Media Arman Tsarukyan says Islam looked very bad against Dustin Poirier and that his wrestling and cardio was poor, do you agree?

[RockyLockridge]

He finished oliveira who was on a 11 fight winning streak and ended volk's 12 fight winning streak, and the first volk fight was decisive. It was a bad look for Islam to get beat up at the end but there is no world where volk won that fight, round 1 and 2 he got rocked and hurt and round 4 he got blanketed so 48-47 win for Islam. Volk was p4p #2 or #1 at the time so even though it's a FW it's not a bad win.

Oliveria faced extreme adversity in many of those fights later in his title reign including against chandler, Gaethje and Porier I wouldnt say charles won those fights with flying colors or anything. he was big streak, but Charles is very beatable against anyone willing to go to the mat with him. Every time he loses to someone it's because they dont fear his ground game. I dont rate charles the way everyone else does. I expected islam to finish charles easily, because after knocking him down, he's going to pursuit him. Porier and Gaethje could have done the same and finished him. (chandler wasn't afraid and ALMOST had him) He's always been chinny even since FW. I believe they could have pursited him and tko'd him but they are spooked of him on the ground. Most people who beat charles beat him on the ground. So i just see it as a tailor made easy match up for Islam. made good money on that fight. I Want to be clear that im not discrediting that win in anyway, yes it's a good win. but to expect anything other than Islam subbing him is insane.

 

[Rio Ferdinand]

I agree.

 

[andgonsil]

Agree

 

[JKS]

Dustin is one of the best to ever to it at LW so the fact Islam didn't just dominate make sense. He's not fighting Bobby Green out there , he's fighting a guy who's been top 5 for like 7 years.

Every top P4P fighter has competitive fights.

 

[kkthx]

Absolutely. The LW division sucks atm.

 

[VinceArch]

Poirier knew this was his last shot at gold and came in looking motivated just as ever before, he had the luck of fighting Khabib first so had a better understanding of what kind of wrestling he'd be facing. Islam was still ahead on rounds and still finished what became a bloody, exciting dog fight. A lot of posters simply don't like Islam and are saying he's not as good as others say despite the fact that he's the champion in the deepest division lol.

 

[fortheo]

You know that being sick or under the weather in any form, DOES hinder your performances, right ? In any jobs. But the problem is that "fans" expect Islam to be a replica of khabib, he's not and that's perfectly fine.

I'm aware that being sick affects performance. I just find it interesting how islam can never simply have competitive fights. No, in the competitive fights, they must have been competitive because islam was sick, had staph, havd bad weight cut, etc etc. It's like the possibility of his opponents just giving him a good fight is unimaginable to some people. Islam doesn't even need these excuses since he's winning and winning in style a lot of times.

 

[fortheo]

Poirier knew this was his last shot at gold and came in looking motivated just as ever before, he had the luck of fighting Khabib first so had a better understanding of what kind of wrestling he'd be facing. Islam was still ahead on rounds and still finished what became a bloody, exciting dog fight. A lot of posters simply don't like Islam and are saying he's not as good as others say despite the fact that he's the champion in the deepest division lol.

He also had the benefit of coming right off a fight against a big southpaw grappler. He was well prepared, despite having a relatively short turn around. Islam didn't look bad at all -- just had a competitive fight against an all time great LW. People's standards are too high, but they're hard not to be when you have javier mendez out here telling us Islam can beat DDP lol.

 

[VinceArch]

Poirier knew this was his last shot at gold and came in looking motivated just as ever before, he had the luck of fighting Khabib first so had a better understanding of what kind of wrestling he'd be facing. Islam was still ahead on rounds and still finished what became a bloody, exciting dog fight. A lot of posters simply don't like Islam and are saying he's not as good as others say despite the fact that he's the champion in the deepest division lol.

He also had the benefit of coming right off a fight against a big southpaw grappler. He was well prepared, despite having a relatively short turn around. Islam didn't look bad at all -- just had a competitive fight against an all time great LW. People's standards are too high, but they're hard not to be when you have javier mendez out here telling us Islam can beat DDP lol.

Don't listen to Javier. Yeah, it's cool that he's hyping up a student, but he's went overboard with the praise and it's became idiotic at this point.

 

[Hymen Crusher]

I agree that he shouldn't have been life or death with a one foot out the door Dustin. Dustin is a all time great fighter but the way Islam is described he should choke out prime GSP in 1 round.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Oliveria faced extreme adversity in many of those fights later in his title reign including against chandler, Gaethje and Porier I wouldnt say charles won those fights with flying colors or anything. he was big streak, but Charles is very beatable against anyone willing to go to the mat with him. Every time he loses to someone it's because they dont fear his ground game. I dont rate charles the way everyone else does. I expected islam to finish charles easily, because after knocking him down, he's going to pursuit him. Porier and Gaethje could have done the same and finished him. (chandler wasn't afraid and ALMOST had him) He's always been chinny even since FW. I believe they could have pursited him and tko'd him but they are spooked of him on the ground. Most people who beat charles beat him on the ground. So i just see it as a tailor made easy match up for Islam. made good money on that fight. I Want to be clear that im not discrediting that win in anyway, yes it's a good win. but to expect anything other than Islam subbing him is insane.

The strange thing is he hadn’t subbed someone from guard in like a decade.

I mean you don’t want him on your back or mounting you or with a front headlock on you, but he’s not THAT dangerous from guard because it’s just not a good position no matter how good and dynamic your grappling is.

If you’ve trained modern MMA skills that’s a pretty easy position to control and do damage from, it’s a fight not a grappling contest.

Shows you what perception does to some people though - they scramble Charles brain and he falls on his back to invite open guard and they look at it like it’s quicksand/a bear trap/hot lava/a landmine.

If you’re one of the best fighters in the world you should be fine going into anyone’s guard, especially after you rock their shit.

On the other hand if you have a striking advantage you might want to force them to strike while hurt instead of possibly stall and recover from guard.

It’s kind of a double-edged sword.

 

[RockyLockridge]

On the other hand if you have a striking advantage you might want to force them to strike while hurt instead of possibly stall and recover from guard.

It’s kind of a double-edged sword.

but I'll always say:

Edgar did it and won
Felder did it and won
Chandler did it and almost TKO'd him

Any tape will tell you that you can enter Charles guard and TKO him.

I agree 100% if you're the best in world you SHOULD be able to enter a rocked fighters guard and if things get hairy, get up.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Poirier knew this was his last shot at gold and came in looking motivated just as ever before, he had the luck of fighting Khabib first so had a better understanding of what kind of wrestling he'd be facing. Islam was still ahead on rounds and still finished what became a bloody, exciting dog fight. A lot of posters simply don't like Islam and are saying he's not as good as others say despite the fact that he's the champion in the deepest division lol.

but he hasn't really fought the best competition has he? a short notice volk, Porier when there were 3 better contenders he's not faced a single number 1 ranked fighter since he had that title and it's not like he had any top 5 wins at all before winning the title.

Armen has 2 top 5 lw wins in Darisuh and charles before even getting the title.. He still has the same amount of top 5 LW wins as islam, and islam is about to break the title defense record. so while he's the champ in the deepest division his record doesn't reflect that at all. This is the first time he's up against a bonafied number 1 contender in armen. If he loses, it'll be one of the biggest fraud checks in a good long while.

 

[VinceArch]

but he hasn't really fought the best competition has he? a short notice volk, Porier when there were 3 better contenders he's not face a single number 1 ranked fighter since he had that title and it's not like he had any top 5 wins at all before winning the title.

Armen has 2 top 5 lw wins in Darisuh and charles before even touching. He still has the same amount of top 5 wins as islam.

How is that Islam's fault when he was clearly ducked from everyone on his way up? NO ONE wanted to fight Islam when he was a contender on the rise and dominated Oliveira when they fought. Arman on the other hand struggled bad.

 

[Subline]

Well, he did have a pretty dominant R1 when he was fresh. Perhaps the staph hindered his performance in the later rounds, but he still got the sub in R5 regardless. Dustin is no pushover either and his preparation was definitely heavily focused on defensive wrestling.