Rewatch Merab's cardio isn't the greatest ever.

[GearSolidMetal]

After watching the co-main on Saturday I admit in the moment I fell for the power of suggestion that Merab's cardio is the best in the sport's history repeated by the entire commentary team.

Is Merab's cardio very possibly the best currently in the UFC and in the entire sport? Yes.
Is Merab's cardio in the GOAT-tier for fighters? Yes, especially for a 34-year old fighter in the lower weight-classes.

But is it the best ever?
I have a long memory for fighters that have fought many times for five rounds and still look very fresh in the fifth round.
*Alexander Volkanovski
*Colby Covington
*Demetrious Johnson
*Frankie Edgar
*Dominic Cruz
*Max Holloway
Of all of the above I've seen a few 'beat up' but never with compromised conditioning.
And by 'beat up' I mean there's no bigger liability to conditioning than taking hard hits to the body.

As for what happened on Saturday, Merab's conditioning looked like it's the best ever because Umar's conditioning obviously isn't in the GOAT-tier. Actually far from it.
It shouldn't be ignored that Umar has only had one fight that went all five rounds before Saturday. Training for five rounds is a completely different beast than training for three.

So... agree... disagree?

 

[LordHellraiser]

Disagree. Merab legit had physical issues preventing him from being one hundred heading into fight. A fully healthy and full camp he's gonna look better then he did Saturday.

That said it's always debatable when it's goat discussions of any topic

 

[Human Bass]

Disagree. Those guys have great cardio but they mostly stay inside a safety zone. Merab is way more chaotic. He doesnt only not get tired, but he doesnt get tired doing shit that should tire anyone else. Umar had no cardio issues with a big and very good Sandhagen for 5 rounds. And against Merab got gassed in the 3rd after winning 2 rounds.

 

[DrRodentia]

It's not just still being fresh in the 5th, it's the balls to the wall pace he keeps up for all 25 minutes in what is a very gruelling style of fighting.

 

[Prince Nephilim]

Watching Merab spam takedowns and taking down an exhausted Umar was pretty impressive.

Merab literally exhaust all of his opponents whilst retaining all of his own explosive energy.

 

[Daniel Henry]

EPO

 

[RockyLockridge]

I'd disagree but I understand it's purely a semantic arguement.

No one weaponizes their cardio as well as merab would be a more accurate statement

 

[Hymen Crusher]

He has now beat every guy in the weight class who is worth anything mostly with cardio. Clay guida might have better cardio but he isn't a better mma fighter.

 

[DoctorStoppage]

EPO

Yeah I’m pretty suspicious at this point

 

[HatKick]

Merab doesn't just have great cardio. Look at some of his opponents. Yan who has made a career out of outworking his opponents in the late rounds. Cejudo who is an Olympic athlete and went 5 rounds many times without looking tired. O'Malley who possibly set the BW record for strikes landed in the Chito Vera fight (I'd have to look that up though). Merab made them look like old out of shape panting dogs.

 

[Last Falconry]

It is though

 

[The Big Babou]

Volk's cardio is pretty good, too

...same goes for Bisping. Good cardio without PEDs is worth a mention

 

[jeskola]

Disagree and you left off your list:

Clay Guida, undisputed cardio champ
Nick Diaz
Nate Diaz

 

[fortheo]

Disagree. Those guys have great cardio but they mostly stay inside a safety zone. Merab is way more chaotic. He doesnt only not get tired, but he doesnt get tired doing shit that should tire anyone else. Umar had no cardio issues with a big and very good Sandhagen for 5 rounds. And against Merab got gassed in the 3rd after winning 2 rounds.

The other guys use more energy to dish out more damage (except cruz I guess), and still have energy left. Volk for instance, goes a hard 5 rounds and invests energy in doing more damage than merab does, and he's made highly conditioned fighters like Holloway and Islam gas out. Merab pushes a crazy pace, but he isn't investing as much energy in hurting his opponents -- he invests his energy mostly in just making his opponents work.

And no, I'm not one of those guys who thinks merab doesn't do damage, he does, but far moreso by accumulation than most of these other guys.

It's kind of hard to quantify when they all fight with different styles.

 

[ArtardFiesta]

I wonder how many hours of sleep merab gets in a night. Dude has so much energy I doubt he sleeps. He probably sleeps every other day.

The dude must fuck at least 3 times a day. Probably more. He's like the old school sherdog mod Superbeast (declan khan) breaking beds!

 

[Mammothman]

Colby gassed hard vs Marty

 

[Superzorro]

After watching the co-main on Saturday I admit in the moment I fell for the power of suggestion that Merab's cardio is the best in the sport's history repeated by the entire commentary team.

Is Merab's cardio very possibly the best currently in the UFC and in the entire sport? Yes.
Is Merab's cardio in the GOAT-tier for fighters? Yes, especially for a 34-year old fighter in the lower weight-classes.

But is it the best ever?
I have a long memory for fighters that have fought many times for five rounds and still look very fresh in the fifth round.
*Alexander Volkanovski
*Colby Covington
*Demetrious Johnson
*Frankie Edgar
*Dominic Cruz
*Max Holloway
Of all of the above I've seen a few 'beat up' but never with compromised conditioning.
And by 'beat up' I mean there's no bigger liability to conditioning than taking hard hits to the body.

As for what happened on Saturday, Merab's conditioning looked like it's the best ever because Umar's conditioning obviously isn't in the GOAT-tier. Actually far from it.
It shouldn't be ignored that Umar has only had one fight that went all five rounds before Saturday. Training for five rounds is a completely different beast than training for three.

So... agree... disagree?

Merab seems to embrace/enjoy/thrive in being tired more than those other fighters. He doesn't seem like he's having fun unless him and his opponent are exhausted. So it creates the illusion of having better cardio than those guys.

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

 

[RockyLockridge]

He doesn't seem like he's having fun unless him and his opponent are exhausted. So it creates the illusion of having better cardio than those guys.

the fact that he's having fun and they are not i think means his cardio is better

 

[chinarice]

After watching the co-main on Saturday I admit in the moment I fell for the power of suggestion that Merab's cardio is the best in the sport's history repeated by the entire commentary team.

Is Merab's cardio very possibly the best currently in the UFC and in the entire sport? Yes.
Is Merab's cardio in the GOAT-tier for fighters? Yes, especially for a 34-year old fighter in the lower weight-classes.

But is it the best ever?
I have a long memory for fighters that have fought many times for five rounds and still look very fresh in the fifth round.
*Alexander Volkanovski
*Colby Covington
*Demetrious Johnson
*Frankie Edgar
*Dominic Cruz
*Max Holloway
Of all of the above I've seen a few 'beat up' but never with compromised conditioning.
And by 'beat up' I mean there's no bigger liability to conditioning than taking hard hits to the body.

As for what happened on Saturday, Merab's conditioning looked like it's the best ever because Umar's conditioning obviously isn't in the GOAT-tier. Actually far from it.
It shouldn't be ignored that Umar has only had one fight that went all five rounds before Saturday. Training for five rounds is a completely different beast than training for three.

So... agree... disagree?

Cardio is clearly silly on Merab and even Umar's wasn't even bad, considering how many grappling exchanges there were. If you compare a fight like Max and Volk to this one, Merab only threw like 40 fewer strikes than Max while attempting 30.... 30 takedowns.

Umar shot for 15 TDs. There were 45 takedown sequences in their fight compared to 3 in Max vs Volk.

The pace was insane, considering there were a ton of grappling exchanges. No one wants to fight a fighter like Merab.