LW champion reign look back 2012-2021

NikLuk

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LW champion reign look back 2012-2021 in reverse order (interim not included):
  • Khabib Nurmagomedov - 3 defenses
  • Conor McGregor - 0 defenses
  • Eddie Alvarez - 0 defenses
  • Rafael dos Anjos - 1 defense
  • Anthony Pettis - 1 defense
  • Benson Henderson - 3 defenses
What do you think the future looks like?
 
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I think eventually we'll see a champ beat the record for more than 3 defenses.
I could see it being Charles if he wins, since he's so young.
I don't think Chandler would fight long enough to beat it.
 
Chandler 2+ defenses is my prediction if he gets through Oliveira. He and Islam are the only two strong wrestlers in the division, and apart from Oliveira the rest of the top 10's BJJ is lacking (Apart from Makachev ofc).
 
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I think eventually we'll see a champ beat the record for more than 3 defenses.
I could see it being Charles if he wins, since he's so young.
I don't think Chandler would fight long enough to beat it.
Oliveira will never even sniff the belt, Chandler is going to remove his head. Chandler might get a defense or two until Islam takes his belt. If Chandler fights smart, he can beat everyone in the LW division not named Islam.
 
I think this period, five years from now, will be looked at fondly about how Chandler was assumed to be a long-standing champion based on close to nothing besides a not-so-subtle marketing push from the UFC.

Sort of like how we look at Brandon Vera double-champ hype nowadays.
 
Oliveira will never even sniff the belt, Chandler is going to remove his head. Chandler might get a defense or two until Islam takes his belt. If Chandler fights smart, he can beat everyone in the LW division not named Islam.
I'm leaning towards Chandler too this weekend, but I don't he'll fight much longer after he wins.
 
I like Chandler and hope he wins this weekend and can go on to get some good title defenses in the future. But it’s a tough division where I think that all guys in the top have some unfavorable matchups, so I think that a long reign will be a very hard task for whoever is champ in the near future.
 
Chandler 2+ defenses is my prediction if he gets through Oliveira. He and Islam are the only two strong wrestlers in the division, and apart from Oliveira the rest of the top 10's BJJ is lacking (Apart from Makachev ofc).
The only problem with chandler is size. These ufc LWs, man, they are fucking huge. There’s a reason why guys like Gregor, Kevin Lee, Carlos etc...don’t always win against these top guys...the wrestling defense is outstanding. Remember, a lot of these guys like Justin, Dustin, Tony..:they’ve been gunning for khabib for years. I feel like that raises the wrestling defense considerably. And they are big dudes, you really need an excellent takedown when your giving up size and you also have great defensive wrestlers.

If you want an example of what chandler needs to do with his wrestling, look at Volkanovski.
 
The only problem with chandler is size. These ufc LWs, man, they are fucking huge. There’s a reason why guys like Gregor, Kevin Lee, Carlos etc...don’t always win against these top guys...the wrestling defense is outstanding. Remember, a lot of these guys like Justin, Dustin, Tony..:they’ve been gunning for khabib for years. I feel like that raises the wrestling defense considerably. And they are big dudes, you really need an excellent takedown when your giving up size and you also have great defensive wrestlers.

If you want an example of what chandler needs to do with his wrestling, look at Volkanovski.
I disagree, I think LW has been completely lacking competent wrestlers for years, and with the addition of Islam and Dariush and Gregor and Chandler its finally better, but it used to be frankly pretty bad.

Kevin Lee was one of the only person's with high level takedowns, and he literally took everyone down that he tried. Tony absolutely does not have good defensive wrestling, neither did Barboza. I would argue Poirier's defensive wrestling is pretty bad for his level, a gassed Hooker took him down multiple times. Poirer's consists of jumping the gilly, and it shows a lack of fundamentals.

Gaethje's wrestling is pretty good, but his BJJ is non existent, and he himself has confirmed he doesn't train it. If Chandler or Oliveira or even Dariush got him down even once with more than a minute or two to work, he would be done.

Chandler has beaten people with much better takedown defense and grappling than Poirer or Gaethje have ever had. I don't see a problem in that department apart from Islam, because he would nuke Gregor's lack of striking defense, and I love Dariush, but he is too un-athletic to hang with Chandler.

I could go more into depth about my opinions into LW (or its former state) because honestly I have felt like the state of its grappling has been pretty shit in the top 10, and Khabib got lucky that LW had so few high level grapplers, because lets be honest, Conor, Gaethje, Poirer, Barboza, and Michael fucking Johnson are not cream of the crop grapplers, defensive or otherwise.

I get your point about size, but honestly he is so athletic he makes up for it. Hooker was in my opinion his toughest matchup in the top 10, and he showed that his striking is more than enough to make up for his height.
 
I disagree, I think LW has been completely lacking competent wrestlers for years, and with the addition of Islam and Dariush and Gregor and Chandler its finally better, but it used to be frankly pretty bad.

Kevin Lee was one of the only person's with high level takedowns, and he literally took everyone down that he tried. Tony absolutely does not have good defensive wrestling, neither did Barboza. I would argue Poirier's defensive wrestling is pretty bad for his level, a gassed Hooker took him down multiple times. Poirer's consists of jumping the gilly, and it shows a lack of fundamentals.

Gaethje's wrestling is pretty good, but his BJJ is non existent, and he himself has confirmed he doesn't train it. If Chandler or Oliveira or even Dariush got him down even once with more than a minute or two to work, he would be done.

Chandler has beaten people with much better takedown defense and grappling than Poirer or Gaethje have ever had. I don't see a problem in that department apart from Islam, because he would nuke Gregor's lack of striking defense, and I love Dariush, but he is too un-athletic to hang with Chandler.

I could go more into depth about my opinions into LW (or its former state) because honestly I have felt like the state of its grappling has been pretty shit in the top 10, and Khabib got lucky that LW had so few high level grapplers, because lets be honest, Conor, Gaethje, Poirer, Barboza, and Michael fucking Johnson are not cream of the crop grapplers, defensive or otherwise.
You’ve got me thinking a lot about the division now. So what your opinion on Max Holloway’s defensive wrestling? Is volkanovski an opportunist as well in your eyes?
 
Oliveira will never even sniff the belt, Chandler is going to remove his head. Chandler might get a defense or two until Islam takes his belt. If Chandler fights smart, he can beat everyone in the LW division not named Islam.

Olivera is going to surprise you here and take the belt and make it look easy...

Also, The spice must flow.
 
A long reigning champ will arise if the lw division becomes a shit division like welter, middleweight, or lhw. Not now.
 
Chandler 2+ defenses is my prediction if he gets through Oliveira. He and Islam are the only two strong wrestlers in the division, and apart from Oliveira the rest of the top 10's BJJ is lacking (Apart from Makachev ofc).
Arman Tsarukyan not a strong wrestler? been a while since I watched him fight
 
I don't think any LW around now will be champ for a long time, simply because the competition is so close, and none of them have shown that they can sustain a long winning streak. Gaethje is KO or be KO'd and the contenders can KO him. McGregor can't even win 2 in a row anymore, Chandler has shown to be beatable, and I am not sold on Oliviera yet when i comes to big fights. That leaves Poirier, who would be my favorite to sustain a winning streak. He has been beatable before, but seems to be on a hot streak lately. Plus he has already beaten Gaethje and McGregor. That said, I have a feeling someone will beat him in the near future. If not Conor, one of the others. It's an exciting division right now!
 
You’ve got me thinking a lot about the division now. So what your opinion on Max Holloway’s defensive wrestling? Is volkanovski an opportunist as well in your eyes?
Holloways defensive wrestling is surprisingly good imo, he does a very nice job of framing off his opponents and his ability to get up against the fence is very good. I'm not sure it would translate to LW, simply because of the size difference, but in FW his TDD is top tier, although to be fair he hasn't faced many wrestlers.
Volk is an opportunist, I would agree with that. His wrestling is legit very good, and his BJJ is pretty good as well, but it is the way he mixes in his wrestling and striking that actually makes him able to get the takedowns. If he wasn't as good of a striker as he is, it would be much harder for him to get the TD's that he gets.

FW's top level are much better grapplers than LW used to be. Volk, Holloway, Ortega, Zabit ( Aldo ), are all much better than Poirer, Conor, Gaethje, Tony, Hooker.
 
I disagree, I think LW has been completely lacking competent wrestlers for years, and with the addition of Islam and Dariush and Gregor and Chandler its finally better, but it used to be frankly pretty bad.

Kevin Lee was one of the only person's with high level takedowns, and he literally took everyone down that he tried. Tony absolutely does not have good defensive wrestling, neither did Barboza. I would argue Poirier's defensive wrestling is pretty bad for his level, a gassed Hooker took him down multiple times. Poirer's consists of jumping the gilly, and it shows a lack of fundamentals.

Gaethje's wrestling is pretty good, but his BJJ is non existent, and he himself has confirmed he doesn't train it. If Chandler or Oliveira or even Dariush got him down even once with more than a minute or two to work, he would be done.

Chandler has beaten people with much better takedown defense and grappling than Poirer or Gaethje have ever had. I don't see a problem in that department apart from Islam, because he would nuke Gregor's lack of striking defense, and I love Dariush, but he is too un-athletic to hang with Chandler.

I could go more into depth about my opinions into LW (or its former state) because honestly I have felt like the state of its grappling has been pretty shit in the top 10, and Khabib got lucky that LW had so few high level grapplers, because lets be honest, Conor, Gaethje, Poirer, Barboza, and Michael fucking Johnson are not cream of the crop grapplers, defensive or otherwise.

I get your point about size, but honestly he is so athletic he makes up for it. Hooker was in my opinion his toughest matchup in the top 10, and he showed that his striking is more than enough to make up for his height.
Here we have the notorious Khabib hater and biggest sherdog bullshitter in action lol

Hey those you named that Khabib beat have beaten plenty of grapplers and wrestlers!

Poirier beat:
- CDF (before it was cool)
- Jim Miller
- Pettis (subbed Aloe Vera)

Barboza beat:
- Dariush ( the fight before he fought Khabib)

MJ beat:
- Tibau
- Tony


You guys keep changing the narrative on Khabib. First it was he only faced grapplers and when he faces strikers he will get koed. Now it's the opposite and haters like you go on to see the most stacked division in the history of the UFC was lacking or flawed lol

There's a reason why Khabib was the only real grappler/wrestler that was consistently ranked since 2013. It's because the other grapplers lost to a striker on their way up. That's it.

Those bums just couldn't do what Khabib did. It's that simply


Khabib Bless ur Bum soul
 
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