I think 4-5 years is pretty long when we're talking about someone who turned pro exactly 7 years ago and since then has changed weightclass.4 years isn't that long ago when talking about lifelong martial artists, and it didn't sound like RDR literally meant "a few" rounds. But if you want to think it was just 3 or so rounds, then that is fine. The weight difference was a factor for sure though. You do see context afterall when it leads to a better opinion of khamzat. Anyways, rockhold has trained with both ddp and khamzat too and had a similar evaluation of how they match up, although he didn't make a pick ultimately. But when you have guys who have trained with khamzat -- and Luke trained with him recently -- both saying that khamzat will fade if the fight goes past a round or two, then there's probably actually something to the popular narrative that fans push about khamzat fading as the fight goes long.
Dricus turned pro 2013, for comparison.
On the flip side, we have both Jiri and Caio who praised Khamzat's cardio after training with him. Jiri doesn't strike me as a bullshitter and he also has reasons to dislike Khamzat since he talked shit about wrestlefucking him in the gym.
I think we could both benefit from reading opposing viewpoints on Khamzat.
Where some people see it as a negative that he went life and death with "former LW" Burns, others are impressed that he beat a world class fighter in a brawl in his 5th UFC-fight against a stylistically tough matchup.
We saw Bo fold to RDR in his 5th UFC-fight and RDR saying (diplomatically) that Bo could become a killer in the next 3 years.
We also saw Charles Oliveira take some tough losses at FW before moving up to LW and improving with experience to go on a legendary title run.
Here on sherdog it's like Khamzat is frozen in time and the Burns performance always comes up as a reason for why he won't beat a bigger and stronger fighter (Whittaker, DDP), ignoring the context that Khamzat himself is bigger and stronger as a MW than as WW. Also ignoring that Khamzat was dragging Burns around the canvas in round 1 when he actually wrestled him in a few situations.
Tldr; I think it's interesting to read both sides of an argument, truth is usually somewhere in the middle. Overall i don't take too much stock in fighter predictions since they mostly seem to go with the guy who is more proven/experienced, see Ilia vs Volk and Max, Khamzat vs Rob, for a few exampels.
