Conor took that first round so easily that he had no gas tank left in the second to do much other than get man-handled and punched in the mouth.
That first round only became Conor's after he uncorked that cracker of a left that opened Nate's scar tissue up with about a minute and a half remaining. That was when the momentum changed and he started pouring it on and actually landed some serious shots.
Pretty much everything else Nate slipped, covered up and smothered or tagged Conor back when he was off-balance, which is what cost him so much of his gas-tank.
He won the first, but pretending it was a blowout or that Nate didn't do anything is something that just doesn't hold up when you watch it back. It was a much closer round than the stats, and people's memory, make it seem.
Similarly, Conor is not MMA's Eugene Debs and people's perception of his actions as some kind of necessary step in forming a fighter's union or similar are way off base. He's arguing for special treatment for himself and only himself, he even says that other people should be doing what he is, not getting better conditions. He just wants a one off break, this isn't some grand stand for figher's rights and even if Conor did win this argument, which he won't, the UFC would never let it eventuate into that.
The UFC is better taken care of by losing out on a pay-day they can redo somewhere down the line and stomping down on this kind of behaviour like they have so many times before, than they are by letting Conor fight and making a bit of revenue at a much larger, and more long-term cost to their structure.
