"Khabib Only Fought Strikers"

[Sean Chowdhury]

Keep seeing these comments and people saying Islam is a better wrestler/grappler than Khabib. Justin Gaethje is a Division 1 wrestler, he began wrestling at the age of four and was a four-time finalist and two-time state champion in high school. Gaethje also competed at the NCAA Division I level at the University of Northern Colorado, where he was the wrestling program’s first NCAA All-American. Also, if you watch gaethje's wrestling matches, his style of wrestling was very defensive and he was able to shut down people's wrestling at a D1 level. People acting like he's just a striker when he's likely one of the hardest guys to takedown in the entire lightweight division considering his background is hilarious. Chandler got flipped over and outscrambled whenever he shot on Justin, justin has great hips and reactions to takedowns. Khabib took him down easily.

Khabib also outwrestled prime RDA, who later went onto become LW champ when Khabib got injured. RDA has gotten outwrestled in a few fights but when you consider that Khabib wasn't even in his prime when he dominated RDA it is a testament to how good he was. Imagine if Islam had to fight prime RDA when he wasn't in his prime, he could easily lose that fight. Islam was going to close decisions with Chris Wade prior to hitting his prime whereas khabib was making prime rda look easy

In the past few years people have forgotten how good this guy was, I think he's better than Islam

 

[MarioLemieux]

Prime Justin Gaethje's D1 TDD only stopped mattering to people after prime Khabib ran through him.

Nobody else in the UFC has ever taken Justin down and held him there.

Even someone considered a lower wrestler Khabib fought like Poirier has great TDD, look at how hard he made it for Islam.

 

[sdpdude9]

People forget the narrative before he got to the top was he only fought grapplers and would get KO’d by the first good striker he fought.

 

[Gabe]

Yeah RDA is not a good grappler

 

[Luthien]

Poatan only fought strikers They are doing it to PoaGoat right now

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

All these prestigious wrestlers that rarely, if ever in the title picture in any division and are universally ducked! More like Ultimate Kickboxing Championships!

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

Keep seeing these comments and people saying Islam is a better wrestler/grappler than Khabib. Justin Gaethje is a Division 1 wrestler, he began wrestling at the age of four and was a four-time finalist and two-time state champion in high school. Gaethje also competed at the NCAA Division I level at the University of Northern Colorado, where he was the wrestling program’s first NCAA All-American. Also, if you watch gaethje's wrestling matches, his style of wrestling was very defensive and he was able to shut down people's wrestling at a D1 level. People acting like he's just a striker when he's likely one of the hardest guys to takedown in the entire lightweight division considering his background is hilarious. Chandler got flipped over and outscrambled whenever he shot on Justin, justin has great hips and reactions to takedowns. Khabib took him down easily.

Khabib also outwrestled prime RDA, who later went onto become LW champ when Khabib got injured. RDA has gotten outwrestled in a few fights but when you consider that Khabib wasn't even in his prime when he dominated RDA it is a testament to how good he was. Imagine if Islam had to fight prime RDA when he wasn't in his prime, he could easily lose that fight. Islam was going to close decisions with Chris Wade prior to hitting his prime whereas khabib was making prime rda look easy

In the past few years people have forgotten how good this guy was, I think he's better than Islam

Justin Gaethje could have been an olympic gold medalist for all I care... this is MMA. At no point in ANY of his UFC fights did he display ANY level of grappling ability and we've seen countless competitors with elite credentials have their skills not translate at all into MMA. Should Fedor be credited as the best MMA striker of all time because he sat in Semmy Schilt's guard for 20 minutes? Does Ben Rothwell become a K1 calibre kickboxer because he KO'd Reem who KO'd Badri Hari?? Of course not.

Gaethje is a striker who overcommits to strikes frequently and has faced nothing but fellow strikers in his career just to set up entertaining brawls. The minute he fought someone who was a threat to him on the ground, he was tapping like there's no tomorrow. If this is the best MMA Grappler you can come up with, wow you are desperate.

Also, genuine LOL @ the hype of RDA who struggled with wrestlers HIS ENTIRE UFC CAREER. Should Tyson Griffin be listed as one of the best MMA grapplers of all time considering he was actually able to keep RDA down without the fight getting stood up unlike Khabib? How about Michael Chiesa??

Khabib can't control who the top contenders were in his brief time as champion but the fact remains that he was in the UFC for a decade and missed out on the majority of the top fighters from 2 completely different eras. He blanketed RDA and then sat on the shelf for 2 YEARS skyrocketing up the rankings while absorbing the hype of RDA's success despite them being 2 completely different styles of fighters.

So Khabib comes back, is comfortably ranked in the top 5, and he fights.... a UFC newcomer? Then Michael Freakin Johnson who was outgrappled by Jonathan "Vision Quest" Brookins and never beat a top 10 opponent again for the rest of his career? He had one of the easiest runs to the title OF ALL TIME and people are right to criticize him.

Benson Henderson, Eddie Alvarez, Charles Oliveira, Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, Josh Thompson, Gilbert Melendez, Gilbert Burns, Michael Chandler hell even Clay Guida and Kevin Lee would skyrocket up his list of best MMA grapplers ever faced. I'm sure glad we saw one dimensional strikers like Edson Barboza and Al Iaquinta fight Khabib instead of literally any of these other possible opponents I mean wow... we learned so much that we didn't already know from these match-ups!

I can soundly believe that Khabib would just default out-wrestle anyone who ever lived because styles don't matter in MMA at all and some fighters can't be beaten because they wear funny hats and wrestled bears growing up! Who cares how awkward and amateurish his striking looked, bears guys! He wrestled bears!

 

[fortheo]

Gaethje is by no means a wrestler in MMA. He self admittedly hates wrestling in MMA and barely trained it for years and is a blue belt at best in bjj.

RDA has been outwrestled by just about every wrestler he's ever faced and was even outwrestled by evan dunham like 12 months before facing Khabib. He is still probably the best all around grappler that Khabib has faced other than tibau, though.

Regardless, Khabib is the LW goat in my opinion. Islam takes that mantle with one more win, though.

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

Justin Gaethje could have been an olympic gold medalist for all I care... this is MMA. At no point in ANY of his UFC fights did he display ANY level of grappling ability and we've seen countless competitors with elite credentials have their skills not translate at all into MMA. Should Fedor be credited as the best MMA striker of all time because he sat in Semmy Schilt's guard for 20 minutes? Does Ben Rothwell become a K1 calibre kickboxer because he KO'd Reem who KO'd Badri Hari?? Of course not.

Gaethje is a striker who overcommits to strikes frequently and has faced nothing but fellow strikers in his career just to set up entertaining brawls. The minute he fought someone who was a threat to him on the ground, he was tapping like there's no tomorrow. If this is the best MMA Grappler you can come up with, wow you are desperate.

Also, genuine LOL @ the hype of RDA who struggled with wrestlers HIS ENTIRE UFC CAREER. Should Tyson Griffin be listed as one of the best MMA grapplers of all time considering he was actually able to keep RDA down without the fight getting stood up unlike Khabib? How about Michael Chiesa??

Khabib can't control who the top contenders were in his brief time as champion but the fact remains that he was in the UFC for a decade and missed out on the majority of the top fighters from 2 completely different eras. He blanketed RDA and then sat on the shelf for 2 YEARS skyrocketing up the rankings while absorbing the hype of RDA's success despite them being 2 completely different styles of fighters.

So Khabib comes back, is comfortably ranked in the top 5, and he fights.... a UFC newcomer? Then Michael Freakin Johnson who was outgrappled by Jonathan "Vision Quest" Brookins and never beat a top 10 opponent again for the rest of his career? He had one of the easiest runs to the title OF ALL TIME and people are right to criticize him.

Benson Henderson, Eddie Alvarez, Charles Oliveira, Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, Josh Thompson, Gilbert Melendez, Gilbert Burns, Michael Chandler hell even Clay Guida and Kevin Lee would skyrocket up his list of best MMA grapplers ever faced. I'm sure glad we saw one dimensional strikers like Edson Barboza and Al Iaquinta fight Khabib instead of literally any of these other possible opponents I mean wow... we learned so much that we didn't already know from these match-ups!

I can soundly believe that Khabib would just default out-wrestle anyone who ever lived because styles don't matter in MMA at all and some fighters can't be beaten because they wear funny hats and wrestled bears growing up! Who cares how awkward and amateurish his striking looked, bears guys! He wrestled bears!

damn I didn't know all of your wrestling skill disappears as soon as you go inside an octagon. Gaethje clearly has great takedown defense, he stuffed chandler's takedown attempts easily and took down fiziev when he gave a shit to shoot. He comes from trevor whittman's camp which has fighters who have great takedown defense(Sandhagen, Usman) In the lead up to the khabib fight everyone assumed he would be a tough matchup because of his wrestling defense but as soon as he loses he now is a trash wrestler who couldn't adjust to mma even though there is no proof of that. Gaethje isn't an offensive wrestler, if you watch his matches he didn't wrestle offensively for most of them. There have been many wrestlers that come to MMA and prefer to strike like romero or gaethje and use a sprawl and brawl strategy. Romero had great takedown defense when people shot due to his history of defending takedowns, same with gaethje who stuffed chandler's takedowns effortlessly. The same chandler that took down dustin whenever he wanted. You have no proof of gaethje being a bad wrestler, we've seen he has fast scrambles and reactions against chandler and against D1 wrestlers, you just default to this stance because it discredits khabib lol.

 

[MarioLemieux]

Gaethje is by no means a wrestler in MMA. He self admittedly hates wrestling in MMA and barely trained it for years and is a blue belt at best in bjj.

RDA has been outwrestled by just about every wrestler he's ever faced and was even outwrestled by evan dunham like 12 months before facing Khabib. He is still probably the best all around grappler that Khabib has faced other than tibau, though.

Regardless, Khabib is the LW goat in my opinion. Islam takes that mantle with one more win, though.

Gaethje always uses his wrestling according to himself.

You are conflating him not using his wrestling offensively as opposed to using it to help him sprawl and brawl.

 

[fortheo]

Gaethje always uses his wrestling according to himself.

You are conflating him not using his wrestling offensively as opposed to using it to help him sprawl and brawl.

Every single person in MMA uses at least some wrestling. If you think gaethje used it enough to be classified as a wrestler in MMA, then I'd disagree. You're free to your opinion, though.

 

[MarioLemieux]

Every single person in MMA uses at least some wrestling. If you think gaethje used it enough to be classified as a wrestler in MMA, then I'd disagree. You're free to your opinion, though.

He's a classic sprawl and brawler who uses d1 wrestling to stuff opponents and knock them out. It's not an opinion. It's a fact. Like Chuck, or Carwin for example.

 

[VinceArch]

So Khabib comes back, is comfortably ranked in the top 5, and he fights.... a UFC newcomer?

It wasn't the original choice, and you know that. But go ahead and try to act like you have it all figured out.

 

[colorles]

He has a win over Ali Bagov

 

[mister piscadinha]

Justin Gaethje could have been an olympic gold medalist for all I care... this is MMA. At no point in ANY of his UFC fights did he display ANY level of grappling ability and we've seen countless competitors with elite credentials have their skills not translate at all into MMA. Should Fedor be credited as the best MMA striker of all time because he sat in Semmy Schilt's guard for 20 minutes? Does Ben Rothwell become a K1 calibre kickboxer because he KO'd Reem who KO'd Badri Hari?? Of course not.

Gaethje is a striker who overcommits to strikes frequently and has faced nothing but fellow strikers in his career just to set up entertaining brawls. The minute he fought someone who was a threat to him on the ground, he was tapping like there's no tomorrow. If this is the best MMA Grappler you can come up with, wow you are desperate.

Also, genuine LOL @ the hype of RDA who struggled with wrestlers HIS ENTIRE UFC CAREER. Should Tyson Griffin be listed as one of the best MMA grapplers of all time considering he was actually able to keep RDA down without the fight getting stood up unlike Khabib? How about Michael Chiesa??

Khabib can't control who the top contenders were in his brief time as champion but the fact remains that he was in the UFC for a decade and missed out on the majority of the top fighters from 2 completely different eras. He blanketed RDA and then sat on the shelf for 2 YEARS skyrocketing up the rankings while absorbing the hype of RDA's success despite them being 2 completely different styles of fighters.

So Khabib comes back, is comfortably ranked in the top 5, and he fights.... a UFC newcomer? Then Michael Freakin Johnson who was outgrappled by Jonathan "Vision Quest" Brookins and never beat a top 10 opponent again for the rest of his career? He had one of the easiest runs to the title OF ALL TIME and people are right to criticize him.

Benson Henderson, Eddie Alvarez, Charles Oliveira, Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, Josh Thompson, Gilbert Melendez, Gilbert Burns, Michael Chandler hell even Clay Guida and Kevin Lee would skyrocket up his list of best MMA grapplers ever faced. I'm sure glad we saw one dimensional strikers like Edson Barboza and Al Iaquinta fight Khabib instead of literally any of these other possible opponents I mean wow... we learned so much that we didn't already know from these match-ups!

I can soundly believe that Khabib would just default out-wrestle anyone who ever lived because styles don't matter in MMA at all and some fighters can't be beaten because they wear funny hats and wrestled bears growing up! Who cares how awkward and amateurish his striking looked, bears guys! He wrestled bears!

basically this, khabib may be the best dagestani fighter ever but he was the least tested of them(atleast in his clan)
his career was intensively manicured to face the least threathening opposition at every stage
anyone who calls him the GOAT of anything is legit retarded

 

[MarioLemieux]

Khabib finished Porieir (who gave Islam hell), Gaethje, and Conor who were all in the top 5 p4p

Not to mention he ragdolled prime RDA who should have been.

 

[BowserJr]

Justin Gaethje could have been an olympic gold medalist for all I care... this is MMA. At no point in ANY of his UFC fights did he display ANY level of grappling ability and we've seen countless competitors with elite credentials have their skills not translate at all into MMA. Should Fedor be credited as the best MMA striker of all time because he sat in Semmy Schilt's guard for 20 minutes? Does Ben Rothwell become a K1 calibre kickboxer because he KO'd Reem who KO'd Badri Hari?? Of course not.

Gaethje is a striker who overcommits to strikes frequently and has faced nothing but fellow strikers in his career just to set up entertaining brawls. The minute he fought someone who was a threat to him on the ground, he was tapping like there's no tomorrow. If this is the best MMA Grappler you can come up with, wow you are desperate.

Also, genuine LOL @ the hype of RDA who struggled with wrestlers HIS ENTIRE UFC CAREER. Should Tyson Griffin be listed as one of the best MMA grapplers of all time considering he was actually able to keep RDA down without the fight getting stood up unlike Khabib? How about Michael Chiesa??

Khabib can't control who the top contenders were in his brief time as champion but the fact remains that he was in the UFC for a decade and missed out on the majority of the top fighters from 2 completely different eras. He blanketed RDA and then sat on the shelf for 2 YEARS skyrocketing up the rankings while absorbing the hype of RDA's success despite them being 2 completely different styles of fighters.

So Khabib comes back, is comfortably ranked in the top 5, and he fights.... a UFC newcomer? Then Michael Freakin Johnson who was outgrappled by Jonathan "Vision Quest" Brookins and never beat a top 10 opponent again for the rest of his career? He had one of the easiest runs to the title OF ALL TIME and people are right to criticize him.

Benson Henderson, Eddie Alvarez, Charles Oliveira, Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, Josh Thompson, Gilbert Melendez, Gilbert Burns, Michael Chandler hell even Clay Guida and Kevin Lee would skyrocket up his list of best MMA grapplers ever faced. I'm sure glad we saw one dimensional strikers like Edson Barboza and Al Iaquinta fight Khabib instead of literally any of these other possible opponents I mean wow... we learned so much that we didn't already know from these match-ups!

I can soundly believe that Khabib would just default out-wrestle anyone who ever lived because styles don't matter in MMA at all and some fighters can't be beaten because they wear funny hats and wrestled bears growing up! Who cares how awkward and amateurish his striking looked, bears guys! He wrestled bears!

Too much logic bro

Man I wish we saw Bendo, Giblert, Alvarez fight Khabib. Khabib probably still wins but they would be dog fights

 

[AfroBanana]

RDA wasn’t preparing to grapple because of an injury. He's noted this many times. He had stitches in his ear and was unable to really grapple much the camp prior.

Morning Report: RDA talks Khabib, McGregor

UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos is hoping for a second shot at Khabib Nurmagomedov and maybe a superfight with Conor McGregor if he beats Jose Aldo at UFC 189.

www.mmafighting.com

Also RDA became a better defensive wrestler post Khabib tbh.

 

[MarioLemieux]

Broke the record against a guy with a wrestling background.

 

[Dr Fong]

Grasping at the Gaethje straw again are we, Khabib fluffers?

If you are going to hold Justin Gathje up as an elite MMA wrestler/grappler, you are either dishonest or stupid.