Can Khabib still be a GOAT with 3 title defenses?(GOAT criteria)

[Fioretti]

Exactly. People shout "can crusher" here and there, but no matter who you fight at HW there is always a big risk involved. Journeymen like Ben Rothwell and Stefan Struve serve as examples who have flatlined some of the best HW fighters ever.

Rothwell is extremely underrated. The man has been fighting for 20 years, has over 50 professional fights, and for the past 14 years or has had an extremely rough schedule. Wins over Barnett, Yvel, Overeem, Struve, Mitrione, and Vera. He's not like a top 10 legend, of course, but he's very underrated.

 

[Fergelmince]

He is only GOAT amongst people in certain regions of the world

 

[Greyscale]

Khabib's abrupt retirement indicates he was just a random who got lucky and was very much afraid of being exposed soon.

 

[Lee_]

No, you cannot be the GOAT with so few title defenses. What happens when you fight a longer career- you run into seriously tough stylistic matchups, which Khabib had the good fortune of not running into.

At this career length, Khabib will always be a coulda woulda shoulda GOAT. Maybe, maybe not. No way to really prove it with so few fights.

 

[Make Sherdog Great Again]

The same amount of title defences as Fedor.

 

[daltonames]

It's not his title defences that are the problem. Conor, Dustin and Justin are good wins. It's his record of fighting bums for most of his career that rule him out of the running for GOAT. If he fought higher calibre opponents and had a few losses it'd be more impressive than an undefeated record where 80% of the victims are no-names.

I'd say Justin, Dustin, Conor, RDA and Barboza are high level wins, MJ and Iaquinta are second tier. Aside from Tony, is there anyone who should've fought that he didn't? maybe do bronx?shrug.

 

[daltonames]

Rogan declared Max the greatest FW champ of all time after 1 or 2 title defenses.

 

[chardog]

Khabib is not even top ten

 

[Perry Willits]

Rogan declared Max the greatest FW champ of all time after 1 or 2 title defe

Rogan declared Max the greatest FW champ of all time after 1 or 2 title defenses.

Joe Rogan is the LAST guy on earth whose opinion I would accept!!

 

[Iron Nick]

Khabib was a ridiculously dominant fighter and put on absolute masterclasses against prime RDA, prime Conor, prime Poirier and prime Dustin, even finishing the latter three.
Considering that these guys are not just good relative to the other guys in their division, but also are great fighters in general, having it made to the top in what is often considered to be the best division in the sport, i don't mind the fact much that Khabib didn't have that many title defenses.

 

[balkanbomber85]

Wladimir klitschko has more title defences than every Heavyweight bar Louis and nobody considers him even close to the GOAT Heavyweight boxer

Marciano is the only undefeated HW champ ever and nobody considers him even close to the GOAT HW boxer

 

[Repsac]

Khabib was the most invincible, never lost and dominated his opponents. But as you mentioned, he didnt have as long of a run at the top.

Fedor had the best aura, and seemed liked a god for 10 years. However, he didn't always fight the best competition.

lol, as if Khabib did.

 

[JKS]

He dominated Conor, Dustin, Gaethje which are all elite fighters in the most stacked division. It’s not only that he beat them but how he beat them. He didn’t get a scratch ffs, not many people can say that after fighting these 3 killers in a row.

He didn't?? Dude, Gaethje beat up his leg pretty bad and landed some hard shots. Khabib took it well and finished him , but let's not get carried away. He lost the first round and by no means was winning that fight. Even the second round Justin came out landing.

 

[Dana's Moonface]

Marciano is the only undefeated HW champ ever and nobody considers him even close to the GOAT HW boxer

Probably because he never dominated all his competition and fought has beens

 

[Beastslayer47]

Yes

 

[bubbleboyjones]

No shot of goat. If you want to argue LW goat fine but he's not overall goat with;

• only 3 title defenses
• has not cleared out the division
• never rematched an opponent

How the fuck do you give him goat when you have guys who have multiple times the title defenses, cleared out divisions with different generations of fighters, rematch opponents and some even with weight class changes.

You have to put the time in and having literally half of your wins against guys without a wiki entry doesn't get you there. Don't get me wrong he puts on a masterclass against guys but you have to put the time in. He's literally walking away at the point where he would be building this resume but he just stopped and thats on him. You don't get credit for things you did not do no matter how good you are. Cain might be the best HW all time before he got injured....I wouldn't give him bonus points if he retired early before his knee issues.

 

[GoofMaster93]

Yes

Location:Dagestan, Russia

 

[EnthusiastCultivator]

He didn't?? Dude, Gaethje beat up his leg pretty bad and landed some hard shots. Khabib took it well and finished him , but let's not get carried away. He lost the first round and by no means was winning that fight. Even the second round Justin came out landing.

Gaethje won the first but he gave his absolute all in that round and got heavily gassed as a result. He looked frantic in there while Khabib was calm

 

[whileswimming.idrink]

I think the only way to really compare champions from different eras is to look at their competition because you can't just simply say x champion has more title defenses therefore goat. At the same time I still believe that title fights hold more weight than regular bouts because from the champions perspective they have everything to lose. It really comes down to who they beat as champion imo

The pressure is far more higher and I think being a champion taxes them mentally more than anything. GSP said it himself multiple times that he felt drained and that he needed to take a step back. This is why in Khabib's case it's hard to tell because he has wins over notable fighters but he didn't beat them as a defending champion. GSP has 9 title defenses and fought at a higher weight class but some people still rank Khabib higher because he's undefeated

Khabib's undefeated record is impressive but again the level of competition that was faced has to be looked at closer. He won the title by beating short notice Iaquinta and then his first defense was against Conor who was also coming back from almost 2 years away from the octagon. I'm not saying the outcome would be different but it definitely has to be taken into account

Another thing worth mentioning is that GSP had his first 3 title defenses in the space of 11 months where as Khabib took 2 years

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...en-knockdown-rocked-cut-dq-ped-cheat.4175929/

 

[whileswimming.idrink]

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...en-knockdown-rocked-cut-dq-ped-cheat.4175929/

Khabib Legacy in 13 UFC fights: 0 Round Loss, Never Been Knockdown, Rocked, Cut, DQ, PED cheat

- Has the most 10-8 rounds in UFC
- Undefeated in the sport for 12 years in 29 fights (2008-2020, undefeated for about 8 years in UFC)
- Didn't even has a well developed striking prowess prior to UFC under Abdulmanap tutelage
- Only got title shot after 8 years in UFC
- Arguably is the best lightweight in the world since 2016
- If Khabib is given title shot in 2016, he would has at least 6 title defenses before retiring at the top

- Dominating in the hardest division of the sport.
- Retiring opened an almost tournament matchup in the division between:

• Poirier, #6 top P4P fighter (defeating Conor, Gaethje, Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez)
• Conor, #15 top P4P fighter (former 2 division champions)
• Gaethje, #11 top P4P fighter
• Oliveira, 8 active fight wins streak, 2018-2020, 10 POTN Bonus recipient (most in UFC history)
• Chandler, former Bellator LW division champ
• Ferguson, 12 fight wins streak, 2013-2019

etc, all is which imo Championship material fighters, alongside with Hooker, Islam, Dariush
- Defeating 3 top 15 P4P fighters in Poirier, Conor and Gaethje

- Landed the most takedown in UFC fights: 21 takedowns under 15 minutes, on average 7 takedowns per round
- With 70 inch arm reach, Khabib is fighting with no reach advantage whatsoever over all of his respective division opponents (unlike the likes of Jones, Izzy, O'Malley, etc):

• Gaethje, 70 inch reach
• Poirier, 72 inch reach
• Conor, 74 inch reach
• Iaquinta, 70 inch reach
• Barboza, 75 inch reach
• Johnson, 73.5 inch reach

- And under 34 rounds and 171 minutes of fighting in UFC Khabib:

• Never been knockout.
• Never been knockdown.
• Never bleed.
• Never been cut.
• Never been DQ'ed.
• Never been rocked.
• Being declared clean for his 8 years under UFC contract.
• Not even losing, not 1 round in UFC (2 round losses to Gaethje and Conor are in no way favouring, or are being led by either Gaethje or Conor. Plus Conor committed minimum 19 fouls in that fight.)
• Not once is under the state of any serious threat.
• Most visible scarring face Khabib ever had are mostly after fight camps with AKA.
• Only had absorbed 301 significant strikes in 13 fights, approximately had absorbed only 23 count of significant strikes average for every matchup. (For reference Katar absorbed 445 significant strikes in 25 minutes in only 1 fight against Holloway).
• Showing a one-sided domination in 12 out of 13 UFC fights

- Has literally no knockout power to dominate direction of the fight
- Only has 2 knockdown in all fights (Kamal Shalorus, Thiago Alves).
- Instead is fully relying on full arsenal of mixed martial arts composed of wrestling, sambo, judo, punishing ground control, deceptive striking offense and defense, fight IQ, and in gameplan formulation
- Example of established gameplan:

• Pressuring Barboza with forward pressure to negate Barboza from succesfully setup the right distance in his striking favoring kicking offense
• Negating Conor offense completely in the first round, let Conor worked in the grappling, in denying attempted takedown just to tire him out
• Pressuring Gaethje by mixing out takedown threat and forceful striking. Has Gaethje running at the final minute of the 1st round.

- As a champion, Khabib is getting better in each fight, earned a finish a round faster

View attachment 846649

- Arguably the 2 of only clean & P4P UFC GOAT candidate did had losses (KO'ed, submitted, decisioned) in their first 13 fights in UFC/WEC

• GSP

View attachment 846656

• DJ

View attachment 846659

...

Well guys, that's the story.

That's the legacy.

Here is a question, can anybody repeat what that Khabib had done in his first 13 fights in UFC?



A perfect career in the first 13 UFC fights. Shouldn't be hard is it?

12 dominant performances out of 13.