Objectively, Usman >> Khabib in all-time rankings.

[Tevfik1907]

Khabib's inactivity spells would last a full year at a time.

He rarely fought and doesn't have a particularly impressive strength of schedule. The most successful competitor through most of his tenure in the UFC was Ferguson, and they never fought.

Some of its bad timing, some of its Khabib's fault (suspension, not making weight etc) but I think Usman is ahead of him. His win over prime RDA before his big run is his best career win in my opinion. Very impressive.

However - straight up knocking out Masvidal, Burns and Colby after beating the ever loving shit out of Woodley is far out ahead of anything Khabib accomplished.

How beating former failed 155ers like Masvidal and Burns is even comparable to Khabib's pre-championship fights? (let alone post-championship fights).

Those guys wasn't even good enough to face Khabib before being champion at 155. That's why Khabib never even faced them, Masvidal lost to Al Iaquinta, Burns lost to Dan Hooker, LOL.

Now suddenly Masvidal and Burns accomplished something at 155 and moved up and faced with Usman, so Usman beating them is worthy of recognition and even comparable to Khabib now? Not even mention the natural size advantage that Usman has, I am almost comparing them like Usman and Khabib are the same size, when they are not.

Khabib faced former FWs, but those FWs were always accomplished ones; Conor, former FW and former LW champ.
Poirier, defeated Holloway (FW champ at the time) before winning the Interim LW belt.

And Poirier was cutting so much weight that he is actually bigger than Khabib (he said he is 190 lbs when fighting at FW)

In short, people say Khabib faced former FWs, but they forget more than half of Usman's title defenses are against former LWs, and compared to that Khabib's FW opponents accomplished far more than Usman's LW opponents.

And there is no doubt that Khabib beating RDA when RDA was on his prime >>>>>>>>>>>> Usman beating post-prime RDA on a higher weight class when Usman had a natural size advantage over RDA.

 

[rjmbrd]

How beating former failed 155ers like Masvidal and Burns is even comparable to Khabib's pre-championship fights? (let alone post-championship fights).

Those guys wasn't even good enough to face Khabib before being champion at 155. That's why Khabib never even faced them, Masvidal lost to Al Iaquinta, Burns lost to Dan Hooker, LOL.

Now suddenly Masvidal and Burns accomplished something at 155 and moved up and faced with Usman, so Usman beating them is worthy of recognition and even comparable to Khabib now? Not even mention the natural size advantage that Usman has, I am almost comparing them like Usman and Khabib are the same size, when they are not.

Khabib faced former FWs, but those FWs were always accomplished ones; Conor, former FW and former LW champ.
Poirier, defeated Holloway (FW champ at the time) before winning the Interim LW belt.

And Poirier was cutting so much weight that he is actually bigger than Khabib (he said he is 190 lbs when fighting at FW)

In short, people say Khabib faced former FWs, but they forget more than half of Usman's title defenses are against former LWs, and compared to that Khabib's FW opponents accomplished far more than Usman's LW opponents.

And there is no doubt that Khabib beating RDA when RDA was on his prime >>>>>>>>>>>> Usman beating post-prime RDA on a higher weight class when Usman had a natural size advantage over RDA.

I don't debate anything with people who worship and idolize a fighter. Frankly, its weird.

Khabib is a tremendous fighter, undoubtedly the best lightweight of his generation. His years (multiple years) of inactivity and light strength of schedule are marks against his career in 'all time' discussions. So be it.

 

[eddi]

Usman lost and was choked (emasculated and dead in a real fight) , had a close fight with masvidal, looked very beatable against colby, got almost knocked the fuck out against burns.


khabib ran through every single opponent that was put in front of him, even his green fight against roidhead that you posted he was clearly winning just reqatch it.

Its not even close khabibs looks unbeatable and 5 steps ahead of the competition.
while usman looks beatable and gets rocked left and right during his fights, good fighter though but not even close.

 

[Noraaq]

Usmans title defenses:

2x failed LW journeyman Jorge
1x failed LW journeyman Burns
Overrated Colby

no comparison

 

[nebulousned]

Usman would burry Khabib

Agree OP

 

[nebulousned]

Usmans title defenses:

2x failed LW journeyman Jorge
1x failed LW journeyman Burns
Overrated Colby

no comparison

He's cleared out his whole division. The only reason you casuals like Khabib so much is because the UFC marketing team has been doing overtime on the LW division cause conrad fights there.

 

[The MMA Guy]

Usman is better than Khabib.

1. Welterweight and lightweight are some of the most stacked divisions in the UFC and to say that Usman has beat Journey man is completely wrong.
- Masvidal was priming and Usman completely shut down that hype train, Burns was on a dominant win streak and Usman knocked him out. Colby was on a dominant win streak and knocked him out. Tyrone Woodley is one of the greatest Welterweights of all time and was in the middle of a dominant Win streak and Usman dominated him.
- And if your arguing Journey man, Khabib beat them too. Khabib racked up wins against people with no fights all the way until his ufc debut. He beat the likes of Gleison Tibau (lost), Micheal Johnson, Edson Barboza, Abel Trujilo and RDA (Usman dominated him). He also beat Al Iaquinta who was #11 and was about to fight a striker that night and not a grappler.
- Usman beat better competition, more decisively and his title run has been way better as he has been finishing fighters in their prime.
- Khabibs only notable wins with the title are Poirier and Justin Gaethje. McGregor was coming off of a two year lay off and has obviously been having major problems with his technique, rhythm and stance. Additionally he almost got finished against Poirier and anyone who has grappled knows that the Guillotine was in if Dustin brought his right leg over. We never got to see Khabib make a proper run against top level competition like all of the other GOAT's like Jones, GSP and Anderson.

2. Khabib's record of 29-0 is extremely padded, if you go and look at his record of fights prior to the ufc he was fighting people who were 0-1 all the way to 0-10.
3. Usman proper fighters leading into his UFC debut and went through the ultimate fighter which has some of the supposed hottest prospects at the time and he dominated. Jose Caceres had already have 7 pro fights at the time whereas Usman had just won his debut.
4. Usmans's longevity and reliability completely overshadows Khabibs, Khabib has had numerous injuries and pulled out of countless fights as he killed himself when cutting down to 155 and was inactive defending his title almost once a year. Whereas we have seen Usman begin to as he said in his own word "overlap" the other contenders. Usman also fights in the weight class suited to his body, if he went down to fifty five he would no doubt be the same version as Khabib. They walk around at the same weight apparently so it would be possible if Khabib did it.
5. Furthermore historically the way in which we have argued over who our GOAT"s were was longevity and dominance.
Anderson, Jones, GSP's and Fedors lengthy undefeated streaks have proved to take on our impression of a GOAT. By calling someone the outright greatest of all time when we didn't even get to see him fight a broad variety of top contenders with a diverse range of skillsets is completely irrational. Furthermore he began to lose rounds when he fought top competition.
6. If your going Dominance Usman has been crazy dominant. the only time we have seen diversity is the Colby fight who is an insanely good fighter, better than any that we have seen Khabib fight. Usman also got rocked by Gilbert however Khabib got rocked by Micheal Johnson.

I am not saying that Khabib isnt a great fighter, he is awesome, however I believe Usman completely outclasses him in most departments apart from his grappling skills, however Usman has never been taken down whether khabib has. Furthermore, Usman can grapple exceptionally in the open matt but uses his clinch and control time as a way to point fight and weather his opponents.

I am not even a particular fan of Usman, I am a guy who has rooted for everyone that he fought against hoping he would lose, I went crazy when Gilbert rocked him. But unlike others I am not blinded by how I dislike him. You guys must recognise proper greatness. Usman isn't even finished as well, I believe Usman currently is better than him and only has room for improvement.

Give me your thoughts.
Sorry for any typos and grammar punctuations, haven't proof read this.

 

[Tevfik1907]

Usman also got rocked by Gilbert however Khabib got rocked by Micheal Johnson.
.

This is just sad level of reaching. I mean how these two even remotely close?

 

[humdizzle]

How do you claim Usman needs to top GSPs run of title defenses to be placed above Khabib when Khabib never topped GSPs title defenses or run. Khabib has a total of 3 title defenses and has only fought 13 fighters who you could actually rank anywhere in his entire 30-0 career, so how does that equate to GSPs title run.

So how would Usman need a criteria that Khabib himself is no where near to get to Khabib. You also do know that Conor and Porier are both former Featherweights. Poirier being a featherweight that has never touched the divisions Championship strap. Khabib was also a WW for years who cut to LW after his UFC debut.
.

easy. khabib never tapped to strikes or a sub. his face never got beat up. i dont think he ever really bled in the cage.

 

[TR1]

They essentially have identical records and accomplishments. Objectively they're about equal.

Khabib is far more dominant than Usman though.

 

[markg171]

This really shouldn't be controversial.

Khabib might be talentwise one of the greatest ever, and the LW GOAT, but his accomplishments simply aren't there for the overall MMA ranking his fans try and give him.

 

[markg171]

Usman is doing multiple title defenses against guys that don't even deserve to fight for the title in the first place (Masvidal), talk about padding the record.

Even if this were true, that's not Usman's fault that Khabib didn't rack up more wins.

Usman has already defended his title 2x since Khabib retired, and his defending it a 3rd time in November. In a single year he'll have defended his title as many times as Khabib did in 3.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Khabib never had the balls to step out of his lane or stay in the game long enough to defend the belt enough times to make a run at GOAT

his career is one of discipline and control to limit his risk — he’ll never be the GOAT

but he was a great fighter

 

[bobgeese]

 

[Histalian]

Reaching here. Khabib is a once in a generation talent. Usman is in a weak WW Division.

 

[Shaddows]

The fact that Khabib won the belt by beating Iaquinta is utterly irrelevant because he ended up beating the previous champ, then beat the two top contenders after that. And he beat all those guys worse than he beat Iaquinta! It doesn't matter who they put in front of him for the title, he would've ran through them.

And yet he beat the old champ… after 2 years not training MMA.
After all was said and done, he beat only 2 guys that deserved a title shot, and that’s the bottom line

 

[JKS]

There is no doubt that TS is right about this. Very simply, the numbers don't lie. If you look at it objectively, Usman is slightly ahead now and with every win moves farther up. Only Khabib fanatics would not agree to this.

 

[Mikeydontgiva]

they're similar but usman has better quality wins

 

[JKS]

Khabib only lost one round ever in his entire career. Usman lost rounds and got finished. He's nowhere close to Khabib.

Khabib lost to first to Gaethje and the 3rd to Conor. Try again amigo. LOL, he's already ahead of Khabib and pulling ahead every fight.

 

[BoxingFan653]

I’ve been saying this years. Usman should be considered one of GOATS but haters are too emotional to accept facts View attachment 870240

Dude is a monster. He's easily Khabib's level if not better. He will continue to get better as well before his run is over