Work this through logically:
- Khamzat had enough energy to secure a take down and grapple the entire first round
- Khamzat shoots and gets stuffed in rounds 2 & 3
- Khamzat is now taking fire, and landing virtually nothing
..... Do you think he was "low output" for back to back rounds that he surely knew were razor thin and a toss up, because he just liked to leave it up to the judges? Do you think he's a moron with no fight IQ? He fought at the pace he was capable of.
If you trained for a headline fight at middleweight and you are fighting a welterweight on a weeks notice coming off the couch, you should have superior cardio. He didn't, and this is despite an unprepared opponent who isn't the same size.
Khamzat is most dangerous in round 1. This fight makes it painfully obvious.
- Khamzat had enough energy to secure a take down and grapple the entire first round - Check
- Khamzat shoots and gets stuffed in rounds 2 & 3 - Failure. He shot and got takedowns in both rounds, and actually controlled Usman on the ground in round 3 for probably 2 minutes.
- Khamzat is now taking fire, and landing virtually nothing - This is a half truth. Usman wasn't doing that much of anything either, and Khamzat ,it seems was deliberate in just looking for takedowns, probably was his "gameplan". Their counting stats were pretty close.
-Do you think he was "low output" for back to back rounds that he surely knew were razor thin and a toss up, because he just liked to leave it up to the judges? Do you think he's a moron with no fight IQ? He fought at the pace he was capable of. - I think I covered my thoughts on this already, he made adjustments, his pace was fine, he was looking for ground heavy attack, and seemed to conserve energy in between attempts. He dominated Usman in the 1st, so logically, his gameplan to take Usman down and win the fight on the ground makes sense from his perspective.
-If you trained for a headline fight at middleweight and you are fighting a welterweight on a weeks notice coming off the couch, you should have superior cardio. He didn't, and this is despite an unprepared opponent who isn't the same size. - Khamzat was a welterweight just like Usman just a fight before that, so that's really not a valid excuse. The camp excuse I can roll with, although Usman was waiting for a fight announcement and was close to taking another fight earlier, so he was in shape. And again, Khamzat's cardio was not really a concern in this fight, as much as everyone likes to make it, it just isn't a true statement.