Khabib made him look that way. Khabib walked right through him. He was getting better every fight when he retired. No more decisions. Conor in 4. Poirier in 3. Gaethje in 2. After dominating Dos Anjos KN won 5 of his next 7 by stoppage.
Some people say Gaethje threw the fight with Khabib, as team Khabib knew it would be his last fight and they wanted to pad his final fight to round off a career of padding
Also they had the same managers and they gave JT 3mil hush money
No. That only works if you take it as a snapshot in time at the point he fought Gaethje. There were loads more fights for khabib and he didnât take them
To compare you have volk and izy fighting all contenders, moving up in weight and fighting some people twice if they earned it. What khabib did was not normal
Islam is even worse. Canât make any excuses for this guys ducking at lightweight. Thereâs an active lineup ready to go that Islam is avoiding every way possible
Itâs easy to forget âFatherâs Planâ and âMuhammad Aliâ in the Al fight.
Khabib explained that he felt Al had slowed down and he wanted to test his boxing and to also experience 5 rounds.
It might have looked like Al took him to a decision but that was not the case.
Javier was furious during the fight and begging him to return to âFatherâs Planâ.
Nurmagomedovâs coaches were not happy with his third and fourth rounds, but the champion was never in trouble during the fight. One reporter even asked Nurmagomedov in the post-fight interview if he was trying new things inside the Octagon. The champ laughed off the question, suggesting he was probably watching too many Muhammad Ali fights in the lead up to the event.
More than in the 90âs of course but even more than fifteen or twenty years ago MMA is filled with fighters who cut boatloads of weight.
For some reason, people pretend Khabib is the only fighter that cut a lot of weight.
âOh no, Khabib cut more than GSP, there is just no way he should be given credit for what he achievedâ.
Do people want to discredit Jones, Cruz, Figueiredo, DC, Rockhold, Conor, Max etc⌠for cutting a lot of weight? Nope, people worship Max despite the fact he probably cuts just as much as Khabib, its retarded.
So after losing a fight Islam goes 4-0 at LW and then beats Tsarukyan and then beats an ADCC champ who was 4-0 at LW in the UFC and then he beats Moises, Hooker, Dober over eight months while they had a combined win streak of 10-0 in the UFC.
Islam was ready to fight Dariush who pulled out of the fight and he took Green on short notice. That was a Dariush who a lot of the UG was saying at the time could become champ and Makhachev was there ready to fight.
Then he beat Oliveira who was champ on a 12 fight win streak.
Then he beat Volk who was called P4P #1 and wanted to challenge himself just like all the other champs who moved up in the past. Nobody tries to discredit Cyborg, Hughes, Stipe etc⌠when they fought a champ moving up from the weight below but people spin it like Islam has been the only larger fighter to take a champ vs champ superfight with a smaller fighter.
Then he was ready to fight the Charles vs Dariush winner and the winner pulled out of the fight so he accepted the Volk fight on short notice.
Islam was going to fight anyone to get a title shot and its not his fault that Dustin, Gaethje, Chandler, Conor etc⌠would not take or were not offered the fight.
That champ is 14-1 in the UFC with nine finishes and on a 13 fight win streak and has said he is ready to fight anyone.
The last thing he is doing is ducking. The fact Volk and Izzy moved up 3x and went 0-3 is their problem and their careers, not his.
Did GSP duck because he didnât want to move up for the Anderson fight?
Did Jones duck because he didnât move up for a Cain, Brock or Werdum fight?
Did Mighty Mouse duck because he didnât like the money offered for a BW fight?
Timing, planning and weight cutting are part of the sport, Khabib and Islam didnât invent those things but to go 27-1 in the UFC LW division to be spun as ducking is hilarious.
He was âso goodâ but never moved up to test himself against colby(pre-usman)/usman etc, wrestled bunch of guys that do not wrestle WOW
Even then and now lw division sucked, actually the whole ufc atm sucks hard and lacks talent, its either one decent fighter per division or its full of old fighters that are past their prime