Media Dustin Poirier: I favor Gaethje. Chandler is going to have a hard time getting him down

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

It looks like you are a bigger Khabib fanboy than I am to claim this. Khabib was already seen as no.1 LW in 2015, even Conor saying Khabib will win the LW belt in 2015.

Even if he did get better, he was still not a submission artist like Oliveira. Chandler's and Khabib's submissions are very comparable. The numbers are there; 1.6 average for Chandler, 0.8 average for Khabib.

The difference is, Khabib is a better wrestler and he mauls people far better than Chandler can, he has far better striking defense, speed, stamina, cardio, chin, takedowns and takedown speed etc etc.

The only things that you can compare Chandler to Khabib is their submission wins and their offensive striking. Chandler has clearly better submission average than Khabib, even then I still say they are ''comparable'' not saying Chandler is better despite Chandler having far better numbers.

And we've seen how easily Khabib subbed Gaethje. Like it or not, if Chandler takes Gaethje down, Gaethje will get subbed. The only thing Gaethje can do is stuffing Chandler's takedowns, that's it. If it goes to ground, it's over.

Hahahaha now it’s “Chandler takes Gaethje down, Gaethje gets subbed”


Hahahahahha ok buddy, now I don’t feel bad about calling you dumb

 

[Tevfik1907]

Hahahaha now it’s “Chandler takes Gaethje down, Gaethje gets subbed”


Hahahahahha ok buddy, now I don’t feel bad about calling you dumb

Ok, Khabib fanboy.

Let me know whenever you need another lesson.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

You can lookup the data and look at a graph of when on average UFC lightweights begin to lose. This is not controversial and its such common sense stuff it should not need to be typed out.

Obviously Tony wasn't going to be a 38 year old elite lightweight, because they do not exist. There are 90 guys under UFC contract at 155lbs... what is the average age? What is the average age of the top 10 lightweights?

Use some common sense.

Like I said mma/UFC is still a young sport overall. Age isn't a deciding factor like people think it is. People have different decline ages. That's why there is a wide variable in champions age across the weight classes. You see young fighters lose to older fighters and you also see older fighter lose to younger fighters. It's never as easy to assess it in real life, maybe on paper, but everyone knows it never plays out the way people think it will if you are just looking at things on paper. You are trying to use age for Tony but ignore the damage he took in the Gaethje fight. I think it's a mixture of both age and damage.

You should look into boxing and look at the ages of boxing champions. You might get surprised by the variance in age, and that's for all weight classes, even the lighter weight classes that people assume can't have older fighters.

 

[McGrubie]

I don't think anyone in the LW division survives this. If not a KO atleast a knockdown guaranteed. Its absolutely superhuman how Khabib ate this without breaking a sweat..

I’ve actually never seen that, and I watched the fight live. That’s insane that he ate that without even wobbling

 

[MeatWagon06]

Frankly, I think Tony is shot and the fact that he was completely dominated literally bell to bell in his next two fights should color his bout with JG differently. That just wasn't the same Tony from a few years back, we've seen it a million times in MMA.

Chandler doesn't need to emulate Khabib, although he is unequivocally the better MMA grappler. I think he can bang just as well as Alvarez can, and he took him out in a dog fight.

My point is this should be a pick-em. JG nearly got murdered by Michael Johnson.

You seem to think fighters don’t improve and MMA math works..

Gaethje has looked much improved since the Poirier/Eddie fights. He’s got one of the best coaches period. Tony got grapplefucked in his next 2, Justin stood and banged with him the whole fight.

Just because Chandler landed a clean KO on Hooker, doesn’t mean Poirier won’t whoop the shit out of Chandler just because he had a tough fight with Dan.

Gaethje should be the favorite here.

 

[Jawth]

Go back and read my initial post. I think the intent and concepts can get lost in the replies. I said this fight is a pick-em, and that Chandler is the better MMA grappler, but JG has more durability. Both have KO power.

Exactly what about that is controversial?

It sounds like the only disagreement we have is the likely outcome of the fight. I think a KO for Justin is much more likely scenario than any other for this fight, not a toss up.

Imo its a 75/25 fight in favor of Gaethje.

 

[asdf122345]

Poirier knows.

 

[do a moniker]

Hooker fought like a scared bitch against Chandler. Did literally nothing other than throwing a couple kicks. There’s nothing to be learned from that performance other than if you do nothing and let Chandler chase you maybe he connects. Do you see Gaethje doing this lol

I agree. Super odd performance from hooked. He pulled a cowboy. Folded under the bright lights

 

[do a moniker]

That's why I made that Khabib Tales thread. His team and Khabib himself to some degree put out some half-truths. I believe Khabib lloved mauling guys, but Khabib wasn't as good as a finisher back then. He later said in an interview that he was getting better at finishing guys, that's why the UFC if paying him more. I forgot what interview. I also recall him saying something about his ground game being even more better and something about what he leaned, he could have finished guys back then.

My memory might be fuzzy, so don't quote me 100% but I remember that.

I also don't think Chandler is that good at submissions. He's ok. He's not great. I wouldn't say he's better than Poirier to submit him. Chandler has 2 primary submissions, he's not going to transistion from armbar to a triangle or armbar into an bicep slicer. Justin can train defense on those two chokes, that Chandler has done in his world.

I mean, 99% of guys get finished with the beating he put on barboza. That was uncomfortable to watch. Then besides al, who showed a helluva of a chin, he finished everyone else after barboza. But agreed. The khabib that beat Conor Dustin and JG, ends barboza much earlier. I think he was a little taken by the moment against al and didn’t want to take too many risks in his first championship fight

 

[Willie]

It looks like you are a bigger Khabib fanboy than I am to claim this. Khabib was already seen as no.1 LW in 2015, even Conor saying Khabib will win the LW belt in 2015.

Even if he did get better, he was still not a submission artist like Oliveira. Chandler's and Khabib's submissions are very comparable. The numbers are there; 1.6 average for Chandler, 0.8 average for Khabib.

The difference is, Khabib is a better wrestler and he mauls people far better than Chandler can, he has far better striking defense, speed, stamina, cardio, chin, takedowns and takedown speed etc etc.

The only things that you can compare Chandler to Khabib is their submission wins and their offensive striking. Chandler has clearly better submission average than Khabib, even then I still say they are ''comparable'' not saying Chandler is better despite Chandler having far better numbers.

And we've seen how easily Khabib subbed Gaethje. Like it or not, if Chandler takes Gaethje down, Gaethje will get subbed. The only thing Gaethje can do is stuffing Chandler's takedowns, that's it. If it goes to ground, it's over.

I recall John Danaher on the JRE podcast saying that khabib and his team went to train at his New York gym with Danaher's guys. Although Khabib just sat on the bench since it was just the day aftter his fight with Michael Johnson.
John said they had a great afternoon but they 'struggled' because they couldnt finish, it's not their 'style'. This was Danaher's words.

 

[taugrim]

Aside from getting smashed by Khabib, the two best guys JG fought were Poirer and Alvarez. The both knocked him out in dog fights.

Patient Gaethje is a better fighter than when he fought those guys.

But I agree with your broader point that Chandler doesn't need a fight to hit the mat to win.

 

[rjmbrd]

kids still using MMAth lmao, also basically NOTHING happened before chandler finished hooker.


jesus.

ITT: you not knowing what MMAth is.

 

[taugrim]

People thinking Gaethje is the same guy that fought Michael Johnson is hilarious. Them also thinking that Chandler has the chin to eat the shots that Eddie or Dustin did from Gaethje aren't thinking straight. Those thinking that because Khabib made Gaethje look horrible as a grappler and that Chandler will, have lost their fucking minds.

Chandler has a shot here because he hits hard, but Gaethje has a good chin has a tendency to get hurt when he's exhausted more than anything else. He's shown that he's more composed now and since Mike is a glass cannon, he either finds a quick knockout or gets picked apart and finished. He isn't going to push forward consistently like Khabib to negate the striking disadvantage he is at. He doesn't have the chin Khabib does. He isn't the wrestler he is. Justin's stock is at an all time low. I expect him to win this fight.

I hope this is five rounds. It really should be.

Agree with everything you wrote except Justin's stock being low.

I thought Justin did better against Khabib than Dustin or Conor. While he didn't last as long in terms of rounds, Justin was putting in work on Khabib's leg and landed some good shots to the head too.

 

[rjmbrd]

Age isn't a deciding factor like people think it is.

You are categorically wrong.

You can - literally - graph when, on average, UFC fighters begin losing streaks by division. Khabib verbatim said Tony cannot be an elite lightweight at his age, because no one can, himself included.

This is not up for debate.

 

[Substance Abuse]

Agree with everything you wrote except Justin's stock being low.

I thought Justin did better against Khabib than Dustin or Conor. While he didn't last as long in terms of rounds, Justin was putting in work on Khabib's leg and landed some good shots to the head too.

I suppose it just depends on how you look at it. Gaethje could lose to Chandler. Nothing would surprise me, but I think Justin should be the favorite here.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

You are categorically wrong.

You can - literally - graph when, on average, UFC fighters begin losing streaks by division. Khabib verbatim said Tony cannot be an elite lightweight at his age, because no one can, himself included.

This is not up for debate.

Like I said I used boxing as an example because it is an older sport. So I'm not wrong. You are using the wrong metrics. Boxing has been around longer with older champions. MMA is too new still compared to boxing. Much more data to gather in boxing compared to mma if you are trying to assess age and fighters.

You do know any example of an older fighter finding success throws off your "graph" right? Because their success will contradict your whole graph results.

 

[SKITZADACTYL]

ITT: you not knowing what MMAth is.

except you used it multiple times but okay.