Did Conor or Khabib have easier early competition in Europe?

[mmacasualviewer]

Conor had about 10 fights in Europe; & Khabib had about 15 fights in Europe before they got into the UFC.
Conor fought Irish strikers. Khabib fought eastern European grapplers. So similar style advantage.

We just saw Diakese get beaten by Dan Hooker (New Zealand). Diakese and one other fighter from Europe is in the top 50 at this sort of weight.

Apart from Conor & Khabib 155 is all Brazil/USA.

At 145 there's 2 from Korea & 2 from Mexico.

But if you go to HW Volkov, Fedor, Oleynik, others are definitely all way up in the rankings. You got Mark Hunt, Cro Cop, Big Travis Browne from Hawaii, so not your traditional American mainland fighters.

So the pool of club fighters in eastern Europe is pretty weak at FW/LW.

 

[OriginMMA]

I love it when people question the level of competition a fighter had earlier in his career. Every fighter has to be built up. Every fighter had week competition moving up. When both Conor and Khabib fought those bums they were also bums. One person has to win and one has to lose. That's the fight game.

 

[Rittsy]

It doesn’t really matter. They’ve both been in the UFC for a few years and have only one loss between them. They are both very good at what they do.

 

[A-ZIK]

U don't understand what you talking about. LW/FW in Europe is really stacked. Many guys who fights in Europe promotions can come to ufc and easily be top 10 top 15 in ufc. Zabit is great example what I mean.

 

[Notoriouslefthand]

Conor UFC wins are way better than Khabibs

 

[burningspear]

Doesn't really matter when you are unbeaten?

 

[VitorBelfoTRT]

Idk about the talent in Ireland/GBR but I know the Russians tend to have great sambo/boxing. Both fought bums in the beginning of their pro MMA career

 

[nanika]

well Khabib didn't lose to two of them. all fighters have early fights against random people.

some lose. and some dont.

 

[mmacasualviewer]

I love it when people question the level of competition a fighter had earlier in his career. Every fighter has to be built up. Every fighter had week competition moving up. When both Conor and Khabib fought those bums they were also bums. One person has to win and one has to lose. That's the fight game.

Conor & others do not go around waving his 25-0 record as if it were comparable to GSP or someone.

 

[Final Say]

Conor fought some super legit guys before his UFC career. I'm unsure about Khabib. But obviously Conor has fought tougher competition overall.

 

[OriginMMA]

Conor & others do not go around waving his 25-0 record as if it were comparable to GSP or someone.

Being 25-0, 9-0 in the UFC is impressive no matter how you look at it. There are countless of fighters who have lost to those "gimmie" fights before they entered the UFC.

 

[Andy Anderson]

You have to fight bums before you are invited by top organisation in the States. Max Holloway is a rare case though

 

[wake_me]

No...they have always fought ufc calibre competition...

 

[Psychojoe86]

Realistically early in an mma fighter career, can he truly pick and choose every single fight that he can to take the easy route?

And even if he could pick and choose, isn’t that evidence of a high fight iq/good business to set up for success?

Either way the pro mma fighter did a good job

 

[wake_me]

Conor & others do not go around waving his 25-0 record as if it were comparable to GSP or someone.

Maybe because Conor isn't 25-0...You really think that attention whoring bell end wouldn't bring it up if he was...?

 

[A-ZIK]

Conor fought some super legit guys before his UFC career.

Yeah. Like Sitenkov for example.

 

[JayPettryMMA]

http://forums.sherdog.com/posts/137123159/

The combined record of Khabib's first 16 opponents was 61-46.

 

[Chain Saw]

Conor & others do not go around waving his 25-0 record as if it were comparable to GSP or someone.

Conor and others don't have a 25-0 record to wave around, otherwise they would.

 

[ScriptReadsMe]

Conor fought some super legit guys before his UFC career. I'm unsure about Khabib. But obviously Conor has fought tougher competition overall.

Khabib fought Johnson, Barboza, RDA

Conor fought Nate twice (he wasn't even in the grand picture at that time lol) and Aldo. only legit competition is Aldo

 

[Kingz]

Conor & others do not go around waving his 25-0 record as if it were comparable to GSP or someone.

Because they don’t have 25-0 records and l don’t really see Khabib acting like he’s Bill Goldberg and counting the streak. He’s undefeated and his record is what it is. 25 fights. 25 wins. Some opponents better than others. It seems you’re more worried about the record than anybody else.

For the record, Khabib did beat some solid fighters on the Russia circuit and McGregor beat some decent fighters too.