ssang wrote:...regardless of size difference, a professionally trained blow (which means accurate, properly placed), starting from the very first hit, given from fully trained world-class professional fighter, to any area of the body unprotected by muscle (i.e face, jaw, head, knees...hell, even shins), is going to inflict an immediate bout of blinding pain, causing an instant jolt to the system to a totally untrained, completely unaccustomed person, no matter how big and strong and jacked that dude is.
And the moment that first properly executed hit takes shape, that untrained person is left entirely at the professional fighter’s mercy.
this is pretty much it. more than anything else what all the Zion supporters in this debate are missing is the reality of PAIN.
watching those UFC fights what differentiates those guys (and women) from normal humans is not primarily their physique or their technical training, but their mental ability to ignore pain.
because a normal person's response - or even a freakish professional athlete's inevitable response – to a serious sharp pain is to immediately stop whatever they are doing, grab the part of their body that hurts and shout to anyone who will listen:
AAAHHh! **** Oh Sh*t! Stoooop! Hold up! OW!!
Whcih just mean they are DOA when the follow up blitz of equally or more intense attacks comes. Boom they're done in seconds.
Whereas a top MMA fighter can get clobbered in a way that hurts a LOT - bones broken, bleeding like a stuck pig, etc. - and they will just essentially ignore it and maintain their complete focus without responding instinctively and making themselves vulnerable. People talking about how 'Zion shows how tough he is because he finishes at the rim through traffic' is hilarious. Nobody is trying to knock him out or actively trying to cause him pain when he goes up to dunk. that is a very very different thing from a fight against a world champ MMA dude who is literally one of the best in the world at doing both those things.
anyway, i bet if anyone asked Zion he'd be smart enough to know better than to think he could beat Conor.
