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Khabib can keep up his upper body TD/mat return game for a good while as long as he has enough top control time to recover. Typically he's quick to get a trip or throw. He burns most of his energy breaking down his opponents as they base up. On the plus side that opens up lots of GnP for him. I think he'll bring out his A-game early and show how far he can really push himself.
Yeah, I'm sure one of the barbs Conor will throw at him is he's a 'decision machine' but like you said, he does wear opponents down in the 1st 2 rounds and is quick to clamp down on them so to speak. From what we've seen, that's Nurmagomedov's most likely way of winning. With Conor, people refer to Mendes or Siver. So fair enough folk go on what they've seen, but the name of the game is evolving - we don't know what Conor's answer will be in that scenario because we haven't seen it as of late. If he was training regularly in those 2 years he has potentially added more to his overall game.
I think Nurmagomedov will try to walk him down and keep his guard up high or do something totally out of the norm. They both come forward from the off so that's going to be interesting to see. But it's all about what happens on the night.
Personally, I don't see trash talk effecting the fight. Khabib has always seemed to strive in stressful situations and even have fun with them at times. He's been getting more media lately but hasn't shown signs of discomfort yet.
This fight having such a small amount of time for the buildup will also make it hard to really get deep into mind games. Conor had an entire world tour to fuck with Aldo. This time he's gonna be on a much shorter time limit.
Yeah, Aldo was completely different. I don't see the shit talk bothering either one. My sort of musing is about how Nurmagomedov is at dealing with the media while preparing for a fight. He's admitted he's not a big fan of media and he has been doing more, but when a fighter is cutting weight and getting asked the same question over and over, I'd imagine it drains on them and something he hasn't gone through. There was the obvious distractions in the last fight and I don't think it had an effect on him, but this type of media environment is going to be completely different. It's not something I'm thinking that is a deciding factor in a fight, but I think the whole circus can drain someone.
Honestly, I think the first 2 minutes are gonna really decide the flow of that fight.
I reckon that's what everyone is thinking - there'll be no feeling out one another for long and it could be a case of 1 making the wrong move or throwing the wrong shot. Should be interesting to watch.