Khabib beat 20 cans before facing real competition

[Ares Black]

Is this your goat?

Not my goat

 

[jeff7b9]

No one is arguing this.
Who cares?

Khabib was as dominant as any fighter ever but falls short on longevity and accolaides/statistics.

He is like the Bobby Fischer of MMA.

-Won the world championship with relative ease without anyone posing a significant threat to actually defeat him in his prime.

-Retired very early due to lack of competition and already having basically achieved what they set out to do.


- Others have clearly surpassed them in terms of achievements and sustained time as world #1.

- Will retain a position within the general discussion of greatest ever but generally considered a slight tier behind those who outdid the achievements/statistics.

 

[Johnnny]

Khabib cheated repeatedly throughout his career.

Look at his last fight before joining the UFC. His opponent was a regional journeyman with 20+ losses and Khabib still felt the need to cheat by grabbing the ropes to prevent a takedown. He did that in prior fights as well.

In the UFC, he cheated by shamelessly grabbing Tibau's shorts to try to stop takedowns. Khabib also cheated repeatedly on the scale. He missed weight against Trujillo. He no-showed the weigh-ins with the interim belt on the line at UFC 209 against Tony Ferguson because he was overweight. Khabib eventually would only fight in Abu Dhabi without an athletic commission, so he could do sham weigh-ins.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Is this your goat?

Weird that you take issue with someone earning their way into the UFC's rankings by winning 20 fights against increasing levels of competition.

You have Alex as your Avatar and he doesn't even have 20 fights. He got a UFC title shot with a 6-1 MMA record. Won the title and promptly lost it and moved to LHW where he got an immediate LHW title eliminator and then a title fight with 1 win.

Twenty wins is the issue for you?

 

[Ares Black]

A lot of guys from Khabibs record are looked at as "cans" because their records aren't very good. Years ago in Japan there were a lot of these guys who were good fighters but they werenr managed well/protected and because of this they took fights well out of their weight class and suffered a lot of losses. This doesn't mean that they sucked or that they couldnt give great fighters a run for their money.

Daiju Takase is the perfect example. A lot of clowns on sherdog would look at his 7-13 record on wikipedia and automatically write him off as a "can" when in reality he was a really skilled grappler who should have fought at LW his whole career but because of the unconventional matchup landscape in JMMA he ended up taking fights at much higher weight classes against much bigger opponents and took a lot of losses.

That doesn't mean he was a can. This man rolled up Anderson Silva as if he was a white belt. I'm sure a lot of Khabib's opponents have a similar story fighting in Russia their whole career and are written off as "cans" because of this. I'd bet anything a lot of these guys are similar to Takase in the sense that they are much better than their record suggests.

When I see these kids on sherdog throw the word "can" around like it's nothing I imagine what kind of person they are and how much experience they actually have. Chump ass behavior.

I agree with this post in principle, and I hate when people call decent fighters "cans".

That said, Khabib's pre-UFC career was almost entirely wildly inappropriate and highly questionable matchmaking. A fighter who is 11-0 should never be fighting an opponent who is 0-2. A fight result like that probably shouldn't even count on a professional record. No reputable athletic commission would ever sanction it.

 

[StonedLemur]

Everybody starts off a can.

That's the law in this thing of ours sir.

 

[Simple Southerner]

Rent free

 

[Ares Black]

Weird that you take issue with someone earning their way into the UFC's rankings by winning 20 fights against increasing levels of competition.

That's the problem. The level of competition didn't really increase until he got the UFC. He was fighting random winless fighters as an undefeated prospect. Sometimes he would fight a decent fighter.

 

[StonedLemur]

A lot of guys from Khabibs record are looked at as "cans" because their records aren't very good. Years ago in Japan there were a lot of these guys who were good fighters but they werenr managed well/protected and because of this they took fights well out of their weight class and suffered a lot of losses. This doesn't mean that they sucked or that they couldnt give great fighters a run for their money.

Daiju Takase is the perfect example. A lot of clowns on sherdog would look at his 7-13 record on wikipedia and automatically write him off as a "can" when in reality he was a really skilled grappler who should have fought at LW his whole career but because of the unconventional matchup landscape in JMMA he ended up taking fights at much higher weight classes against much bigger opponents and took a lot of losses.

That doesn't mean he was a can. This man rolled up Anderson Silva as if he was a white belt. I'm sure a lot of Khabib's opponents have a similar story fighting in Russia their whole career and are written off as "cans" because of this. I'd bet anything a lot of these guys are similar to Takase in the sense that they are much better than their record suggests.

When I see these kids on sherdog throw the word "can" around like it's nothing I imagine what kind of person they are and how much experience they actually have. Chump ass behavior.

I've said this many times on here sir, I support your passionate words.

 

[Oddmonster]

Skill wise I think he is the goat. I think he could’ve broke all the records if he didn’t retire

To me Demetrius Johnson is the goat if we talk skills - did you see his fight with Rodtang? Mighty Mouse is just a beast, who has proven it again and again - be it standing or grappling.
Khabib is pretty far behind.

But yeah, I wish Khabib had fought a few more worthy opponents so we could assess how good he really was. We simply do not know. With his best opponents being Gaetje, Conor and Poirier (all strikers), ti simply does not tell us that much. I was really impressed with how easy he took out Gatje though.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

That's the problem. The level of competition didn't really increase until he got the UFC. He was fighting random winless fighters as an undefeated prospect.

So? Who was outside the UFC for him to fight? He got to the UFC with a 16-0 record and then moved through an increasingly difficult level of opposition.

Khabib isn't my GOAT as that is GSP but the guy posting this had Alex as Avatar and yet that guy never earned his way in MMA and was the recipient of benefits that Izzy laid out for him. Khabib didn't beat a bunch of cans and then get a UFC title fight.

 

[Ares Black]

I've said this many times on here sir, I support your passionate words.

"Can" and "Robbery" are the two most misused and overused words on here IMO.

 

[Ares Black]

So? Who was outside the UFC for him to fight? He got to the UFC with a 16-0 record and then moved through an increasingly difficult level of opposition.

Khabib isn't my GOAT as that is GSP but the guy posting this had Alex as Avatar and yet that guy never earned his way in MMA and was the recipient of benefits that Izzy laid out for him. Khabib didn't beat a bunch of cans and then get a UFC title fight.

To be fair, the guy is obviously trolling.

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

To me Demetrius Johnson is the goat if we talk skills - did you see his fight with Rodtang? Mighty Mouse is just a beast, who has proved it again and again - be it standing or grappling.
Khabib is pretty far behind.

But yeah, I wish Khabib had fought a few more worthy opponents so we could assess how good he really was. We simply do not know. With his best opponents being Gaetje, Conor and Poirier (all strikers), ti simply does not tell us that much. I was really impressed with how easy he took out Gatje though.

They both have different skill sets but Khabib was far more dominant and ragdolled everyone. DJ lost a few time and even had a bunch of close fights. Imagine trying to compare the grappling between the 2

Plus DJ fought in a weak division while Khabib fought nothing but killers at lightweight and overall more skilled fighters

 

[markg171]

So? Who was outside the UFC for him to fight? He got to the UFC with a 16-0 record and then moved through an increasingly difficult level of opposition.

Khabib isn't my GOAT as that is GSP but the guy posting this had Alex as Avatar and yet that guy never earned his way in MMA and was the recipient of benefits that Izzy laid out for him. Khabib didn't beat a bunch of cans and then get a UFC title fight.

Khabib wouldn't have had 16 fights before the UFC if he'd been increasing his competition during it and actually at all advancing.

 

[HHJ]

Khabib is a fantastic fighter, but he is no where near the GOAT talks for me. The quality of most of his opponents were low, and the higher quality fighters were all strikers, besides Tibau who, by most accounts, won the fight.

No one cares. Goat talks dont mean shit. Huurrr durrrr this guy is nowhere near the top of my fake wack list. No one cares about your stupid made up list or anyone else's.

Hurrrr durrrr when khabib faces a striker I mean when he faces a grappler I mean when he faces... REEEEEEEE khabib could you just fall down or something at least.

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

MEh

I think he carefully selected fights, and did well at it.

BUT will never deny that when he fought top comp, made them look like cans anyway. So TS point is kind of moot.

 

[markg171]

They both have different skill sets but Khabib was far more dominant and ragdolled everyone. DJ lost a few time and even had a bunch of close fights. Imagine trying to compare the grappling between the 2

Plus DJ fought in a weak division while Khabib fought nothing but killers at lightweight and overall more skilled fighters

1 of the 5 best fighters Khabib ever fought was Michael Johnson.

 

[CroCopsLHK]

It's not about how you start its how it ends. When I think of Khabib I think of how he treated Barboza. He always brought his A game and it was a damn pleasure to see. He also emasculated Conor in one of the biggest fights ever

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

No one cares. Goat talks dont mean shit. Huurrr durrrr this guy is nowhere near the top of my fake wack list. No one cares about your stupid made up list or anyone else's.

Hurrrr durrrr when khabib faces a striker I mean when he faces a grappler I mean when he faces... REEEEEEEE khabib could you just fall down or something at least.

I care!













about GOAT lists that have Fedor at the top