He landed an even amount of sig strikes, but like you said, he did land the harder shots and that makes those sig strikes count more for Justin. And he did do some good damage with his leg kicks, there's a nice video showing Justin landing every kick and he buckled Khabib at one point.
Yeah, like I conceded, Justin definitely landed hard (and harder than Khabib), but he didn't do much damage in the sense of functional impairment (and none when it came to cuts or contusions).
Unlike almost every other oppoment Justin has fought, Khabib wasn't limping at all after the fight, even hours later when the adrenaline wore off.
Lacking real damage (nothing to indicate Khabib was impaired, or ever wobbled or knocked down, and no cuts/bruises), and strike count being even, I don't think that outweighs a takedown, control time, and a submission that was only stopped by the bell.
And I have to disagree with him being saved by the bell. People actually have to watch that sub attempt sequence towards the end of the round. Justin defended it very well and even threw strikes at Khabibs head while in the arm bar. it wasn't as close as some suggest.
Justin landed some no-power, no-leverage baby strikes, but he wasn't anywhere close to doing what was needed to escape that very bad position, and was still firmly trapped in the submission attempt.
The bell got him out of danger, not anything he did, and I feel that outweighs landing with more power but not achieving any functional or visual damage (yet) when the strike count was even.
He did do far better than claim no doubt, I mean he did win the round and it wasn't wrong at all. And I am not even arguing he convincingly won it, it was very very competitive and close and he did just enough.
Yeah, it's close enough that I wouldn't call it a complete robbery--I just think they made a marginal mistake.
That said, we're in agreement that Justin's performance is unfairly maligned by some, and he did better in some respects than most other Khabib challengers. 1
