Hafthor Julius Bjornsson vs Conor McGregor

this is kind of what i was thinking to be honest… Hafthor is just so freakishly strong compared to conor

we’ve really gotten away from the ‘no cage no rules’ thing it seems. And granted, there aren’t any comparisons out there to help us gauge how that aspect changes things, but do you guys think that no rules would generally help the smaller guy or bigger guy more? Or is it fairly neutral?

I mean, i guys we can let hafthor use his game of thrones sword.

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lol that would be awesome.

weapons just change the dynamics of any fight immensely. In this case, if the fight is at a bar, I’d be Hafthor could wield a heavy blunt object more effectively than connor. Like if this is a bar fight or something, I feel like Hafthor could do some serious damage with a bar stool, and end the fight pretty quickly, in a way I can’t see connor doing…

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Thats the problem with this whole match up, (and what i think people seem to forget when arguing about this) Hafthor is really fucking strong. Idd say if he gets ahold of conor (which wouldnt be the hardest thing to do i guess.) Its over. or he could just start throwing other people at conor, lol

Probably bigger.

I mean let’s just take eye gouging. Give the advantage to halfthor based on reach alone.

Groin kicks advantage connor.

Head smash advantage halfthor.

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Bob sapp is 350, Hafthor is 397. 40 lbs is a huge difference for sure, but not enormous, and Sapp again is trained as a fighter. Sapp fought Kunkli Tivadar with full contact MMA rules. Tivadar weighed in at 70 kg for the fight, or 154 pounds. Conor’s weight is listed as EXACTLY 154 pounds. Plus he walks around 20 lbs heavier than that when not fighting.

Edit: Google lists Sapp’s weight as 350, but he weighed in for that fight I mentioned at 170 kg, or 374 lbs - almost Hafthor’s weight.

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Is that a recent number? I know his weight has varied tremendously over the past few years. I thought he was closer to 450 than 400. But beyond that, LBM for Thor is waaaaay beyond Sapp, and that obviously matters too.

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For the point of argument I’ve also been completely understating how much bob sapp sucks. He really, really, really sucks. I just don’t know how good Thor is at fighting, and I know McGregor has a pretty hard hit. A good sock to the jaw can fall even the largest of men - but then again, I’m just playing devil’s advocate because it’s fun here. If a fight went down and I had to put money on someone, you can bet your ass it’d be Thor.

Yeah Wikipedia lists his weight at 400-440, Google said 397 - but then again, google lists Kevin Durant’s height as 6’9.

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i just watched that Sapp fight you mentioned… worse than I could have imagined.

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I reckon Thor is a lot more aggressive and definitely more confident than Sapp. That’s a pretty big factor but if you don’t know how to fight and your opponent does, you’re fucked.

We know nothing about Thor (well, I don’t) but we know Connor has some skillz. That would make it a no contest IMO.

I’d go as far as to say that weapons only go a short way unless Thor knows how to weild them. You’d think he’d have some basic training from his acting so maybe that would be enough.

If it’s a bar fight and there are obstacles and weapons and people to distract plus chaos all around, I’m going Thor all the way. If he is smart about it and focussed that is.

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Here’s the funny thing:
Bob Sapp beat Ernesto Hoost. Twice, I think. Hoost, in my opinion, is the best striker of all time - he certainly has the best low kicks of all time, and I don’t think that’s even up for debate. Strange. Mirko Cro Cop broke Bob Sapp’s orbital bone, and Mirko lost to Ernesto several times. Oh well, such is the world of combat sports.

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The reffing was terrible in the Hoost fights.

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I agree, but Hoost’s head-on approach was the only reason the refs had any say - if he’d played it a little more conservatively (which admittedly is not his style) he’d have won, easily. I have never seen anybody in the UFC come close to Hoost’s 1-2-3-4-5-low kick combo - all in less than a second.

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Interesting discussion and topic.

I’d say if this were a real “no rules” fight the winner would be:

  1. He who was willing to escalate the level of violence the fastest with the least amount of telegraph of their intentions. Have either one pull a Glock and start emptying rounds into the other and they win. Have either one pull a blade and slash the other’s throat while they were still posturing or thinking it was an unarmed “fair” fight and they win.

  2. Whether it was a 1 on 1 fight or truly a no rules fight. If Conor brought his posse with him and they all used weapons, the odds tip strongly in their favour. If Thor has a few friends with him, then Conor is dead.

  3. Who can win the war of attrition. Let’s be honest, in a real fight Conor is likely going to be “running”/trying to stay away from Thor, attemptingbto use long range weapons like throwing beer bottles/rocks/pool balls and obstacles to keep Thor at a distance where he can’t use his freakish strength to “Bam Bam” him into oblivion. Thor should theoretically be able to endure more damage and keep fighting though, and can potentially use the same long range weapons as well. But, Thor is going to tire out more quickly moving around all that mass. So the winner may come down to whether Conor can do enough damage and keep the fight at a long range before Thor eventually catches him.

If on the other hand we are talking about a “Vale Tudo/original UFC/Gracie challenge” match where there are in fact rules (no weapons; only 1 on 1; no eye gouging or biting; fight begins at a distance when both fighters are “ready”; fight ends when one fighter or ref decides it is over; etc…) and it occurs in an enclosed, flat, padded, and open space free from obstacles, then I’d say the odds are heavily in Hafthor’s favor.

Conor could always get lucky of course and catch Thor with a perfectly timed and placed Side kick to the knee, or left to the chin. But the odds of him being off just enough for Thor to be able to close the gap and grab a hold of him are good. And once he gets a hold of him, Conor is going into orbit and coming smashing down into the ground and is then likely gonna get Donkey Kong smashed into unconsciousness (if he’s not already there).

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One follow up question I thought of reading all this is; for all of you favouring Thor, how big do you think a professional fighter would have to be to tip the odds in their favour?

I think it isn’t just a question of size but of skill or rather specific skill. I don’t think Conor would have beaten Dan Severn in the UFC whereas Royce did. Royce trained to fight bigger guys under limited rules. Conor cuts weight to fight guys who are naturally smaller under a much more strict set of rules.

The short answer is “big and strong enough”.

In the last year I’ve spent a LOT of time being a much larger and stronger opponent against people who are smaller and much more skilled than I am. We’re just grappling, not fighting, but it still gives some idea of what “strong enough” is for me. I’m 6’00" , 275 lb and fairly strong, probably still able to deadlift close to or over 600. I’ve trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu semi-seriously for a year-and-a-half and been a bouncer for several years. I’ll stick to what happens on the mats for this post, as barfights are wacky shitshows with a LOT of factors in play that determine the outcome.

When I grapple with guys who are in the 150 or lower ballpark, it is like manhandling a child.
This is unsurprising since I’m literally twice their size. The strength/size disparity is too great and I can routinely submit guys with a pretty big skill advantage, although to my credit I’ve trained for about a year and a half, which is probably more than Hafthor. When I first started out some of those guys were tapping me out, catching me in all kinds of stuff I just wasn’t prepared for.

Most skilled guys who are over 200 pounds are too big for me to simply overpower. I’m still bigger and stronger, but I need technique to hang with them. They are strong enough to submit me and I have to respect that or pay by getting tapped. Untrained 200 pounders are easy for me to handle, like big dumb children.

The best guy I routinely train with is about 5’9", 185 lbs and a recent Team USA master’s weightlifting gold medalist at world’s and soon-to-be BJJ black belt. He’s my benchmark for “strong enough”. I can outperform him easily on any lift that’s not a snatch, but it doesn’t matter at all because he’s strong enough that my edge there can’t possibly overtake his tremendous advantage in skill. He is not easily overpowered, not at all. If you put is in a close quarters barroom and told us to fight to the death I might have a chance, but I don’t particularly like my odds. This guy also seeks out the biggest, strongest people to train with. He’ll train with anyone, but he takes particular delight in grappling with guys who are bigger and stronger than him, which has been a boon to my jiu jitsu development.

So there you go. In my limited experience if I’m dealing with a guy who is at least 2/3 my size AND a lot more skilled than I am, I’ve got problems. Granted, this is just grappling, not fighting, but it’s the best info I can share from experience. Extrapolating that, I think Hafthor would get his ass whooped by most active UFC heavyweight fighters under most circumstances, especially a guy who walks around north of 250.

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Thanks for the detailed answer, that was interesting to read.