I knew it was potentially a very bad match up for Conor, posted a lot of my thoughts why before it took place. I didn't take Nate lightly at all, and was downright blown away by the amount of people who would post Conor by KO was a lock.
Its hard to predict RDA vs Conor for me and the lines would sway me a lot on which way i'd go. While i'm confident RDA gets eaten up on the feet in the center of the cage, Conor showed vs Diaz for the first time he can be backed up to the fence in a clinch and even though he escaped he used a very basic move getting the single collar tie and turning the angle. I don't think that would work against RDA. I would also be much more hesitant to bet Conor after Nate scored a takedown. That x guard sweep might work on RDA, but I wouldn't wanna bank on him pulling shit like that off for 5 rds, especially when Chad held him down. As much as I love Conor, and would bet him as a dog, now that I think about it i'd probably lean RDA in making a prediction.
My opinion of Conor hasn't lowered. Maybe i'm the only one, but just wanna throw out there that I feel like Conor having soooo much hype has desensitized people to his skills in the aftermath of this. Props to Nate, he had no camp and got the job done, but if we're being objective there is a very good chance Conor let everything get to head and it was a major factor in his loss. Dude went balls to the wall from the start in that fight (even though his cardio needs to be better either way), and when his coach is saying shit like he can KO Aldo in under 60 seconds and then he does, i'm sure there is a bit of shock to hitting Diaz with your best blows multiple times and he isn't even fazed minus the cut on the eye. I think Conor by decision will be a very interesting line in this rematch that could have a MUCH higher percentage of happening than the odds will indicate.