Merab is great, but lets chill brah

[Objectively Correct]

How is Merab great? He barely wins by exploiting the ruleset, theres nothing he does thats great or extraordinary. He has great cardio. Thats literally it.

 

[RockyLockridge]

I'm just saiyan, I think "break" is a strong word for what happened here, people can just get tired in fights, we don't need to be hyperbolic. GSP broke BJ Penn. Umar lost 3-2 and Merab still couldn't control him on the ground and did little damage in the fif round. This wasn't some pants shitting blowout.

He broke him.

Umar fell behind after round 2 and couldn't get back into the fight

 

[RockyLockridge]

How is Merab great? He barely wins by exploiting the ruleset, theres nothing he does thats great or extraordinary. He has great cardio. Thats literally it.

Goat you'll just have to deal with it

 

[SuperAlly]

How is Merab great?

theres nothing he does thats great or extraordinary.

He has great cardio.

You are so triggered you are arguing with yourself?

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

I have no idea what the commentary was like but I watched the fight and even if it was close on the scorecards.... One guy was having more success, having fun in there and seeming to just be having an easier time in general while the other one was struggling.

 

[RockyLockridge]

You are so triggered you are arguing with yourself?

Hate is usually confused admiration

 

[Lawrence]

Merab is not the most skilled anywhere. He doesn’t really land big shots or even control guys very well. He’s not very dangerous. You’re not going to be impressed if you’re looking for stuff like that from him.

But he has an ability to just wear guys down and eventually kind of be able to do whatever he wants. The ability to drown guys like that is impressive.

"He's not very dangerous"

I bet the last 12 opponents he vanquished would disagree, as losing is the largest danger in the sport.

Look at the names of the last 4 scalps this guy has... Aldo, Yan, Cejudo, O'Malley, Umar.

 

[RockyLockridge]

"He's not very dangerous"

I bet the last 12 opponents he vanquished would disagree, as losing is the largest danger in the sport.

Look at the names of the last 4 scalps this guy has... Aldo, Yan, Cejudo, O'Malley, Umar.

the fact he had to beat aldo yan AND cejudo before even getting a title shot tells you everything

 

[richardjohnson]

It’s funny that it took him fighting two pretty polarizing fighters to finally get some fanfare. The guy was not well liked, especially after the Aldo fight.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Merab has great cardio and good enough striking to not get blown out on the feet. He's a certified beast but I think people REALLY exaggerate how well he did in this fight with Umar. He landed what, one good right hand in the 4th? And spammed takedowns that were largely ineffectual while Joe and Cormier were giving him sloppy, drooling, dome and cradling his jewels for getting stuffed and making Umar tired. Did he even keep Umar on the ground for more than 20 or 30 seconds of control when Umar was utterly exhausted? He didn't win by a large margin, he wasn't rag dolling Lil Khabib.

While Merab's cardio is insane, he does slow and start eating shots in the fif round, at least his last two fights anyway. Showboating can be fun to see in fights but it annoys me when the guy showboating has mainly beat up the other fighter's lungs more so than the rest of them, especially when they're stalling and moving away in the final round to secure the win.

I've seen shit loads of posts talking about the fight like it was some blowout and questioning Lil Eagle's heart, but it's like, chill dudes. Merab won and is probably gonna hold on to the belt for a while from the looks of it, but lets stay in orbit of the planet here. This wasn't GSP/Penn 2 or some shit. He put on a good performance and wore Umar down. He's world class, Umar isn't a scrub for losing to a machine like Merab.

People were impressed because Merab was an underdog against an undefeated fighter five years his junior and not a slight one at ~+250 so for him to decisively win the decision is impressive in that it defied expectations.

Its true that Merab never held Umar down but at the highest levels in the lower weight classes being able to defend takedowns and get up is not enough if you're fighting someone like Merab who won't gas out. Even if you defend the takedown or get up, if you don't punish Merab and you spend more energy defending and scrambling to your feet than Merab spent on the takedown he wins. You saw this with Petr Yan who defended most of the takedowns by Merab and wasn't held down long but he could never get his groove going because he had to constantly defend Merab's takedowns or burn time scrambling to his feet.

The way to beat someone like Merab is to punish them for their takedown attempts either through strikes, sub attempts, and/or reversals so that he becomes hesitant to shoot for fear of getting finished or ending up on bottom. One of my favorite sequences in one of my favorite fights, Aldo vs Mendes 2, Aldo lands a knee which allows Mendes to grab and finish a single leg only for Aldo to immediately get right back up

In my view Aldo wins this exchange because he inflicted damage and didn't spend much time on bottom. Of course Aldo can do that because he has some of the best reflexes and grappling defense in the sport but if you can punish a spam wrestler like Merab on his takedown attempts that can relieve pressure.

 

[Dr Brian Pepper]

Merab is not the most skilled anywhere. He doesn’t really land big shots or even control guys very well. He’s not very dangerous. You’re not going to be impressed if you’re looking for stuff like that from him.

But he has an ability to just wear guys down and eventually kind of be able to do whatever he wants. The ability to drown guys like that is impressive.

I would argue he is the most skilled in maintaining his energy/cardio

 

[mister piscadinha]

People were impressed because Merab was an underdog against an undefeated fighter five years his junior and not a slight one at ~+250 so for him to decisively win the decision is impressive in that it defied expectations.

Its true that Merab never held Umar down but at the highest levels in the lower weight classes being able to defend takedowns and get up is not enough if you're fighting someone like Merab who won't gas out. Even if you defend the takedown or get up, if you don't punish Merab and you spend more energy defending and scrambling to your feet than Merab spent on the takedown he wins. You saw this with Petr Yan who defended most of the takedowns by Merab and wasn't held down long but he could never get his groove going because he had to constantly defend Merab's takedowns or burn time scrambling to his feet.

The way to beat someone like Merab is to punish them for their takedown attempts either through strikes, sub attempts, and/or reversals so that he becomes hesitant to shoot for fear of getting finished or ending up on bottom. One of my favorite sequences in one of my favorite fights, Aldo vs Mendes 2, Aldo lands a knee which allows Mendes to grab and finish a single leg only for Aldo to immediately get right back up

In my view Aldo wins this exchange because he inflicted damage and didn't spend much time on bottom. Of course Aldo can do that because he has some of the best reflexes and grappling defense in the sport but if you can punish a spam wrestler like Merab on his takedown attempts that can relieve pressure.

prime aldo would have been a nightmare for a guy like merab

now about merab's greatness, people dont understand that in sports, stats matter as much as skills
merab has perfect stats for a crushing wrestler to have
strength, durability and insane pace
and the scariest thing about merab is that he could be even better if he implement more bjj into his game

now people are talking a rematch betwen merab and umar
but to me that's foolish right now
if merab on relative short notice, injured and barely training edged umar
a full camp merab would do him the way he did yan

 

[Islam Imamate]

prime aldo would have been a nightmare for a guy like merab

now about merab's greatness, people dont understand that in sports, stats matter as much as skills
merab has perfect stats for a crushing wrestler to have
strength, durability and insane pace
and the scariest thing about merab is that he could be even better if he implement more bjj into his game

now people are talking a rematch betwen merab and umar
but to me that's foolish right now
if merab on relative short notice, injured and barely training edged umar
a full camp merab would do him the way he did yan

I don't really buy a lot of these excuses about short notice this and injured that but I do think Merab decisively won and would again decisively win if they had an immediate rematch, maybe more decisively as usually the winner of a close decision the first time looks much better in the immediate rematch. A good example is Edgar vs Penn 1&2 where Edgar won a controversial decision win the first time around only to sweep all five rounds on every judges scorecard in the rematch.

Umar should have to earn a rematch with at least two wins given how competitive the BW division is. There's plenty of contenders in these lower weight classes and if Merab loses it probably shortens Umar's path back to the title anyway. Miesha Tate was annoyed that Holly got the fight against Ronda before she could get her 3rd fight with Ronda because she had won four fights with three over contenders but in the end it was the best thing for her as Holly knocked off her worst style match up which immediately opened the door for a Miesha title shot that she capitalized on.

 

[Islam Imamate]

How is Merab great? He barely wins by exploiting the ruleset, theres nothing he does thats great or extraordinary. He has great cardio. Thats literally it.

He ragdolls guys with great wrestling like Yan, Cejudo, and Umar.

I can understand if you're not really a fan of that kind of scrambly wrestling style but it is impressive on some level.

 

[RockyLockridge]

It’s funny that it took him fighting two pretty polarizing fighters to finally get some fanfare. The guy was not well liked, especially after the Aldo fight.

As far as I can see, He still is not well liked.

However, There is ZERO reason to disrespect this man as a fighter. He fights whomever. Has never avoided or attempted to avoid a hard match up in his own division. He went through every single hurdle a proven fighter needs to go through BEFORE he became champion. he's very much like belal. Call him boring, dont pay for the PPV whatever but you cant claim he was given anything. He had to do every thing the right way. The hard way.

 

[Islam Imamate]

As far as I can see, He still is not well liked.

However, There is ZERO reason to disrespect this man as a fighter. He fights whomever. Has never avoided or attempted to avoid a hard match up in his own division. He went through every single hurdle a proven fighter needs to go through BEFORE he became champion. he's very much like belal. Call him boring, dont pay for the PPV whatever but you cant claim he was given anything. He had to do every thing the right way. The hard way.

He did try to avoid Umar and wanted Figgy instead. Of course he ended up fighting Umar anyway but he was accused of ducking. It was surprising to me because in my mind he was the favorite and I expect him to win more or less the way he did but for whatever reason Merab was annoyed at Umar's title shot.

 

[DiazSlap]

Clay Guida 1.5 and possibly even more boring

 

[legcramp]

If rounds had no time limit nor referee, Umar would be dead.

 

[Genki Sudo]

Merab probably cant even finish his girl. Probably 50-45's her too!

 

[xhaydenx]

"He's not very dangerous"

I bet the last 12 opponents he vanquished would disagree, as losing is the largest danger in the sport.

Look at the names of the last 4 scalps this guy has... Aldo, Yan, Cejudo, O'Malley, Umar.

He never hurt any of those guys you mentioned, but that's completely fine. You don't have to hurt opponents to be good. I mean look at Cruz. One of the GOATs of the division and he barely ever hurt anyone.