The only real time he looked in danger against Moises was when Moises was going for a heelhook. Islam wasn’t able to escape the position and had to wait out the rest of the round. Also he put himself in danger of being triangled when he put one arm between Moises’ legs before slamming him. Oliveira could catch him in these type of situations.
Also a few guys have good enough striking to catch him (Dustin, Oliveira, Chandler) but they also need to be good enough defensively to keep the fight standing.
A few things, with that ranking differential, he should have starched Moises (spelling) last night.
It was a dominant win but generally future champs are levels above when they get a matchup like that, and get the guy out pretty quickly.
He seems more agile side to side, but I don’t know that he has the athleticism Khabib had, Khabib speed was impressive when he needed to explode and Khabib seems to just have inhuman strength for a guy his size.
Khabib is also a lot more persistent with wrestling and focused on the gameplan when he fights.
Islam has more polished striking and seemingly no weaknesses, I’d say he’s a future champ right now, but I don’t think he has the intangibles to reach Khabib’s level, which isn’t that big of a knock considering Khabib is top 5 all time.
It is funny people said this exact same thing about Khabib. Not saying Gaethje and Chandler don’t present certain problems but its just the exact same situation between two training partners of twenty years. So far all we have seen in terms of fights between the four is Khabib vs Gaethje. I consider Makhachev the favorite over either Gaethje or Chandler, for sure two of the most dangerous fights on the planet for Islam though.
Well to be fair Gaetjhe looked like a white belt on his back against Khabib.
He has a huge weakness that was exposed in that fight, and he better attend the Derrick Lewis School of Just Standing the Fuck Up, because his ground game is a liability if someone can get him down.
I would probably favor Chandler at this point against Islam, Chandler likes to throw leather and has a good sprawl, but I’d favor Islam over Gaetjhe, and I’d probably get +300 for a sub and I’d take it all day.
Islam was super smart to call out RDA, who I think is shot and has little chance against him, and is a name guy. I’d still like to see him against a Gaethje or Chandler, but that’s a huge step up from beating up an unranked Moises.
For the sake of timing, the most realistic matchup that I’d like to see is Islam vs Dariush, but with Ali and Khabib quarterbacking his career, I’m sure they’re going to do everything possible to get him favorable matchups
Not even close lol Respects to Islam… dude looked great and gigantic! That weight cut will eventually be too much like it was for Khabib but even if he moves up I don’t think he’ll be undersized at all and would be a problem for anybody up there too.
Khabib also doesn’t take people down in the middle of the ring that often, I’ve always felt like his goal was to get people against the cage and get them down.
