Michael Johnson is by far the 2nd best defensive wrestler Khabib will have fought

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Tibau was the only elite defensive wrestler/TDD artist Khabib fought and he shut down his TD game to the tune of 0/13. Granted Gleison has some of the greatest TDD in MMA history but looking at Khabibs other opponents

Trujillo - terrible TDD

Shalorus - decent but untested TDD

Healy - mediocre TDD

Horcher - below average TDD

Tavares - average TDD

RDA - average TDD (High took him down at will, Cowboy got him when he wanted, Dunham was taking him down and prolly shouldve got that decision, Tibau, Guida, Eddie etc. all didnt have puroblems with taking him down either)

This is a test for Khabib. Outside of Tibau hes fought guys with mediocre or shaky TDD. Michael is by far the 2nd best defensive wrestler he will have fought and his footwork specially defensively will be interesting to see how Khabib closes the distance to get to the clinch to work his TD game. MJ in the past had shaky TDD himself but its been vastly improved since the days of Reza Maddadi. His improvements in recent years with range control and defensive footwork. He shrugged of Tibau with ease, completely shut down Dariush TD game etc. Hasnt been taken down in his last 7 fights.
 
Tibau was roided to the extreme when he fought Khabib
 
Tibau had 35 fights, and 14 fights in the UFC when they fought. Khabib was 23 years old and had 1 fight in the UFC. He was noticeably smaller back then. Khabib has put on at least 10 pounds. This fight was YEARS ago

Who is Michael Johnson? Did anybody know who this guy was before he fought Nate?
 
I remember Tibau winning that khabib as well. Does not look good for khabib.
 
Johnson lost to Diaz... who got beat by RDA, who got mauled by Khabib.

no way u can get decisioned by Diaz and be a good enough wrestler to out wrestle Khabib
 
Gabkicks said:
Johnson lost to Diaz... who got beat by RDA, who got mauled by Khabib.

no way u can get decisioned by Diaz and be a good enough wrestler to out wrestle Khabib
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Offensive wrestling and defensive wrestling are 2 different things.
 
Gabkicks said:
Johnson lost to Diaz... who got beat by RDA, who got mauled by Khabib.

no way u can get decisioned by Diaz and be a good enough wrestler to out wrestle Khabib
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Johnson/Diaz was a closer fight than people generally give it credit for. No doubt Diaz won, but Johnson's ego got in the way. I'd probably favour him in a rematch (admittedly expected him to win the first go around).

In a 3 round fight, I think Johnson might be able to win against Khabib. Tough to say what he'll look like, with so much inactivity. I expect Khabib to win, but people slept on Johnson vs Poirer, and we might be sleeping on him again here.

Also agree with OP about RDA's wrestling in particular. He gets taken down, but is very good at getting back up/limiting damage.
 
Gabkicks said:
Johnson lost to Diaz... who got beat by RDA, who got mauled by Khabib.

no way u can get decisioned by Diaz and be a good enough wrestler to out wrestle Khabib
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MMAth doesn't work and this is stupid logic anyways. What does getting decisioned by Diaz have anything to do with wrestiling? He shot for so many TD's that fight
 
myjohnson9 said:
MMAth doesn't work and this is stupid logic anyways. What does getting decisioned by Diaz have anything to do with wrestiling? He shot for so many TD's that fight
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Johnson should have been the one throwing takedown attempts out there. Might have got him the nod
 
Johnson has improved his TDD a lot over the years, he is very very fast too, I think Khabib will be surprised how fast he is. It won't be a easy fight.
 
Gabkicks said:
Khabib is a -300 favorite for a reason.
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Yeah, hype.

I think Khabib will win this, and if he does I think it'll be fairly convincing. But TS is right, MJ is potentially a bad style match up for him, I know MJ struggled back in the day against Reza but he's a better fighter now than he was then, and he 'hopefully' won't be giving up single legs with leg kicks. Khabib is wild and sloppy on the feet, he's a guy who does the wrong things for the right reasons - because at the end of the day he gets in on a guys hips, or in on a body lock and no matter who it's been so far they're going for a ride
But MJ has some of the best footwork in the division, he typically fights a very intelligent pressure oriented game, where he never quite marches directly forward, he takes angles well, but he typically tends to get a guy moving back when he wants to - plus the dudes hands are fast. My major pause to picking MJ is that I think he might actually LACK the power I think's required to keep Khabib honest. We could be in for 15 minutes of Khabib diving headfirst into shots and still pulling out a convincing win.

Its a great fight, just beautiful match making.
 
thatKid said:
Yeah, hype.

I think Khabib will win this, and if he does I think it'll be fairly convincing. But TS is right, MJ is potentially a bad style match up for him, I know MJ struggled back in the day against Reza but he's a better fighter now than he was then, and he 'hopefully' won't be giving up single legs with leg kicks. Khabib is wild and sloppy on the feet, he's a guy who does the wrong things for the right reasons - because at the end of the day he gets in on a guys hips, or in on a body lock and no matter who it's been so far they're going for a ride
But MJ has some of the best footwork in the division, he typically fights a very intelligent pressure oriented game, where he never quite marches directly forward, he takes angles well, but he typically tends to get a guy moving back when he wants to - plus the dudes hands are fast. My major pause to picking MJ is that I think he might actually LACK the power I think's required to keep Khabib honest. We could be in for 15 minutes of Khabib diving headfirst into shots and still pulling out a convincing win.

Its a great fight, just beautiful match making.
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Sounds like you are describing something similar to Kongo vs Velasquez. Could definitely see a small-scale version of that happening.
 
I actually think MJ is going to win this.
 
I remember when Myles Jury dominated MJ for 3 rounds. What the fuck ever happened to Jury?
 
10mm said:
I remember when Myles Jury dominated MJ for 3 rounds. What the fuck ever happened to Jury?
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The homie Donald Cerrone snatched his soul.
Legends say it's still on Cowboy's mantelplace.

He tried to get it back, but what was left was murdered by Do Bronx.
 
Tibaus tdd at lw is like goat level tho. Abel did well vs LeVasseur (sp), who was a great ncaa wrestler iirc.

I do think that MJ is a tough fight forKhabib, hell, MJ might even win. But Khabibs offensive grappling is clearly very good.
 
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