Remember how beastly Michael Johnson looked vs Barboza?

[Bboy]

This dude had Gaethje pretty much beat twice before deciding to clinch instead of throwing strikes.

 

[Ying Li]

USADA immediately came to mind.

 

[lagofala]

Because most fighters have off-nights, injuries, or just have bad style match ups. The training, hype, discrepancies in size or skill, game plan don't matter. In the end, it boils down to who can perform on fight night.

 

[Ever Watchful]

He was broken like 3 minutes into that fight. Rest was Khabib not being able to put the stamp on it.

Can't stamp what ain't broken, as the old saying goes.

 

[binny]

So the 9 total strikes MJ landed to the head of Khabib?

Sorry dude, watch the fight. 1st I said for the time it was standing, which was not long. 2nd if you watch the fight, you can clearly see MJ land to the head, body, and legs and otherwise outclass him on the feet.

 

[Final Say]

Ur way off. His boxing, both pressure game(Barboza/Lauzon bouts) as well as his counter game(Poirier/Tibau) are very skillful.

Athleticism & explosiveness is what he lacks & what keeps him from being elite. He has very fast hands which make up for those areas he lacks. And despite being pigeon-footed he has very solid, basic fundamental footwork.

His boxing is bad

 

[Guile]

Sorry dude, watch the fight. 1st I said for the time it was standing, which was not long. 2nd if you watch the fight, you can clearly see MJ land to the head, body, and legs and otherwise outclass him on the feet.

So MJ looked good for 30 seconds of the near 15 minutes

 

[randomg1t]

He beat the shit out of Khabib on the feet for as long as he could keep it there. He starched Dustin. Idk why he is so inconsistent but I don't think he's done shocking people.

you have a very loose definition of "beat the shit out of".

he landed like 3 punches and ate a hundred before getting submitted. the only one that had the shit beaten out of him in that fight was michael johnson.

 

[legedema]

He beat the shit out of Khabib on the feet for as long as he could keep it there. He starched Dustin. Idk why he is so inconsistent but I don't think he's done shocking people.

lol at he beat the shit out of Khabib.

 

[FrancisBergoglio]

And he iced Poirier. Then everyone wrote off Poirier, who looked great vs Eddie, who barely beat/arguably lost to Pettis who is suppose to be washed up. The truth is we put too much stock in the mathematical difference in rankings, specifically at 155 where the margin of skill between #1 & #10 is minimal. Dariush/Barboza, Poirier/Eddie, Ferguson/Lee, Conor/Nate (even tho they fought at 170) are good examplea of this. Even Khabib was nearly KO'd by MJ & was stalemated by Tibau

" Nearly KO'd "... You should stop listening Joe Rogan.

 

[Big Al's Texas BBQ]

 

[BjPenn2017]

He was so far from done that Khabib had to BEG him to quit.

Heart of the lion

Yea no kidding.. I find it funny when people say the dude gives in fights and is a front runner.. he has plenty of decision wins, hell he has a decision win over Tony fucking Ferguson and is the only guy to beat him in the ufc. Dude is all heart, goes out to kill or be killed and leaves it all on the line. It doesn't always come up 7s, especially against the very best in the world.

 

[DLX]

You constantly fight asskickers, even a good fighters records not gonna look pretty.

 

[Karelinator]

Before USADA performance.

Also look at :

Conor - setting INSANE pace and drowning Mendes and Holloway with barrage of strikes

Khabib - scoring like 40 takedowns in one fights, moving like a wolverine, insane quickness

For the examples from the very same division.

All those guys are still great, but had to slow down to more humane performances.

Conor last 8 minutes of punching

Khabib no longer moves like a blitz, that can throw you around all day, has to settle with conventional TDs and control.

#dubscreepingin

#regretnothing

 

[binny]

you have a very loose definition of "beat the shit out of".

he landed like 3 punches and ate a hundred before getting submitted. the only one that had the shit beaten out of him in that fight was michael johnson.

... I said for as long as the fight was standing... he out landed and outclassed Khabib on the feet. I get Khabib was going for the TD but he looked pretty bad on the feet.

 

[randomg1t]

... I said for as long as the fight was standing... he out landed and outclassed Khabib on the feet. I get Khabib was going for the TD but he looked pretty bad on the feet.

and i said he didn't beat the shit out of anyone, because they stood for a grand total of 20 seconds, the rest he spent having the shit beaten out of him by khabib.

i guess aldo was beating the shit out of conor with that combo before getting KO'd?

 

[Rea_ctor]

Barboza fight - Feb 2015
USADA - July 2015

 

[Cowboy Cerroliveira]

Who knows what he was going thru. So many things can effect the outcome of a fight. Injuries, new camp, sparring partners missing, bad cycle, woman issues, being schemed on money by leaches, family death, fighting in home area, etc.

Exactly. I definitely knew he was not on his "A" game.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

He looked big, confident and aggressive.

What happened to that guy? In his last 2 fights he's looked tiny and weak... Still skillful but not nearly the same.

he lost quite a few 'virtual tie' fights in a row. he is a tremendous fighter. he fights very close fights with the best fighters of the division. but noobs see his win/loss and think he sucks. because noobs suck, and noobs are now the vocal majority of mma fans.

in Pride he would have kept fighting close fights - winning some of them, because of the different scoring criteria, but even if he didn't he'd still come back because people loved FIGHTS AND FIGHTING > eking out decisions.

but a few close losses forced him to change. and the change didn't help. it's unfortunate, really.

 

[wolfss]

He always puts on a good show. Would love to see him fight lando.