Has Islam surpassed Khabib yet? Comparing their careers

[AdamWarlock]

he just need to beat gaethje and poirier and he would easily have a better record than khabib

he is not nearly as dominant though, khabib easily finished all his fights without a scratch

islam was scrambling against volk a 145er in their first fight

 

[IronGolem007]

I am starting to like Islam better than Khabib.

 

[fizzlehiss]

Khabib went 13-0. He defended against Conor, Dustin, and Justin, but also had high level wins against RDA and Barboza. He beat some mid level guys in Iaquinta, Johnson and Tibau, but also smashed some journeymen in Horcher and Shalorus.

Islam has gone 15-1. Has defended against Volk x2 and Oliveira, but also has a high level win against a new generation LW in Arman. His middle level wins include Dober, Moises, Hooker, Green. He has too beaten a few journeymen in Lentz and wade.

I personally believe Islam's resume has surpassed Khabibs in quality. Khabib's career has more popular name recognition, but Volk(twice) and Oliveira are more elite wins than Conor, Dustin, and Justin.

Not to mention their development as fighters. Khabib was always a grappler and pretty much did the same thing just refined it. Islam started out similar but is now HEAD KICKING guys like Volk and even dropped and subbed Oliveira. If Khabib is 5% better in grappling, than Islam is 15% better as a striker. Khabib's greatest standup accomplishment is dropping Conor, which is impressive, but not as impressive as head kicking Volk.

I wouldn't bet on Gamrot beating Islam, Fiziev is out for a year+. The only person who I personally seeing have a chance is Oliveira, and I still think Islam will win the rematch.

What do you think?

Easily.

 

[brucelim]

I am starting to like Islam better than Khabib.

I'm not sure if you mean in terms of his personality, character or fighting skills (him as a fighter), but, I tend to agree with you bro.
I'm a Khabib fan for almost a decade; relatively newer fan of Islam.
Sometimes I see sherbros comment that Khabib looked and sounded more intimidating, had a menacing/invincible aura around him, behaved more like a champion and so on. And they comment that Islam looks inbred or some shit. They comment that Islam has a retarded way of speaking/voice, looks softer than Khabib, seems goofy, doesn't have any aura around him, and so on.

I'm not sure if you noticed, bro, but, in the lead-up to this fight, and in the fight, and post-fight (for UFC 294), Islam looked more stoic/serious/focused than ever. Look at him during the media day pre-fight, or during the pre-fight presser with Volk. The only rare few times I saw him breaking a smile was during the respectful two staredowns with Volk. He actually even seemed a bit annoyed during the media day (but still answering questions politely; just with a tinge of curtness/no bullshit vibe). He actually seemed slightly irritated and annoyed and seemed to be in full fight-mode. He really wanted to settle the business with Volk. He wasn't goofing around, he was dead serious and he was the most serious that I've ever seen him. Look at the post-fighter presser too. He didn't display too much joy; just neutrally and patiently answered all questions, to-the-point, concise answers for the most part (except when he was answering in his native language).
Immediately after the knockout, he calmed the spectators down with that hand gesture, with a triumphant expression, followed by the shushing finger gesture. Lol, I'm telling you bro, this is a new Islam that we're seeing, and this is all genuine. He ain't taking anymore bullshit

 

[VenomCarnage]

Islam’s best wins at Lightweight over actual Lightweights looks like:

1. Oliveira - by Sub
2. Green - by TKO
3. Moises - by Sub
4. Hooker - by Sub
5. Tsarukyan - by UD

If this is your best 5 wins, it has some ridiculously high, high-points, but looks a little hollow.

Dober is a good win that would narrowly sit outside the Top 5 spot.

I ask myself, are Khabib’s best wins better than most of these, if we disregard Charles? I think the answer is yes.

Gaethje would be #2
Poirier would be #2
dos Anjos would be #2
Barboza would be #3 at the least
McGregor would probably be #3 at the least

All that said, I think Khabib’s resume is better by a mile. The first Volkanovski win has almost gone down in relevance after making it look that easy in the rematch, especially considering that those two fights will likely be the only Lightweight bouts Alex will ever have. Tough to give full, full, full credit to that win when Alex has no real tenure at Lightweight. For all we know Alex loses to most of the top Lightweights - we just don’t know.

 

[clackers]

No he struggled with a full camp featherweight in Volk. The short guy he called out. Volk finished the fight on top of Islam. Haven't seen that happen to Khabib.

I dont give the second fight much mention Volk was not the same Volk as the first fight, Volk took it for the money he didnt think long and hard about it. He could have got the rematch had a full training camp and had a better chance.

Now hes got that bad loss against his name.

 

[DoubleTrouble]

Khabib went 13-0. He defended against Conor, Dustin, and Justin, but also had high level wins against RDA and Barboza. He beat some mid level guys in Iaquinta, Johnson and Tibau, but also smashed some journeymen in Horcher and Shalorus.

Islam has gone 15-1. Has defended against Volk x2 and Oliveira, but also has a high level win against a new generation LW in Arman. His middle level wins include Dober, Moises, Hooker, Green. He has too beaten a few journeymen in Lentz and wade.

I personally believe Islam's resume has surpassed Khabibs in quality. Khabib's career has more popular name recognition, but Volk(twice) and Oliveira are more elite wins than Conor, Dustin, and Justin.

Not to mention their development as fighters. Khabib was always a grappler and pretty much did the same thing just refined it. Islam started out similar but is now HEAD KICKING guys like Volk and even dropped and subbed Oliveira. If Khabib is 5% better in grappling, than Islam is 15% better as a striker. Khabib's greatest standup accomplishment is dropping Conor, which is impressive, but not as impressive as head kicking Volk.

I wouldn't bet on Gamrot beating Islam, Fiziev is out for a year+. The only person who I personally seeing have a chance is Oliveira, and I still think Islam will win the rematch.

What do you think?

He's close. Another dominant defence or two and he's there imo and the consensus LW GOAT.

 

[User9992]

Islam has already a better resume than Khabib. But Khabib was better than Islam.
Islam waited Khabib to retire for a reason.

 

[ragreynolds]

Oliveria and Volk are better wins than anyone Khabib beat. However, Khabib beat way more high-level guys than Islam has. Islam had a much easier path to the title filled with lesser competition than what Khabib had to face. Islam needs to defend against some actual ranked lightweights, and he most certainly needs at least 2 or 3 more wins against top lightweights to surpass Khabib's resume. I do think he'll get there though.

 

[SpiderCrawl]

I think he has... Khabib never beat a GOAT, Islam did twice, once over a 5 round domination and once by brutal head kick.

 

[Vigfree]

Khabib went 13-0. He defended against Conor, Dustin, and Justin, but also had high level wins against RDA and Barboza. He beat some mid level guys in Iaquinta, Johnson and Tibau, but also smashed some journeymen in Horcher and Shalorus.

Islam has gone 15-1. Has defended against Volk x2 and Oliveira, but also has a high level win against a new generation LW in Arman. His middle level wins include Dober, Moises, Hooker, Green. He has too beaten a few journeymen in Lentz and wade.

I personally believe Islam's resume has surpassed Khabibs in quality. Khabib's career has more popular name recognition, but Volk(twice) and Oliveira are more elite wins than Conor, Dustin, and Justin.

Not to mention their development as fighters. Khabib was always a grappler and pretty much did the same thing just refined it. Islam started out similar but is now HEAD KICKING guys like Volk and even dropped and subbed Oliveira. If Khabib is 5% better in grappling, than Islam is 15% better as a striker. Khabib's greatest standup accomplishment is dropping Conor, which is impressive, but not as impressive as head kicking Volk.

I wouldn't bet on Gamrot beating Islam, Fiziev is out for a year+. The only person who I personally seeing have a chance is Oliveira, and I still think Islam will win the rematch.

What do you think?

I think you make a lot of reasonable points.
I hesitate to say Khabib's grappling is only 5% better than Islam's. I think it is likely more than that. Although agree that Islam's striking is considerably better than Khabib's. I'd rate Khabib +20% grappling and Islam +30% striking.
Skills-wise Islam is slightly superior.
But I think I still give Khabib the edge as a fighter overall due to physical traits, namely he had insane cardio and an iron-chin. Both more than Islam. They are the top 2 LWs of all-time and it isn't close, and watching them fight would be epic.
But I'd put my money on Khabib, despite the fact that Islam is more skilled overall.

 

[TerraRayzing]

I think you make a lot of reasonable points.
I hesitate to say Khabib's grappling is only 5% better than Islam's. I think it is likely more than that. Although agree that Islam's striking is considerably better than Khabib's. I'd rate Khabib +20% grappling and Islam +30% striking.
Skills-wise Islam is slightly superior.
But I think I still give Khabib the edge as a fighter overall due to physical traits, namely he had insane cardio and an iron-chin. Both more than Islam. They are the top 2 LWs of all-time and it isn't close, and watching them fight would be epic.
But I'd put my money on Khabib, despite the fact that Islam is more skilled overall.

I agree with Khabib having better endurance and cardio and I'll also add that Khabib had a certain fear to him. Islam is scary too to the LWs but Khabib probably terrified the rest of them.
Guy had the Fedor like aura and that counts too imo.

 

[Crash-override]

He beat Oliviera , who beat gaethe and Poirier .

and Volk is a better FW then Conor , no?

so islams wins are better , no ?

stupid to debate anyways …. I
Think the fact he wants to keep
Taking on challenges and is calling out WW champ to fight is more Daring and impressive …..

No

 

[RonDante]

If he beats gaethje I think so, unless it’s a 48-47 or he gets hurt here or there, at which point I think one more after that

 

[Ozze]

Hard to say. Volk x2 and Charles I think it's on par with Conor/Dustin/Justin. But the RDA and Barbosa wins leave Khabib still ahead.

And to me it feels like Khabib had that unbeatable aura that I don't see it in Islam just yet.
Not that I think anyone at LW can beat him, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone managed to do it.

 

[Westbrick]

Not a fan of both, but Islam is more skilled and already has a better resumé.

 

[rstringer]

Khabib went 13-0. He defended against Conor, Dustin, and Justin, but also had high level wins against RDA and Barboza. He beat some mid level guys in Iaquinta, Johnson and Tibau, but also smashed some journeymen in Horcher and Shalorus.

Islam has gone 15-1. Has defended against Volk x2 and Oliveira, but also has a high level win against a new generation LW in Arman. His middle level wins include Dober, Moises, Hooker, Green. He has too beaten a few journeymen in Lentz and wade.

I personally believe Islam's resume has surpassed Khabibs in quality. Khabib's career has more popular name recognition, but Volk(twice) and Oliveira are more elite wins than Conor, Dustin, and Justin.

Not to mention their development as fighters. Khabib was always a grappler and pretty much did the same thing just refined it. Islam started out similar but is now HEAD KICKING guys like Volk and even dropped and subbed Oliveira. If Khabib is 5% better in grappling, than Islam is 15% better as a striker. Khabib's greatest standup accomplishment is dropping Conor, which is impressive, but not as impressive as head kicking Volk.

I wouldn't bet on Gamrot beating Islam, Fiziev is out for a year+. The only person who I personally seeing have a chance is Oliveira, and I still think Islam will win the rematch.

What do you think?

Not without beating Doostin, Joostin and Conor.

 

[flektarn]

No, but he's very close. His stand up is much better at least. Khabib definitely survived off of his chin sometimes.

 

[Fight Professor]

He needs a few true LW defenses. Beating Ustin brothers would put him there.

 

[Corrado Soprano]

-Islam just beat Volk who is better than anyone Khabib ever fought.

-Islam on his way to defending his title more times than Khabib.

-Islam is capable of knocking out opponents unlike Khabib.

-Islam showed he can comeback from a loss, something Khabib was never able to do.

-Islam used his platform as a UFC star to condemn the Israel-Palestine conflict. Khabib stayed quiet about Russia-Ukraine