But I don’t really think it’s a fair comparison, specifically considering the depth at women’s BW versus men’s LW.
A better comparison would be within LW between Makhachev and Ferguson. In that case, Ferguson had more wins and against higher competition. I’m not saying that it’s not a joke, just saying it’s a more apt comparison.
I think most here will agree at this point that the UFC is a sport but entertainment is a big factor in matchups and opportunities. Islam isn’t a “Conor”, and will never be.
Sorry his win over unranked Bobby Green didn’t warrant a title shot. He hasn’t ever beaten a top 5 opponent. He has one or two ranked wins. Any other fighter in UFC history wouldn’t have been babied this hard.
No offense but its silly to compare him to O’Malley and makes you seem uninformed. You sound clueless calling him babied.
10 fights ago he beat Wade who just made the PFL finals.
8 fights ago he beat Tibau who recently beat Brooks (who beat Chandler 2x) and MacDonald and beat RDA, Stephens etc… when he was in the UFC
6 fight ago he beat Tsarukyan who is likely one of the very best LW’s in 2022. Tsarukyan is now 5-1 in UFC.
5 fights ago he beat Ramos who is an ADCC champ and was on a four fight win streak in UFC.
I could go on.
You call that being babied, seriously? Was he being babied when Tony and Chandler turned the fight down?
Just like with Oliveira while he was climbing the ranks. The “names” you guys worry about turn down fights with guys like Makhachev.
You sound like that guy on here who told me Makhachev had not fought anyone because they only fighter he knew of that Makhachev beat was Dan Hooker so that meant Makhachev had not fought anyone, had nothing to do with the fact that poster just had no fucking clue about what he was discussing.
No superfan, I’ll likely root for Oliveira to upset him if that ends up being a title fight but I just hate when people say dumb shit lie he has not fought anyone and I’ve had too much fucking coffee.
I didnt say he hasnt fought anyone. I am just saying usually the top 5-10 guys get in fights with each other. Its not just islam, but it seems like lately they always want someone to jump the ranks. I personally think he beats Gaethje. My beef is consistent, hated how guys like Conor beats Denis Siver and gets a shot, Leon Scott fights nobody at WW save a couple good ones, etc. I dont care at all how many fights someone wins in a row if half of them are nowhere near competitive. I think with Hooker on his resume, 1-2 good wins in the top maybe 5 and there is zero argument against his title shot.
But let’s think about if that didn’t happen. For example, if Conor fought Frankie or another wrestler who took him down and beat him via decision, Conor would have never become the biggest star in the history of MMA and whom made the UFC millions upon millions of dollars (and counting).
UFC is and has always been a business first, and their decisions reflect that. The alternative would mean the UFC would run itself entirely like a sports organization and profit far, far less. That just doesn’t seem realistic at this point and is mainly a die-hard fan’s dream.
Correct on the whole. But Conor beat Brimage, Holloway, Poirier, Brandao & Siver on the way to winning the interim belt from Mendes, and getting the shot at Aldo.
Hate him all you want, but the suggestion he got an undeserved title shot on the back of the way he won those fights is a fallacy.
Conor also got 0 wrestlers coming up in a div full of them at the time: Frankie, Lamas, Guida, Lentz, Darren the Damage, Kawajiri, Bermudez, and full camp Mendes. Yeah he prob woulda beaten most of them but also depending on when he fought them it may have been more challenging.
Pettis got Guida iirc for his UFC debut and they didn’t want that to happen to Connor.
Not only did they keep the wrestlers away from him, they kept Charles Oliveira away as well. Conor also only had to fight only 2x a year in 2013 and 14 to get that Siver fight to setup his title shot. Max was a 3-2 UFC fighter when they booked him vs Conor and he had just fought and lost ten weeks prior to fighting Conor. Its not like it was prime Max they fed him to. Brimage, Brandao, and Siver were all selected as opponents because they were short fighters without great wrestling and Conor would have a nice reach advantage in all those fights to utilize his boxing.
By the time Conor arrived in the UFC, Oliveira (who is a year younger than Conor) was 24 years old but had already fought Elkins, Miller, Lentz, Cowboy, Cub, Frankie etc… some at LW and some at FW. He went 3-1 in the UFC FW division in 2013 and 14 (Conor’s first two years) and beat Ogle, Hioki and Stephens and only lost to Frankie in a FOTN performance and was calling out Conor but they had Conor avoid him as well. By the time Conor got the Siver fight, Charles was a 5-2 at FW in the UFC with 4 subs and often winning POTN/SOTN/FOTN awards and had only lost to Frankie and Cub at that weight.
