Recency bias in MMA is off the fucking charts. This is evidenced by posts such as the above.
I’m not really sure there’s anything more ridiculous than saying something like, “x fighter has the best grappling in MMA so far” when you consider the incredible number of incredible grapplers we’ve seen in MMA.
Khabib might be better at applying his grappling in the context of his style of fight, but are we really going to say that Khabib’s grappling (even in MMA) is superior to a guy like Maia’s?
Maia has essentially neutralized every opponent he’s gotten to the mat, no matter how skilled they are in grappling. The only time he hasn’t been able to neutralize an opponent is when he wasn’t able to take them down, which has really only become a problem recently. Considering he’s like 40 years old I think we can cut him slack on a diminished ability to take down his opponents.
Besides Maia you have GSP, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Jon Jones, and on and on.
I get that Khabib is on a great run, but if you put his skills in context with those from the past, you’ll realize that he’s on a high level but not necessarily the “best ever” when it comes to grappling.
Khabib is the best at fighting the way Khabib likes to fight—the way puts the pieces together and implements them.
When it comes to the individual disciplines themselves, it’s pretty ridiculous to throw out such hyperbole.