So Gaethje is fighting RDA now ?

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I think both Oliviera & Gaethje are going to wait & see what happens in the Poirier/Conor fight. If Poirier wins they will both call him out & 1 of them will get to fight Poirier for the vacant belt.
If Poirier wins, Conor will demand an immediate rematch (actually a rubber match), which Poirier will obviously agree to because it is much more lucrative than fighting Gaethje or Oliveira for the vacant belt.

It is quite likely that Conor and Poirier will be fighting for the vacant belt on January 23. Dana is meeting with Khabib in Abu Dhabi that week. Expect Khabib to double down on his retirement. In response, Dana will use the press conference during fight week to announce that Conor and Poirier will be fighting for the belt. Dana will figure that the way to draw Khabib out of retirement is Conor having his belt. Conor holding the belt would make a Conor-Khabib rematch do at least 3 million PPV buys.
 
Lightweight division in the UFC is so stacked. And now that Khabib is maybe offering his belt up for grabs all the top 10 are coming out swinging to get a peice of it. It's awesome.

When Khabib was undisputed champion a lot of these guys were willing to wait out an entire year just to get a favorable top 10 fight or shot at the title.
 
RDA is 1 and 2 in his past 3...
Oliveira is 8 and 0 st lightweight with 1 lopsided decision.

Clearly not RDA but Oliveira.
 
Khabib took him down with ease. He didn't even have to string them together to get him to the ground. It looks like any decent wrestler could take him down without much effort. What is his takedown defense percentage?
lol.. not every "decent wrestler" is Khabib.
 
If Poirier wins, Conor will demand an immediate rematch (actually a rubber match), which Poirier will obviously agree to because it is much more lucrative than fighting Gaethje or Oliveira for the vacant belt.

It is quite likely that Conor and Poirier will be fighting for the vacant belt on January 23. Dana is meeting with Khabib in Abu Dhabi that week. Expect Khabib to double down on his retirement. In response, Dana will use the press conference during fight week to announce that Conor and Poirier will be fighting for the belt. Dana will figure that the way to draw Khabib out of retirement is Conor having his belt. Conor holding the belt would make a Conor-Khabib rematch do at least 3 million PPV buys.
Definitely possible but I dont think Khabib will fight Conor again, I doubt he even fights again at all.
 
He had only spent a few seconds on the ground in the UFC prior to the Khabib fight, I believe Poirier had a brief TD.
Surprising to hear after seeing how easy it was for Khabib to get him down. I know Khabib is the best grappler in the division, but it was no resistance at all. It looked like he had no wrestling training. I do remember seeing a clip of Justin almost getting choked out but saved by the bell.
 
lol.. not every "decent wrestler" is Khabib.
How does that change anything? Khabib is one of the best grapplers the MMA world has ever seen. That doesn't change the fact that he had more trouble getting Conor to the ground than he did Justin. Justin's takedown defense was nonexistent. Raging Al put up a better fight than Justin and he had no time to train for Khabib.
 
On the feet, Gaethje would chop Conor up, but, dude, his zhoo zhits looked non existent vs Khabib. I think a whole lot of the guys at LW smell blood. Even Tony would find it in him to dive for Justin's legs in a rematch.
If he lost like that to anybody but Khabib id agree but it was against Khabib. We gotta factor that in.
 
Oof Gaethje’s path back to the title is going to consist of one or two of the worst match ups in the division for him. Hopefully he’s getting that mat work in.
 
Is Oliveira really that good or did Ferg just have no ground defense?
 
Khabib exposed gaethjes BJJ but who's going to be able to take him down so easily? No one has the same level of wrestling as khabib.
Both Alvarez and Porier took him down...
 
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If he lost like that to anybody but Khabib id agree but it was against Khabib. We gotta factor that in.
That's the only slow down point. He looked suspiciously like a fish out of water - in ways that Doostin, Conor and Al didn't. Even MJ. But it is Khabib, you're right, so we'll see I guess.

I do hope you're right cause Justin's kind of my favorite fighter at LW right now.
 
I'd much rather Oliveira. RDA looked good in his return to lightweight, but he should fight one other top 10 guy first. Him vs Islam would be a good one to see where both guys are at.
Actually gaethje rda. Oliveira should ideally be allowed to chill and fight the jan 23 winner. He's done the most out of everyone in the division so far. Longest winstreak, hottest winstreak. I mean gaethje beat tony... But did he beat kevin lee and tony back to back? Gaethje vs oliveira is goalpost shifting.
 
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Khabib exposed gaethjes BJJ but who's going to be able to take him down so easily? No one has the same level of wrestling as khabib.

That's true....Khabib was by far the best wrestler in the division. I can't think of anyone else who'd take Gaethje down right after eating a painful leg kick. That said, it's at least possible that RDA, Oliveira, Chandler, Lee, Gillespie, etc. could take him down. Gaethje has pretty good TDD and is quite good at getting back to his feet...but looks awful once he's in a bad spot on the ground. I'm basing this on the two times we've seen it: the Khabib fight and some no-name guy in WSOF making him look bad on the ground. I heard Firmino had him in some trouble in WSOF as well but I never saw that fight. It ended with a doctor's stoppage for Firmino's cut.
 
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Is Oliveira really that good or did Ferg just have no ground defense?

Ferg's TDD defense is pretty awful (especially now with his age and wear) but his submission defense and bottom game is a lot better than Gaethje's.
 
With Khabib retiring and Ferguson falling off of a cliff, RDA actually has a shot to become LW champ again.
Nope BUT imagine Hooker becomes a UFC Champ the CKB Gym (City Kickboxing) will have a lot of UFC Champs and it has already have 2 champs Izzy and Volk
 
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