Daniel Cormier says Khabib is greater than Muhammad Ali

Give me one example of a fighter who faced as weak or weaker competition than the guys Khabib’s manager got him to fight. Go ahead, I will wait but I will not hold my breath, because if I was to hold my breath waiting for you to provide one example, I would DIE. I would not get the oxygen I need, I would pass out, and then with no oxygen going into my body, my life would cease to exist.

What I can do, is tell you what MY parameters for greatness are, and then I would be able to give you 3 fighters who all meet this criteria, consistenstly. I also feel there will not be a 4th fighter to be on the list where the same criteria is met to be compared.

What you are doing, is making claims for greatness, such as his record, then when those claims have some pushback in the form of justifying the quality, or lack there of in his competition, you change your parameters. Now it’s not his full record, now it’s his UFC record.

So, what is your final answer on why you think Khabib is the goat? Is it his 29-0 record, and you’re going to ignore the quality(lack there of) competition in that 29? Is it his UFC(only) record and now you’re going to have to ignore other UFC fighters with as good or better UFC record.

Pick your poison. I will serve it up to you.

99.9999999% of all MMA combatants in history have faced weaker competition than Khabib.

What The Hell Are You Talking About GIFs | Tenor

You are crazy. You make up arguments and then argue them.

Back to my points.

You are free to tell me what fighter in mma history, has started his career off against as weak or weaker competition than Khabib has.

Hungry yet? Let me serve you up some hard facts-

1-0

Nurmagomedov made his professional debut in 2008 against Vusal Bayramov, an Azerbaijani who was 0-0 at the time and eventually amassed a record of 2-5.

All the losses that Bayramov suffered during a short two-year career came inside the distance.

2-0

Next up for Khabib was Magomed Magomedov. It was a fight in itself just to find a database on this Russian with no age or height even known.

Magomedov was four fights into his career when he fought Khabib. He was on a four-fight losing streak and all of those defeats came inside the distance. Magomedov finished his career with a negative record of 4-6.

3-0

Khabib’s third fight was against fellow Russian, Ramazan Kurbanismailov. Another inexperienced competitor with only one fight to his name. Nurmagomedov won by unanimous decision and his opponent is currently 5-3-2, which more closely resembles a defensive-minded formation on FIFA than a decent fighter’s record.

4-0

In his fourth bout, Nurmagomedov took a considerable step-up in competition considering his previous opponents, fighting a man who was 2-0. Shamil Abdulkerimov was defeated by Khabib via unanimous decision and only fought four more times thereafter, finishing up with a mediocre record of 4-3.

5-0

His fifth fight is laughable. Nurmagomedov faced Said Akhmed, who was making his debut at the time. Akhmed lost by first round TKO and has not fought since. He ended his ‘career’ 0-1, which begs the question; was this guy even a legitimate fighter or just someone they literally dragged in off the street?

6-0

The Dagestani continued to be matched up against newcomers in his sixth fight where he fought Eldar Eldarov, who was 1-0 at the time. Eldarov has earned some credibility though, winning seven straight fights since losing to Nurmagomedov, taking his record to 8-1.

7-0

The recurring theme of favourable match-ups was evident once again in Nurmagomedov’s seventh outing as he faced Shahbulat Shamhalaev, who only had two fights under his belt at the time. Khabib dispatched of his inexperienced opponent in the first round via kimura.

8-0

Nurmagomedov went 8-0 after beating another unproven opponent in Ali Bagov, who was 2-1 at the time and coming off a submission loss. One must question why a seven-fight streaking Khabib was paired against such a green opponent coming off a loss.

9-0

Khabib extended his winning streak to nine by beating another subpar opponent in Vitaliy Ostrovskiy. The Belarussian came into the fight 3-3, with two of his victories coming against an opponent with 28 losses (20 by submission) and the other against a fighter with a 1-2 record. Top class opposition indeed. Ostrovskiy didn’t fare much better after losing to Khabib as he lost six of his next seven fights and seven of eleven overall before retiring with an 8-11 record.

10-0

Given Nurmagomedov’s record at this stage, you’d expect him to be lined up against adversaries with similar records but this was not the case. For his tenth fight, Khabib dispatched of Alexander Agafonov, a Ukrainian who had competed in half the number of fights that the ‘Eagle’ had. Agafonov retired shortly after his defeat to Nurmagomedov, with an undesirable record of 5-3 having competed for barely two years.

11-0

Khabib scored a submission victory over Said Khalilov to extend his unbeaten run to eleven in April 2011. The defeat to Nurmagomedov was the second of the five-fight losing streak that ended Khalilov’s career. He finished up with an unattractive record of 12-13, with defeats to Dennis Siver and Albert Tumenov along the way.

12-0

Astonishingly, an undefeated, eleven-fight streaking Khabib was somehow matched with a fighter 0-2 for his twelfth contest. Ashot Shahinyan was the fighter in question and he faced the multiple time sambo world champion in the middle of a five-fight losing streak. The Armenian went 0-2 in his next two contests before picking up the first win of his career. He subsequently retired with a record of 1-5.

13-0

Unlucky for some, 13, was the complete opposite for Nurmagomedov as he was gifted yet another untested opponent with just two previous fights. Khabib defeated fellow Russian Kadzhik Abadzhyan in the first round. It was the second defeat of what turned out to be a six-fight losing streak for Abadzhyan, who eventually finished with a 3-6 overall record.

14-0

Victory number 14 came against Hamiz Mamedov. The Azerbaijan native went 0-3 at the beginning of his career before putting together a decent four-fight winning streak that was eventually snapped by Nurmagomedov. Mamedov was hit and miss and retired in 2014 with a mediocre 8-4 record.

15-0

Obviously, by this point of Khabib’s career, overseas MMA organisations would have been scouting the Dagestani with a view to signing him up. Usually, a fight against a noteworthy name is what management seeks to speed up the process but for Nurmagomedov it couldn’t have been more opposite. Bewilderingly, in his 15th professional fight Khabib fought an opponent making his debut. Yes, you read that correctly. At 0-0, Vadim Sandulitsky was the next opponent for the 14-0 Nurmagomedov and needless to say it ended in the first round. Cherry picking at its finest.

16-0

Nurmagomedov’s last fight before joining the UFC’s ranks was against Arymarcel Santos, a Brazilian with 72 fights to his name. At the relatively young age of 33, ‘Chocolate’ Santos has a crazy record of 38 wins and 34 losses and is still actively competing. Khabib was the Brazilian’s 51st fight and he was 28-22 at the time. Khabib got the stoppage and is just one of 14 KO/TKO losses for Santos.

Khabib=3 LW title defenses. Praised because he has an undefeated record

BJ Penn=3 LW title defenses. Shunned because he fought up multiple weight classes against legit opponents and came up short.

BJ Penn’s first pro fight was in the UFC. BJ Penn’s 4th professional mma fight was against UFC LW Champion Jens Pulver.

Tell everyone how impressed you are with Khabib’s early competition. Are you still hungry or is that enough serving for today?

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I’m not going to read that pile of autism, but I will say this:

Khabib beat all the guys earlier and later in his career without getting scratched. He passed every test with flying colors.

If it was so easy to go undefeated against cans, journeymen or gatekeepers in the early portion of your career:

  • Jose Aldo would not have gotten finished by Luciano Azevedo (no wikipedia page)

  • Kamaru Usman wouldn’t haven’t gotten choked out by Jose Cacares (no wikipedia page)

  • Anderson Silva wouldn’t have lost to Okami, Chonan or Takase

  • GSP wouldn’t have tapped to strikes to failed UFC LW Matt Serra.

You put way too much into his record.

Nobody has had that many absolute cans on their record before stepping up competition in UFC history. That is Khabibs record nobody will break. GSP’s UFC debut was agaibst a fighter better than Khabibs first 20 fights.

Khabib is a what if, he looked great when he did fight top opponents but it was so few and then he bailed, Conor is not an impressive win he never was, by the time khabib fought him Conor had already shown what happens when he hits the ground against journeyman Nate Diaz,

Khabib has a shit record when it comes to legacy due to quality of opposition, he clearly beats Islam in training so we assume whatever Islam does khabib would have done, but Islam has a chance to be much better on paper and legacy if he keeps fighting and winning against top guys, he has a fair share of cans too but he even stepped up comp way faster than khabib.

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This goes to prove that you guys are putting way much into wins on a resume. The best fighter is the best fighter. Not the person who stuck around the game long enough. It is not a coincidence that Khabib went 29-0 without getting scratched. This is why Charles fans were surprised when Islam ran him over like he was nothing despite Islam not having the same amount names on his resume.

There’s obviously a lot more to consider when determining a GOAT than your list of wins.

It’s not a coincidence at all, it’s because he fought so many cans to pad that overinflated record.

GSP could have fought Khabibs first 25 opponents in a weeks span and beat their ass without a scratch, a week is generous as he might beat them so bad he would run through the first 15 in a night. They were slightly above a grappling dummy or a heavybag workout

He looked good against porier and Gathje but so did Charles

And like it or not I knew Islam would run through Charles easy, Charles is overrated because he was able to get some coke from behind wins against good fighters but Islam won me money because I predicted sub in round 2

Actually, no. He’s the only 29-0 because he’s the best fighter the sport has ever seen. He ran through his UFC opponents even easier than the “dagestani cans” he beat. Without a scratch. That’s not even mentioning the fact that by all accounts he was undefeated in the gym and was a 2 time world Sambo champ. He kicked ass no matter where he went.

Is there a single LW (outside of his protege Islam) that he wouldn’t be a ridiculously heavy favorite to beat? Answer that honestly.

He’s not a worse fighter because his father died and he retired young. That’s ridiculously flawed logic.

Sure I will give you that, I’d favor him over anyone at 155 or under, he could be the best LW ever it’s too bad he quit early

Penn would be even money.

I’d pick Penn.

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Penn’s cardio would fail him. He’d have to get a first round KO like with Hughes

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Like it failed him vs Fitch?

Do we not get to use peak ability Penn for this hypothetical??

Khabib has a decent title reign. Unremarkable for the most part. He retired undefeated. That is the sum of his accomplishments in the “GOAT” discussion.

Cardio was his weakness even in his prime. Didn’t it fail him in his second fight with Hughes?

Khabib is 100x better than Jon Fitch lol

I would take Penn in a 3RD fight with Khabib.

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You guys are exaggerating Khabib’s abilities.
Yes he’s one of the best ever at what he does well…but saying he is “100 X better” than a 170lb Fitch is a little ridiculous.

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Ali has more championship wins than khabib has fights… No jokes… he has more titles than khabib has fights.

No fucking comparison.

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That’s like saying you’d take a 1950s basketball player over Lebron. The sport moved on get over it

BJ has done more in the sport and has better wins than Khabib. But even prime vs prime I think Khabib beats him, he is not 100x better than fitch or Hughes, but he is better. If they fought 10 times BJ probably gets at least a couple wins though, but for the most part he gets controlled and pounded on, I can’t see BJ getting a sub unless he rocks Khabib, it would be an interesting fight though, BJ was fast and explosive at times, not fat BJ but caol Uno Found out quick

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Delusional BJ fanboys conveniently ignore his two losses to GSP and his decade long losing streak

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