Hot Take Petr Yan showed the path to beating Khamzat.

[188912345]

He has landed a single powerful shot on Meerschart, let's not get ahead of ourselves calling him some power striker one shot finisher.

Yea, there's the Ikram uppercut a million years ago, Ikram proved against Bobby Knuckles he's chinny, giving Bobby his first finish since Jacare in 2017.

Given how little time he has spent standing in his 15 pro MMA-fights, I think 2 one punch KO's is an impressive statistic.

I hope we get to see more of his striking in the future.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Given how little time he has spent standing in his 15 pro MMA-fights, I think 2 one punch KO's is an impressive statistic.

I hope we get to see more of his striking in the future.

Over two chinny guys? Sure I guess. Im hoping to see more of his striking as well but its entirely dependent if Imavov has the ability to stay upright. Will be interesting!

 

[188912345]

Over two chinny guys? Sure I guess. Im hoping to see more of his striking as well but its entirely dependent if Imavov has the ability to stay upright. Will be interesting!

2020 GM3 wasn't really chinny, it was his 45th pro MMA-fight, his first KO-loss (he previously had 2 TKO-losses).

Ikram might be a bit chinny, but he's only been finished by Khamzat and Whittaker.
Didn't he also cut weight back to back for his Whittaker-fight?
I think that probably impacted his chin a bit.

I think Imavov should be able to do better than DDP (low bar, I know), but I have a hard time seeing him shut down the wrestling.

I would like to see Khamzat vs Robocop, then we can see if/how he has improved in regards to facing strong BJJ-fighters.

As it is now I think the best bet for someone to beat him is to find a finish.

I have a very hard time seeing someone being able to decision him at MW in the near future, if he's at 100%.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

I would like to see Khamzat vs Robocop, then we can see if/how he has improved in regards to facing strong BJJ-fighters.

That's a fight I really like and hadn't thought about until it was mentioned today. People forget Robocop is worldclass on the mat.

Gerald is indeed chinny, he gets dropped almost every single fight he is in, whether or not it leads to a sub like his latest loss or an actual TKO, but that might be recency bias on my part and the fruits of the long career you mentioned.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Khamzat dives on almost at the ankles. It's very hard to defend. You're either going to have to troll him into a stand up fight or, fight fire with fire and wrestle him back. As seen in the Cecudo fight, wrestlers don't like getting taken down. They almost exclusive work on offensive wrestling and not defensive.

If you want to beat Khamzat, you're going to have to be the one running across the cage and shooting takedowns or, have an an insanely good ground game.

 

[HeadKickerV2]

Khamzat would slap the shit out of you for comparing his wrestling to Merabs

Merab spams single legs to get you tired with no damage, Khamzat goes hypersonic from 10 feet away for a double leg with intention to finish you in first round

Its obvious that someone with good tdd or bjj will give Khamzat problems... but comparing Khamzats and Merabs offense? Come on man...

There is no one in MW currently that is a serious threat to him

 

[Trabaho]

Svako dobro brat moj, uvek je sala svacena

Yes, I'll give it to him that he certainly is no pillow puncher, but I wouldn't call him a concussive KO artist. He landed 500 shots on DDP and barely hurt him and as I pointed out, Meerschart is his only clean KO in the UFC, if not his only real clean strike. Guy likes windmilling, but it's okay when you have stupid good wrestling, possibly the best in the business.

Will be interesting if anyone at 185 can stop the takedown before he fucks off to 205, Imavov is no joke and I feel looking past him could be fatal for Khamzat, but we shall see after Ramadan.

He knocked Gerald dead. He dropped Burns. But he just stands in front of people. He also got 1-2 tkos in the ufc. He got finishes, if he subs them it won't be a ko.

DDP was a atypical performance cause Dricus is that good and it was the final fight to be champion. He fought clever. He didn't do good damage cause he was focused on controling and not hurting him. The problem I have with his striking is that it's not smart. He just stands in fron of them and throws.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

He knocked Gerald dead. He dropped Burns. But he just stands in front of people. He also got 1-2 tkos in the ufc. He got finishes, if he subs them it won't be a ko.

DDP was a atypical performance cause Dricus is that good and it was the final fight to be champion. He fought clever. He didn't do good damage cause he was focused on controling and not hurting him. The problem I have with his striking is that it's not smart. He just stands in fron of them and throws.

Yea, he's going to have to work on head movement if he was getting dropped by Burns, but who knows, maybe he just Jon Fitch's everyone

 

[Tweak896]

Khamzat’s kryptonite doesn’t seem to be guys with great takedown defense, but guys who can actually submit him — true world-class BJJ operators of championship level.

At 170, that was Gilbert Burns. We saw what happened in that fight. At 185, the only one with similar BJJ credentials is Robocop (Gregory Rodrigues). I'm quite sure that Khamzat would run into very serious problems in a fight with Robocop. He’s simply not going to control or submit a BJJ practitioner of that caliber.

On the contrary, in a fight like that, Khamzat would face a very real risk of getting submitted himself — and just like in the Burns fight, he’d be forced to keep it standing, where he’s absolutely in danger of getting KO'ed.

100%. You can't fight Khamzat and have a good chance besides a lucky KO without great grappling. Either it's going to have to be a world class wrestler to keep it standing or high level BJJ that makes Khamzat stand. I was thinking Robocop would be a fun fight, but after seeing him gas, I'm sure Khamzat would have the cardio to just outpoint him. I'm really shocked people who are critical of Khamzat's cardio don't pull up Robocop more often as a nightmare matchup.

Either way, Khamzat on the feet isn't Maia either, he has tons of power and at MW seems like even more. I can't wait until some fighter can match him and make it a good fight. Sadly the only answers people have is to give him bigger guys at LHW. But even they really don't have high level grapplers. Too many get attached to "size = enough TDD".

 

[Bobby Boulders]

If someone comes along with Crocop/Chuck level sprawls, perhaps. Fighters with that kind of sprawl don't come around often. And even still, Khamzat isn't a helpless noob standing, he has legit one punch KO power that Merab doesn't enjoy.

I think it is clear what Khamzat is concerned about when he fights, submissions. He didn't want anything to do with Gilbert Burns on the mat, the only opponent that I can recall that when the fight wasn't over quickly, Khamzat just stood the entire fight, never tried to really force the fight to the ground. It was like paying Burns the ultimate compliment, he no doubt respects what Gilbert is capable of doing on the mat.

I still think RDR would be a tough fight for Khamzat, due to styles, though who knows if he has the same level of respect for RDR's grappling as he does Burns'. If he does, he will be dealing with a weird striking style and a ton of knees to the body

 

[mmacool]

Khamzat wanted to test his striking vs burns and also was compromised from long COVID./weight cutting. He didn't got the cardio for his wrestling/grappling style. Elite grappler is still the biggest problem for khamzat though.

 

[Trabaho]

Yea, he's going to have to work on head movement if he was getting dropped by Burns, but who knows, maybe he just Jon Fitch's everyone

Kamaru got dropped by Gilbert too. Gilbert in his prime was a force. He is over the hill now and the last years. Expired.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Kamaru got dropped by Gilbert too. Gilbert in his prime was a force. He is over the hill now and the last years. Expired.

 

[hector domino]

Khamzat has evolved, no doubt — but the fundamental dynamic is still the same. Elite BJJ fighters force Khamzat out of his game. Burns proved that already, and if they ran it back today, nothing about that matchup suddenly changes. Khamzat still isn’t controlling Burns on the ground the way he did DDP, not now, not ever.

A perfect real-world example of how a stylistic matchup of this kind plays out is Ben Askren vs. Demian Maia.

perfect observation people see Islam and automatically assume Khamzat has just the same level grappling/bjj skill but forget that Islam very early in his career faced Davi ramos an ADCC champ dove into the Bjj champ's guard and beat his ass on the ground I knew it there that Islam would also beat Charles on the ground and it happened and unlike wrestlers like Usman tyron or Khamzat himself who are afraid of the ground against a bjj ace and keep the fight standing.

 

[CasualBot]

This is NOT an easy road. And, frankly, I think it’s possible that YEARS will go by before anyone does it to Khamzat.

The only reason it will be years ...

is because Hamfat will only fight once a year.

 

[CasualBot]

Yan fighting the hands and turning his back was the key to victory.

Fighting hamfats hands (and breaking the grip) will be far more complicated. Hammy will have the guy down too quickly. The hugging and holding from a failed takedown won't happen.

Hamfat knows to switch positions and shift momentum. Merab spams.

 

[AstralPanda]

This is NOT an easy road. And, frankly, I think it’s possible that YEARS will go by before anyone does it to Khamzat.

But pay attention to the timing of Yan’s TDD.

He sprawled. Properly.

He rarely let it get to the point where Merab could advance position comfortably.

That is the key to beating someone like Khamzat. TDD needs to be immediate, aggressive, and ready for a counter-takedown.

I don’t see anyone at 185 who can do this right now, but if Khamzat eventually loses, I think it’s going to look a LOT like Merab/Yan II.

Klamath is a much higher order of wrestler than merab

And he chain wrestles much more

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

no

 

[BullyKutta]

I posted this last year and without being too big headed I think Yan kind of followed the blueprint I thought would work.

This is incredibly well thought out.

 

[ComfortablyNumb55]

I agree Yan would likely beat Khamzat.