Khabib vs Cowboy was supposed to happen 2015. Could Cowboy have ended Khabibs streak right then?

He would have shown up only for the check.
 
Khabib would have outwrestled him like Benson did in WEC. Except he would have been more dominant.
 
MMA math but Cowboy's only loss during that streak was to RDA and he got handled pretty easily. And before that fight RDA went 10-1 with his only loss to Khabib.

Regardless I don't think Cowboy has anything special that Khabib hasn't seen. He just had a puncher's chance like everyone else.
 
13Seconds said:
What about knees? Cowboy has crazy knees and elbows up close. This would get interesting in the clinch.

Cowboy folded when the pressure came with some heat striking wise. Not grappling.
Click to expand...

Cowboys striking depends on his moving forward or standing still. Whenever he backpedals he doesnt strike well.

Also Khabib does not get hit much if at all in the clinch because the person is usually too busy trying to keep balance.

The only chance Cowboy has is that he is kind of slick in scrambles which is like an x factor. But it likely wouldn't matter because Khabib is a better grappler than he is.
 
Would have been a great fight. While Khabib wasn't green or anything back then, he wasn't as pressuring and didn't build his jab off that pressure like he started doing in the Barboza fight I believe it was.

Cerrone had a great step in knee, sneaky combos, and a quality ground game. Favoring Khabib obviously but would've been interesting to say the least.
 
Yes! Right around that time Khabib wasn't fully developed, he was very good but not the fighter he is today. A few things that make him so dominant today, he didn't use back then. And Cowboy was on top. Cowboy wins a UD.
 
JKS said:
Yes! Right around that time Khabib wasn't fully developed, he was very good but not the fighter he is today. A few things that make him so dominant today, he didn't use back then. And Cowboy was on top. Cowboy wins a UD.
Click to expand...

Yes this guy is right

The mighty Cerrone that chokes when fighting rda and nate level fighters beats khabib

<36>
 
Cowboy is a BJJ Black Belt, and Khabib has always ate BJJ Black Belts for breakfast.
 
Nah, 2015 Tony was a bigger threat to Khabib than Cowboy. He also lost to RDA who Khabib beat.
 
Dana's Moonface said:
Yes this guy is right

The mighty Cerrone that chokes when fighting rda and nate level fighters beats khabib

<36>
Click to expand...

That mighty Cerrone who talk shit about also beat Eddie Alverez and Ben Hendrerson, both championship level fighters. The problem is you clowns criticize Cerrone for choking in fights, but yet don't give credit when he performs in them. Fact of the matter is Cerrone vs top competition would lose some and win some, so he was very capable of beating Khabib. And in 2015 is when Donald was at his very best and had a crazy win streak beating several top fighters.
 
Apollo33 said:
In what way does Cowboy ever match up well with someone that has crazy forward pressure.
Click to expand...
Cowboy has tools to deal with forward pressure, mainly the intercepting knee and the takedown. The intercepting knee he used well against Miller and Hernandez, both of whom were exerting forward pressure and landing on him at first but then got discouraged by the knee and then picked apart at a distance. The takedown he used well against Cote who tried to walk him down but didn't have the tools(disciplined aggression with feints and TDD) to do so

The problem is neither would help against Khabib. The knee is a high commitment move that makes him vulnerable to the takedown. As for the takedown, lol at Cerrone trying to double leg Khabib. He has surprisingly good timing with the double but his technique is not good, mainly because he stands tall and so his stance is not suited to flowing into the double. Even if he did take Khabib down, Khabib is not one of these grapplers who is a turtle off of his back. Khabib is good pretty much in any position on the mat and would immediately start threatening subs and sweeps to get back to his feet or into a wrestling exchange to reverse the position. Cowboy would do better than most on the ground against Khabib but I just have a hard time seeing him outgrappling Khabib though to be fair he did tap Dunham who is a decent black belt himself. Still, Khabib is next level on the mat.
13Seconds said:
Cowboy folded when the pressure came with some heat striking wise. Not grappling.
Click to expand...
True but RDA was able to smother him on the ground so you gotta figure Khabib could too
Zebra Cheeks said:
People will give you a hard time, but cowboys range and sub game would have made it more entertaining than most of Khabibs fights.
Click to expand...
I agree with this, it would've been an awesome fight. Cowboy likes to play guard which plays right into Khabib's game but he'd do better from that position against Khabib than most. Cowboy got held down by RDA but from what I remember of that fight RDA had trouble passing his guard and didn't beat him up too badly which says a lot since RDA mauls guys on the mat.
JKS said:
Yes! Right around that time Khabib wasn't fully developed, he was very good but not the fighter he is today. A few things that make him so dominant today, he didn't use back then. And Cowboy was on top. Cowboy wins a UD.
Click to expand...
I think you'd be crazy to favor Cowboy knowing what we know of these two fighters in hindsight. That said, 2015 Cowboy is one of the toughest possible match ups for Khabib and one I wish we saw. I'd only rank Ferguson as a tougher challenge.
 
Khabib would have ended his win streak against journeymen.
 
Khabib's mental strength, Iron chin and sheer will to win V Donalds performance dysfunction when facing anything vaguely resembling pressure.

Khabib would fold Donald like a paper swan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,081
Messages
55,466,388
Members
174,786
Latest member
plasterby

Share this page

Back
Top