Here is an incredible Miller stat. He mentioned it in the post-fight presser, he has never had to have a single surgery in his entire MMA career. 17 years and 49 fights.
38 UFC fights and 38 camps and the guy has never had an injury that required surgery. Incredible.
I think Dan has a very real chance of winning. Heās gotbgreat TDD at 80%
Unfortunate part in this is heās only had 30 days to train and outside his own camp at that, only at the UFC PI.
Islam is not incredible on the feet, heās a phenom on the ground. City Kickboxing guys are thr best in MMA at avoiding the takedown.
Islam is the least hit fighter in UFC history statistically. Must be doing something right.
He also has the highest takedown finishing rate in UFC LW history.
We should know after this fight is Islam is āfor realā and what I mean by that is whether or not heās the next Khabib level guy. If he makes Hooker look like shit and mauls him, seems like what the AKA guys are saying is true and he has potential to be a dominant champ. If he struggles, or loses, they really need to stop the Khabib comparisons. Hooker is a great opponent to really show us what Islam is all about.
You can add Guida vs Santos to this list. Goes down on 12/4
Hooker is a great test for Makhachev but we have already seen a lot about how good his skills are vs Tsarukyan, Moises, Ramos etcā¦
Hooker has not been submitted in ten years but Iām predicting a win for Makhachev today via RNC.
I see Ismagulov missed weight by 7 lbs so that fights off the card but canāt say it matters much.
For fans of the division, we got this Makhachev fight today, the Gaethje fight next Saturday and then the Green, Moises and Santos fights to hold us over while we wait for Fizaev Riddell and Oliveira Poirier. Great way to end the year!
The Gaethje and Oliveira fights are for sure two of the most intriguing fights in the entire sport this year and the winners of them will for sure be competing vs one another in a title fight, most likely in March or April.
Well I was kinda right, I said Hooker had not been submitted in ten years but was getting submitted tonight and I was right about that!
Man did Makhachev make it look easy.
i was expecting islam to more or less control him for the fight, it was impressive how quick that was. lost a parlay on it not going past 2 Rounds : /
So not only do we now have the unofficial #1 contenders fight next weekend with Gaethje Chandler and the title fight in December with Oliveira Poirier but now Dariush is 7-0 and coming off the Tony win and Makhachev is 9-0 and coming off the Hooker win.
Difference between Dariush and Makhachev is Makhachev has been winning more and longer and Dariush almost lost a fight vs Ferreira earlier this year but he got the split decision.
Khabib had to win 9 straight to get his shot. Even Oliveira got his title shot after 8 wins and he was on the slow road to the title for sure. I think UFC will want Makhachev to beat the loser of Oliveira Poirier or Gaethje Chandler to get the title shot. Doubt they want him sitting out until next summer or fall to get a title shot after the Gaethje Chandler winner gets the next shot.
I donāt like how UFC will sometimes let someone win 1 fight a get a 2nd title shot after their 1st shot like Gaethje Chandler while making Khabib/Oliveira/Makhachev win 8,9,10 fights in a row to get their 1st shot.
Wrong thread
I get what youāre saying, but I think who they beat is more important than how many. Islam looked great, but he has wins over like 1 top 15 guy, and that was Hooker.
If Chandler beats Gaethje, he also beat Hooker and a win over Justin Gaethje is way more impressive to me than an 8 fight winning streak over unranked guys. If Gaethje wins, I like his resume over Islamās also.
If you reward the winning streaks vs wins over tough opponents, nobody would fight the tough opponentsā¦theyād all take the boxing approach and get as many easy wins as possible.
I hear ya, I think you have to reward win streaks and reward quality wins. In this situation, Iāve seen Chandler lose to Brooks 2x, Alvarez, Primus, Pitbull and recently Oliveira. Iād like to see Islam get that title fight because Iāve only seen him get caught once like seven years ago and he just ran through Tsarukyan, Ramos, Dober, Moises and Hooker over the past couple years.
I know Chandler and Gaethje have impressive resumes, its just sometimes you get tired of the log jam in deep divisions and want to see some fresh matchups with new contenders.
WIthout tournaments its never a perfect system in terms of who gets what fights so people are just gonna disagree at times about who gets what fight.
Iām just not a huge fan of instant rematches in title fights and title fights off one fight win streaks because I think that stuff creates log jams and forces rising contenders to win 8,9, 10 UFC fights in a row instead of 4 or 5 like the more fortunate fighters.
My definition of recently is different than yours. Alvarez and Brooks were 7-8 years ago, and heās 10-3 sinceā¦plus that Primus loss was super weird, and he beat Primus in the rematch. If weāre looking at the last 4 years, heās 6-2 and if weāre talking about 7-2 with wins over Hooker and Gaethje, and his only UFC loss is to the champā¦and he had dude hurt bad and almost out of there in round 1, Iād have no issue with him fighting for the belt.
I get your point about the log jam, but they make the road back to a title fight crazy long, weād run into issues with guys turning down title fights if they donāt have time for a 12 week camp, and only wanting to take easy fights coming off a loss. Weād never get fights like Gaethje vs Chandler, which is one of my favorite fights of the year.
If Oliveira and Chandler win, yeahā¦letās skip the rematch and put Islam in there, but I prefer to see guys beat at least one guy in the top 5 before they get a title shot. We need those number 2 vs number 4 type matchups as often as possible IMO, and weād never get them if the number 5 ranked guy jumps over them by beating Dan Hooker. Thereād be no reason for Gaethje to fight Chandler, heād be asking for guys like Hooker or RDA instead.
Moises is a pretty underrated win on Islamās record. That guy will be Top 5 soon imo.
Please reread what I said. I never said that Chandler recently lost to Brooks, Alvarez etcā¦
I said he lost to them and he also recently lost to Oliveira.
Chandler Gaethje is one of my favorite fights of the year as well, Iām with you on that. I know we need #2 vs #4 fights often but I also know you canāt just let the top guys turn down fights with guys on huge win streaks and make guys win 12 fights before they can get a title shot.
Oliveira and Makhachev have had to fight down in the rankings for years. At some point, guys like that need opportunities too. There is no perfect system, not without seeded tournaments.
Just donāt see how sitting out a year and then getting a single win should earn a 5-3 UFC fighter a second title shot when you got 9-0 challengers waiting for an opportunity.
Re-read, and youāre rightā¦I looked at it too quick the first time.
As for sitting out a year and getting a title shot after one win, that wasnāt Gaethjeās fault. He was sitting on the sidelines begging for a fight, complaining he couldnāt get matched up etc. Heās the motherfucker people were avoiding.
I guess my feeling on it is that itās FAIRLY rare to see guys on long streaks not getting their shot. Khabib would have had his, but the combination of injuries and Conor made it take longerā¦same for Fergusonā¦both he and Khabib were booked in title fights that didnāt happen due to injuriesā¦and the whole Conor thing fucked everything up for years. He got a title shot many thought he didnāt deserve, then left and they took way too long to strip him.
I think if we look at how itās typically handled, we donāt usually see guys on crazy long winning streaks not get title shots. 155 has been weird the last 5 years with all the injuries to top contenders, as well as 2 different champions vacating their belt after being out a while (Conor and Khabib). I donāt think thereās an issue with the way the UFC handles this stuff, I just think 155 has been fucked lately.
If Iām UFC matchmaking Iām having Islam fight the winner of Chandler/Gaethje. Then the winner of that fights the winner of Dustin/Charles
And Chandler and Gaethje deliver a contender for FOTY.
Great performance for Green too.
Man recently that Makhachev win could not have been more flawless and Gaethje Chandler could not have been more of a war. All that justifies they hype for those fights and the division at the moment.