Fact about Khabib that may surprise you.

Well Fedor and Ronda are my Judo choices. Who you got? Gold medalist Kevin Jackson who got armbarred in less than 30 seconds? Cejudo? Most of the good MMA wrestlers are Greco guys.

World champ Cejudo
World champ Cormier
World champ Couture
World champ Woodley
World champ Hughes
World champ Dillashaw
World champ Woodley

Let me know if you need another 5 world champions who came from freestyle wrestling.
 
According to this page.

"after having trained for 5 years in Freestyle Wrestling without significant success, Nurmagomedov studied Judo under black belt Dzafar Dzafarov."

Did I just read that right? He was unsuccessful at freestyle wrestling and is more of a judo guy?


https://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-news/top-10-non-bjj-submission-grapplers
Yeah, he was not good enough at wrestling to make it in Dagestan, it's a well-known fact.

It's an insanely competitive scene over there.
 
As in Khabib was never a wrestling Olympian that competed for medals

His competition sport was Sambo, not wrestling
Oh, so youre not stating that fact to support another point?
 
Well Fedor and Ronda are my Judo choices. Who you got? Gold medalist Kevin Jackson who got armbarred in less than 30 seconds? Cejudo? Most of the good MMA wrestlers are Greco guys.
That’s just not true at all.
 
Im not sure but our point is, it is A. a shit ton more then what the USSR/Russia are credited with, and B. more relevant because its recent. I think Team USA dominated the earlier Games in wrestling and racked up a ton of medals. Not that we aren't still very strong, we are the current reigning world champs, but Russia has been killing it last few decades.
But people do like to try to imply the Soviet block countries are far above American wrestling.
 
As in Khabib was never a wrestling Olympian that competed for medals

His competition sport was Sambo, not wrestling
It was combat sambo not sport sambo. It’s an important distinction in terms of competition.
 
World champ Cejudo
World champ Cormier
World champ Couture
World champ Woodley
World champ Hughes
World champ Dillashaw
World champ Woodley

Let me know if you need another 5 world champions who came from freestyle wrestling.
They all had a base in folk not free. And randy was Greco not free in international.
 
Well Fedor and Ronda are my Judo choices. Who you got? Gold medalist Kevin Jackson who got armbarred in less than 30 seconds? Cejudo? Most of the good MMA wrestlers are Greco guys.

I'm guessing Notorious was talking about Judo and I would agree with him. Judo is not great for MMA, but Khabib does seem to be more effective with it than 99% of people would be.
 
They all had a base in folk not free. And randy was Greco not free in international.

True but they are essentially the same sport with the same techniques, just a few rule changes.

I was actually on the fence about Couture thanks for clarifying he was in Greco.
 
Khabib's father was a wrestling and judo instructor. Khabib has been training both since birth almost.
Why anybody would find it surprising Khabib is a judoka when his father was one too is beyond me.
 
They all had a base in folk not free. And randy was Greco not free in international.
Its fair to say they had a base in folk bc they all probably competed in more folkstyle matches than freestyle matches, but aside from the fact that folk and free and extremely similar, almost identical, in terms of takedowns, almost all of the guys mentioned are highly accomplished freestylers from a young age.
World champ Cejudo- Obviously a freestyle Olympic champ but also a 3x High School national champ in freestyle.
World champ Cormier- Obviously a highly accomplished freestyler as an adult but also a high school all American in freestyle, state champ in freestyle, and actually a high school national champ and world medalist in Greco.
World champ Couture- not aware of any significant freestyle creds.
World champ Woodley- High School all American in freestyle, university all American in freestyle, senior level all American in freestyle.
World champ Hughes- not aware of any significant freestyle creds.
World champ Dillashaw- High School all American in freestyle.

The difference between free and folk is in the rules once the match hits the mat. The takedowns featured in each sport are exactly the same but the points awarded are different from free to folk.
 
Yep.

He HAS to be in clinch range to be effective, outside of an ankle-grab.

He's not a traditional, western wrestler, in terms of his stand-up take-downs.

He doesn't shoot quickly, it's more of pressure to the cage, then trips, throws, and single legs off the fence.

His single legs use to be quick as fuck, and he was pretty well known for them


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He's definitely been doing it a lot less since he had that knee injury, though. The low single he shot vs. Al were good, but after round three Al was sweaty and more prepared for them with his hands low.
 
it's like being one of the Kalenjin tribe in Kenya:
"He says that while we tend to think of Kenyans as really good distance runners, all these runners are actually from the same tribe of Kenyans known as the Kalenjin.

"There are 17 American men in history who have run under 2:10 in the marathon," Epstein says. "There were 32 Kalenjin who did it in October of 2011."​
"From 1980 on, about 40% of the top honours available to men in international athletics at these distances (Olympic medals, World Championships medals, and World Cross Country Championships honours) have been earned by Kalenjin."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalenjin_people
 
And even with that he's one of the best mma wrestlers of all time, still. If Dagestan's real elite wrestlers like the freestyle GOAT Saitiev applied themselves to MMA early on in their career they would absolutely dominate.

GOAT level freestyle wrestling + typical Sambo background + high likelihood of Judo training will make you unstoppable when it comes to mma grappling.
 
I feel like if Conor can keep moving side to side and angle away from Khabib, he can stay upright. Khabib's style is to get you close to the cage, clinch, and then drag/trip you down. He's virtually a lock to do so if he gets you in that position. Conor needs to stay as far away from the fence as possible...no backpedaling, stand your ground and counter, sprawl and brawl.
 
So an afternoon nap before he grinds Cloner into red paste

It's gonna be a rough night for you my friend. The contrast between what you want to happen and what is going to happen may be too much for your hater brain to handle. Hope you have some numbing agents or a hotline number handy.
 
I think Judo is more effective than freestyle in MMA but Greco is better than both.

I wrestled for 10 years and did Judo for 5 and I think leg td's are more effective in mma overall % wise.GSP being a great example,but everyone's style is different and things work for some and not for others.It does feel like people are shooting singles and doubles from farther away,not setting them up/changing levels properly,being more hesitant due to improved tdd and guys being able to make others pay for failed td's better these days.I feel like upper body stuff is being utilized more than it was before with most having a good sprawl these days,and fighters are working stuff off the fence more.I think the discussion on what's best is a bit moot,as they are all effective to a similar degree imo.
 
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