How dominant were the other GOATs candidate up until their 3rd title defense?

[nostradumbass]

Machida lost the first round on all scorecards. Rewatch the fight he didn’t really hit Jones that good people overreacted. They both landed 7 strikes and Jones won because Machida was moving backwards minus a flurry or two he was always retreating. We seen what happened when Jones was able to find him and cut the cage off.

Khabib OFFICALLY lost a round to Conor and a round to Justin. How many defenses before Jones OFFICIALLY lost a round? I believe it was his 6th defense against Gus.

Jones defended 3 times in a little under 7 months while Khabib allowed 2 interim titles to be fought because he always needs 12-13 months off between fights allowing Dustin and Justin to become interim champions.

Izzy is amazingly active. Usman is fantastic in contrast to like Khabib or Volk who are bad.

Usman 14 fights 6 years 3 title fights 13 months

Izzy 11 fights 4.5 years, 4 title fights in 14 months

Khabib 13 fights 9 years 10 months 3 title fights 2 years 1 month

Volk 9 fights 4 years 10 months 3 title fights 1 year 9 months.

Khabib is terrible with activity, even Volk makes him look bad.

Who gives a shit if there are retarded judges? Everyone saw the fights, and Khabib "lost" a rest round against Conor where nothing happened, and judges were ridiculous enough to give a round to someone who was saved by the bell.

Jones got the worst of rnd 1 against Machida, and Khabib really hasn't gotten the worst of any round in his career, and also hasn't failed a ton of drug tests.

 

[Fioretti]

Anderson got his title shot after a win against leben. You should go watch that fight tell me how's Chris is not worse than Iaquinta and Horcher.

Leben was 15-1 at the time, 5-0 in the UFC with 3 finishes, and the fight against Silva was a title eliminator.

Silva was already a multi-weight champion in multiple orgs and a top 5 MW at the time. He earned his shit and Leben was a very solid contender.

 

[Deleted member 545701]

I see people mention this a lot, but I don't believe it. Khabib was still fairly green and developping his skillset when he came into the UFC. I think his career was managed correctly by giving him progressively more difficult opponents while khabib continued to grow as a fighter (he especially started improving quickly after moving to AKA). Had he faced Benson henderson for the belt in 2012, I do not think that version of Khabib would have won against that version of Benson.

Exactly, I see this argument everywhere. However, it also helps other "GOAT contenders" like Jon Jones.

He had 7 fights in the UFC before a title shot, Khabib had 9 (technically 8 because he had the Ferguson interim fight at UFC 209).

So by those standards, Jones could have had 15+ title defenses in total. And then like you said, just because a champion is dominant now, doesn't mean that they would have won the title on their 1st or 2nd UFC fight and been able to defend it for that long. I think Khabib really perfected his game when he returned in late 2017 vs Barboza.

 

[Fioretti]

Exactly, I see this argument everywhere. However, it also helps other "GOAT contenders" like Jon Jones.

He had 7 fights in the UFC before a title shot, Khabib had 9 (technically 8 because he had the Ferguson interim fight at UFC 209).

So by those standards, Jones could have had 15+ title defenses in total. And then like you said, just because a champion is dominant now, doesn't mean that they would have won the title on their 1st or 2nd UFC fight and been able to defend it for that long. I think Khabib really perfected his game when he returned in late 2017 vs Barboza.

GSP is the perfect example of this. Lost his first title shot, then his first title defense, and went on to defend 9 times after that.

 

[Topher]

Who gives a shit if there are retarded judges? Everyone saw the fights, and Khabib "lost" a rest round against Conor where nothing happened, and judges were ridiculous enough to give a round to someone who was saved by the bell.

Jones got the worst of rnd 1 against Machida, and Khabib really hasn't gotten the worst of any round in his career, and also hasn't failed a ton of drug tests.

You seem to be basing this on emotions.

Machia landed 7 significant strikes and 4 head shots. Watch the actual strike land with Jones movement he was absolutely fine the image is a silly metric. The reason it was a big deal is because Jones rarely got touched.

Khabib was hit with 34 significant strikes by Conor and 23 significant strikes by Justin and those leg kicks were doing more than Machida’s one punch.

Stay salty Jones > Conor in every possible way.

Also P4P is make believe the only reality metric is open weight fight where Jones literally kills Khabib and he dies. Jones > Khabib every possible way minus make believe.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Khabib's first name on his resume is a dude that will be forever known for having been choked by Khabib. That's it.

GSP's first name is Ivan fucking Menjivar, who, while undersized, is legit AF. GSP's fought the who's who from day one and fought some of the best fighters of all time during his run. The only fighter who has a strenght of schedule that can rival GSP's is Jon Jones but he's a PED cheat so fuck him

 

[Topher]

Exactly, I see this argument everywhere. However, it also helps other "GOAT contenders" like Jon Jones.

He had 7 fights in the UFC before a title shot, Khabib had 9 (technically 8 because he had the Ferguson interim fight at UFC 209).

So by those standards, Jones could have had 15+ title defenses in total. And then like you said, just because a champion is dominant now, doesn't mean that they would have won the title on their 1st or 2nd UFC fight and been able to defend it for that long. I think Khabib really perfected his game when he returned in late 2017 vs Barboza.

Khabib was injury prone and flaked in many fights. Even his title reign now was inactive he allowed 2 interim title fights in 3 defenses that’s bad. He took a year or more off twice as champion. So imagine with all his 2 years off and pull outs what it would have been like? Khabib losing titles and having to regain them as a contender.

But I agree he was green and at the time the division had some sprawl and brawl elite fighters that could have gave him fits.

AKA did wonders with him. Prior he was lacking in many ways and Javier has addressed these things.

You have to be a real room temp IQ if you think green Khabib beats near prime Penn, Bendo, Edgar, Eddie, Gilbert etc. They would have stuffed his TD’s like Tibau and punished him.

Penn might be a joke after the fact. But he gave guys like Hughes, GSP, Fitch etc fits trying to get him down. He would light fresh off the Russian Gymnasium circuit pre-AKA Khabib up with lefts.

But but RDA, RDA literally admittedly had no wrestling and takedown defense when they fought. He credits that fight for making him focus on getting much stronger where he was weak (which he did). Any Khabibtard that uses that as an example as to why he would be a successful welterweight is glossing this over. RDA did better against Colby than he did Khabib because his wrestling improved in spades since Khabib humped his legs and held him in transitional holds for 3 rounds.

 

[YungSithLxrd]

Prime Tony got dropped by Lando twice, out grappled by Danny Castillo/Kevin lee, boxed up by Barboza, and viciously beat down by gaethje. He wouldn’t have wrecked anything.

Yet still won

 

[pankrat]

He isn’t worth jack shit 67k viewers his last fight he can’t draw a fly to cow dung and more people were hyped for Conor’s debut than mousasi’s debut who headlined the same card.

He would still be a much tougher challenge for Israel than Marvin

 

[corrupted]

Khabib would've had 11 title defense if he got his title shot in his second ufc fight like Anderson silva.

He would have gotten the shot a lot sooner had he not dropped out of so many fights. Obviously not after 1 fight. But the length of time he had to wait was on him.

 

[HHJ]

I'm a fan but I'm a little more objective. Some of his opponents during his 12 fight win streak were not some of the best competition.

But I'm also a believer that it's those guys you don't expect to be tough that give you the hardest time.

Some Ferguson fans make it seem like it ran through a murderer's row to get to his 12 fight streak. He didn't.

Still,a 12 fight win streak in the ufc is difficult to achieve no matter who it is.

 

[HHJ]

Leben was 15-1 at the time, 5-0 in the UFC with 3 finishes, and the fight against Silva was a title eliminator.

Silva was already a multi-weight champion in multiple orgs and a top 5 MW at the time. He earned his shit and Leben was a very solid contender.

Honestly,it was brilliant matchmaking to put them together.

 

[Fioretti]

Honestly,it was brilliant matchmaking to put them together.

It was. All us hardcores knew Silva was a killer, and Leben was fairly well known by the casuals from TUF. It was a good introduction to Anderson for the casuals by letting him decimate a durable, somewhat popular contender who was on a hot streak, one fight away from a title shot.

 

[The Schmoop]

Anderson's Title shot came in his 23rd fight, and Khabib's on his 26th, I'd say they were pretty close in mileage.

He means in the promotion.

 

[HHJ]

It was. All us hardcores knew Silva was a killer, and Leben was fairly well known by the casuals from TUF. It was a good introduction to Anderson for the casuals by letting him decimate a durable, somewhat popular contender who was on a hot streak, one fight away from a title shot.

And if leben had won somehow it still works our for ufc,like Forrest vs shogun

 

[Fioretti]

And if leben had won somehow it still works our for ufc,like Forrest vs shogun

Pretty sure they were banking on both Silva and Forrest to win those bouts.

 

[HHJ]

Pretty sure they were banking on both Silva and Forrest to win those bouts.

I know but they also know it works out good no matter what happened,and it just turned out that it also made perfect sense to put these two together. Its beautiful matchmaking. Bravo!

 

[Fioretti]

I know but they also know it works out good no matter what happened,and it just turned out that it also made perfect sense to put these two together. Its beautiful matchmaking. Bravo!

If only it was still like this.

 

[HHJ]

If only it was still like this.

Yeah..it makes it stand out more,cos we dont get it as much.

 

[Bear Faced Liar]

Khabib would've had 11 title defense if he got his title shot in his second ufc fight like Anderson silva.

That's a bad take.

Yes, Anderson Silva received a title shot on his second fight. But he fought Chris Leben to earn the title shot. Nobody should get a title shot by beating Kamal Shalorus.

For the sake of argument, let's stack things in Khabib's favor by assuming that instead of Al Iaqinta, the first championship level guy Khabib beat is his unofficial title fight. That would be RDA. Counting his victories after RDA as "title defenses" under these parameters, Khabib would have 7 imaginary title defenses.

With these 7 "title defenses", Khabib is still behind:

1. Jon Jones
2. Mighty Mouse
3. Anderson Silva
4. GSP

So even if we rig the conversation in Khabib's favor, he is tied #5 in title defenses with Aldo, Matt Hughes and Nunes.

Khabib is a dominant fighter. Possibly the best LW fighter in UFC history. But his CV isn't GOAT. His nut-huggers need to accept this, and stop repeating the flawed argument that Khabib didn't get his title shot until deep into his career. The truth of the matter is Khabib never fought any championship level guys until his 22nd fight.

Facts.