Is Khabib's inability to finish fights bothering you?

[Skarsgard]

Well, the Edson fight could have been stopped at any point and I don't think anyone would have complained. Iaquinta has a completely different style than Ferguson or Holloway, the two guys that he was training for, and I can see how the change of opponent could have fucked him up. RDA isn't exactly an easy fight if you're a grappler, and unfortunately he couldn't get the stoppage there.

As long as Khabib keeps making weight and showing up to fights, I don't care if he just sits in half guard throwing pitter patter shots ala Jake Shields.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

Jones became a lot more cautious after becoming champ. He went through a five year stretch where the only finishes he had were against a couple of MWs.

He submitted TRT Vitor, that's no normal Middleweight.

Of his 17 UFC fights he finished 11, and for those he didn't finish he still battered.

 

[Skarsgard]

Yes it's weird Khabib fanboys talk about devastating Gnp then I watch Lee butcher Edsons face in 2 rd's that's brutal Gnp The fight should've stopped way sooner don't know why Khabib can't finish fights , tho his kimura of Mj was pretty sweet he should go for subs but I get it in a way he likely gasses him self going for sub attempts but people want to see a finish.

Khabib definitely has some devastating ground and pound, but Lee was just on his game that night. He was landing heavy shots frequently. I wouldn't have been mad to see it get stopped earlier, especially as a Barboza fan.

 

[fortheo]

I don't even care. I just like to see two of the best compete. If a finish happens, then cool, if it doesn't happen, then cool. As long as it's not a draw, then I don't care. I just want to see which fighter can better implement their plan.

 

[DorianGray]

I ask this question because it's universally agreed that us fans would ideally like to see finishes in fights.

Sure, when two high level combatants enter the cage it's not always possible to finish the other guy, but when one of them does pull it off, especially on a regular basis, it catapults them up the all-time rankings.

Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Shogun Rua are 3 high level fighters who throughout their careers have always made a habit of getting finishes in their fights. Shogun is somewhat the outlier here as his prime didn't last as long as the other two, but during his prime years he was an absolute killer.

I look at Khabib Nurmagomedov and I ask myself "is his inability to finish fights hurting his all-time stock?"

It's early days for Khabib still, yes he is 26-0, but he's only truly been competing at the highest level for 2-3 years when you consider how long he's been out with injuries etc. with that said, is he in danger of slipping into the area of criticism that St. Pierre and Cruz fell into? A front runner who plays it safe and doesn't push for the finish.

Khabib even has some people believing that he deliberately doesn't finish fights, in my opinion that notion is ridiculous. I think I've seen a handful of fights in all my time watching combat sports where I can truly say that I think the opponent "took it easy" on his opposition. I don't believe that Khabib let Iaquinta, Barboza or anyone else for that matter "survive", I genuinely think he plays it safe when he is up big or he simply cannot get the finish.

10 UFC fights, 4 finishes. 1 finish against a ranked opponent. Is that enough?

I welcome your feedback and opinions guys.

gsp and cruz might be known for playing it safe and decisioning guys, but they are not known as front runners

 

[Taric]

Mir vs Cro Cop was arguably the worst fight in the history of the sport.
A finish doesn't make a fight better. Just like a decision doesn't make a fight bad.
I can name a dozen fights that went to decision that were among my favourite.

 

[king of theRing]

I think what he said about the Barboza fight , that he wanted to get all three 5 minute rounds in his system , I believe him. He could've easily finished barboza if he would've just poured it on a bit but chose to coast to a decision win. However , you can't use that excuse every time. I do believe he was trying to finish Iaquinta but that's a really tough and game dude he was working with. I think regardless of the finish or not, what people like to watch about Khabib is the dominance in the way he beats his opponents. I'm sure as hell entertained by it and I'm
Sure most of the people on this board are as well. Hes A dominant old school "one trick pony" fighter, but its much more impressive to be so in the modern era, where now everyone is trying to be good everywhere. I believe that as long as he stays undefeated, people are going to tune in

The guy has been the distance many times so i call bs on that

 

[tbulls123]

I don't really care if they can finish the fight or not. I just don't want to see a person circling around the octagon for 5 rounds and do nothing all rounds.

 

[Paolo Delutis]

I ask this question because it's universally agreed that us fans would ideally like to see finishes in fights.

Sure, when two high level combatants enter the cage it's not always possible to finish the other guy, but when one of them does pull it off, especially on a regular basis, it catapults them up the all-time rankings.

Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Shogun Rua are 3 high level fighters who throughout their careers have always made a habit of getting finishes in their fights. Shogun is somewhat the outlier here as his prime didn't last as long as the other two, but during his prime years he was an absolute killer.

I look at Khabib Nurmagomedov and I ask myself "is his inability to finish fights hurting his all-time stock?"

It's early days for Khabib still, yes he is 26-0, but he's only truly been competing at the highest level for 2-3 years when you consider how long he's been out with injuries etc. with that said, is he in danger of slipping into the area of criticism that St. Pierre and Cruz fell into? A front runner who plays it safe and doesn't push for the finish.

Khabib even has some people believing that he deliberately doesn't finish fights, in my opinion that notion is ridiculous. I think I've seen a handful of fights in all my time watching combat sports where I can truly say that I think the opponent "took it easy" on his opposition. I don't believe that Khabib let Iaquinta, Barboza or anyone else for that matter "survive", I genuinely think he plays it safe when he is up big or he simply cannot get the finish.

10 UFC fights, 4 finishes. 1 finish against a ranked opponent. Is that enough?

I welcome your feedback and opinions guys.

I think as a hole i dont think hes as good as his hype leads us to believe..that being said finishes dont really matter to me if your consistently beating on your opponent or fighting a well rounded fight ... Hes shown that in some fights others hes abit of a wet blanket but as someone else mentioned here its on his opponents to change that..cant knock him for being able to handle men like children..i dont see him have longevity though as a fighter or champion way too.Young to be having these many injuries and 155 is too tough on his body cut wise

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

I ask this question because it's universally agreed that us fans would ideally like to see finishes in fights.

Sure, when two high level combatants enter the cage it's not always possible to finish the other guy, but when one of them does pull it off, especially on a regular basis, it catapults them up the all-time rankings.

Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Shogun Rua are 3 high level fighters who throughout their careers have always made a habit of getting finishes in their fights. Shogun is somewhat the outlier here as his prime didn't last as long as the other two, but during his prime years he was an absolute killer.

I look at Khabib Nurmagomedov and I ask myself "is his inability to finish fights hurting his all-time stock?"

It's early days for Khabib still, yes he is 26-0, but he's only truly been competing at the highest level for 2-3 years when you consider how long he's been out with injuries etc. with that said, is he in danger of slipping into the area of criticism that St. Pierre and Cruz fell into? A front runner who plays it safe and doesn't push for the finish.

Khabib even has some people believing that he deliberately doesn't finish fights, in my opinion that notion is ridiculous. I think I've seen a handful of fights in all my time watching combat sports where I can truly say that I think the opponent "took it easy" on his opposition. I don't believe that Khabib let Iaquinta, Barboza or anyone else for that matter "survive", I genuinely think he plays it safe when he is up big or he simply cannot get the finish.

10 UFC fights, 4 finishes. 1 finish against a ranked opponent. Is that enough?

I welcome your feedback and opinions guys.

About as much as I'd care that say the Yankees win by scoring a lot of singles rather than by hitting home runs, or that I'd care if the Packers won by field goals instead of touchdowns. At the end of the day, a win is a win. This is true in sports, and its even more true in war (the old saying was that the British lost every battle except the last - they muddled through colonial wars, WW1, WW2, losing way more battles than they lost, but in the end they were on the winning side and no one cared how they won, just that they won).

So if winning is all that matters in sport, and all that matters in war (the ultimate fight), it makes sense that winning is all that should matter in sport fighting (a combination of fighting and sport).

More seriously, all I care is that I find the fight entertaining. My all time favorite fight is Fedor-Crocop, and there was no finish in it.

 

[Perrichet]

If Khabib’s name was Jon Fitch he’d be criticised like the rest

 

[King of Fists]

Doesn't bother me, because he puts a BEATING on guys.

It would be one thing if he was mostly laying on guys ala GSP, but he's mauling them (or trying to maul them) ala Caín vs JDS 2.

In fact if you don't appreciate the CTE that Khabib is doling out, you're not really a just bleed fan imo

 

[William Huggins]

The gym he fights out of will not help his longevity..........that and Tiramisu but at least he gets a break at Ramadan.........

 

[VitorReem]

I hate bums that don’t try to finish fights. Drives me nuts.

 

[chinarice]

I definitely get you, and I don't disagree that "winning in the most important thing".

My question was more geared around the notion or idea that it may hurt his legacy if he cannot put people away. Iaquinta has been finished before, but much lesser fighters, Khabib over 25 minutes should be finishing him.

it will hurt his legacy just as it did GSP's. Lesser fighters finished guys Georges couldn't finish but those same guys also had nothing for GSP when it was their turn to fight him.

At the end of the day, it's a tough thing to balance being exciting and successful. The only ones that were at the top and did both popped for PEDs.

 

[3nigma]

This place is obsessed with finishes.

I'm fine with someone getting ragdolled for 3-5 rounds and looking like they have been broken.

 

[MikeMcMann]

I remember when GSP retired and there was a slew of comments about how the WW division would return to finishes and exctiement because there was now a murders row of finishers at the top of the division. Hendricks, Condit, Lawler, Diaz...

And yet if you look at the combined fights of all of them post GSP retiring and as they only started fighting each other or other top 5 guys their combined finish rate was LOWER than GSP's.

it is the one thing shertards never consider and that Khabib is finding out now is that those top 5 guys in a deep divisions like LW or WW are all great fighters themselves and very hard to finish in a fight and that matters.

 

[awymore]

He submitted TRT Vitor, that's no normal Middleweight.

Of his 17 UFC fights he finished 11, and for those he didn't finish he still battered.

Khabib has finished 16 of 26 for almost the same finishing rate and has battered those others as well though, so I'm not really seeing why TS would consider him that much different than Jones.

 

[HomeRun916]

No.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

Khabib has finished 16 of 26 for almost the same finishing rate and has battered those others as well though, so I'm not really seeing why TS would consider him that much different than Jones.

To compare Jones and Khabib is just silly, Khabib has finished one high level fighter and even that is debatable.

Michael Johnson in my opinion is a hot and cold fighter who is the definition of a gatekeeper.

I can name you a plethora of ranked opponents that Jones has defeated, all-time greats some of them, Khabib's best win is still Edson Barboza and he supposedly "deliberately didn't finish him".

Stop it my g.