin Porry rivalry behind them, or do we have to do this a fourth time? Of course they can put it behind them. That's their choice.

You know, if they want, they got to pay the bill, right? You know, that's their choice. But we're talking real terms here. But, you know, when you're iconic, and he got to that iconic place, you know, Connor, where you're an iconic guy, you're one of those rare breeds. Arturo Gaddy was that in my business? Mike Tyson was that in my business where you can lose and people are still

going to come out and want to watch you more than want to watch. The man did you fight again because of what you bring. Because of the anticipation what you bring. With Tyson maybe bites the guy's head off. It's a little different but with Arturo Gaddy is, you know, that he's going to give everything.

It's going to give his soul. He's going to keep coming. And it's theater, it's drama. And guess what? People pay a lot of money. Broadway's opening up again. Those shows are going to be sold out. Why? Drama. Theater.

Curtin opening up. And that's what kind of brings. And that's the X factor here. You know, so trilogy, smelogy, killogy, whatever you want to call it, it's going to happen again. Because he's the Broadway man. Sure. And I do, I want to leave you on this one thing unrelated to this fight because I don't know when I'm will have the opportunity to speak with you.

We spoke with Pauli Malinaji about a year and a half ago before his bare-n-n-n-nothing boxing debut against Arden Loboff. And we asked him, what's the difference between MMA fans and boxing fans? And his phrasing was, MMA fans are a little cartoonish. And he accredited that to MMA fans haven't witnessed, in his words,

quote, their heroes haven't died. They haven't seen their heroes die in the ring. Boxing fans have seen their favorite boxers. Take so much damage. They've gone into comas. They've not come back out of the comas. And until we've seen that, we are not as educated as boxing

fans. I would like to get just your thoughts on that. That's deep, you know, and Polly was always a deep kid. You know, a smart fighter, you know, he, he didn't, he wasn't at the head of class with physical attributes, but he was smart, he was intelligent, he became a champion with those, and speed, he had speed

and, you know, understanding what boxing was all about, navigating your distance, you know, geography, you know, knowing a geography that made sense. And he, he deserves a lot of credit for being a guy who, again, wasn't at the top of his class when it came to just pure physical ability,

but he became a champion. So part of him being a champion was his intellect. Well, that's intellect what you're talking about right here. That's deep intellect. That's deep spiritual thinking. I think the MMA fans are great. I really, I love them because they're passionate. And I don't completely agree with it.

get where he's going, but I don't want to see Nolan die. And you don't get to see Nolan die. When I see whether it's silver or whether it was tonight or whether it was another fighter, I can't remember who they walked, but it wasn't all that long ago where you got a compound fraction, a leg just, who was that? That wasn't too long. Chris Wyman, his leg just snapped. Oh, my goodness.

You see, you know what? That's death. I mean, that's pretty damn close to death. I mean, you're seeing that. So I think if you're saying that the fans have to go through the fire, I'm going to say you guys went through the fire. You guys went through the fire. Because when you see that kind of stuff, it's traumatic.

It's difficult. It's hard to overcome. It's hard to block that out of your mind. So you understand what mortality is by seeing that because you see a guy's leg broken in half. You say, oh, something else could have been broken half. His neck could have been broken in half. So you do understand that.

You do understand that threshold of, you know, living and dying, of being mortal and being a superhero and war immortal. It's a reminder that is gladiator like and they are gladiators, these guys, and so are my guys. They are gladiators, but they're human. Bones break. And I don't think we have to see someone die. I think that, again, I think that the fans, the UFC, or MMA fans, they understand both the beauty and the brutality of this sport. And what a thin line it is.

Well, thank you so much, Teddy Alice. I can't think of a better way to end this. This has been Jose Young's here with the legendary Teddy Alice here inside the T-Mobile Arena. That is a wrap from our UFC 264 post-fight show. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.