Stealing this post shamelessly from Sherdog because it sums up what I've been feeling all day and Im too lazy to bang it out myself:
Yes I'm a nuthugger, yes I'm butthurt, yes Conor is one of my favorites, but that doesnt mean I cant have a realistic and balanced opinion on Conor and his skills. I was confident that Mendes would beat him, I gave him a 50/50 shot against Aldo, I laughed at the ridiculous 170 and fighting Lawler talks, and I think that RDA would have destroyed him had they fought and will destroy him if they fight somewhere in the future.
Having said all that..........I think Conor screwed himself out of a win here. He was going all out looking for that first round KO and in doing that he blew his wad. He came out in the second round with some energy left but quickly depleted that by throwing reckless spinning shit and wild haymakers. After a while he looked gassed, had no bounce in his step, stopped slipping punches, had zero head movement, and his punches had no pop behind them anymore. He didnt even try to dodge punches and just let Nate tee off on him. This is where Nate started taking over and eventually landed the 1-2 that rocked him.. No disrespect to Nate, but he was getting dominated in the first round with counters and combinations. The tide starting shifting the moment Conor basically tired himself out by using Nate's face as a punching bag.
I think that with a more patient approach Conor could take a rematch pretty comfortably. He should have let the (T)KO come naturally without chasing it like a madman, using his speed advantage, timing that left and darting in and out of Nate's range, working the body more, and hell just throwing punches for the sake of scoring poins. Throwing all power punches against a Diaz brother doesnt work, those guys will just take it until their opponent gasses and swarm them with volume. The way that Conor handled Siver or Holloway is a perfect example of him not forcing the KO. He should have been landing clean punches that would eventually either lead to a finish or decision victory.