This is some impressive spin, but Volk and Dustin were not deserved LW contenders. It's downright embarrassing to fluff Islam for beating Volk in particular when the size difference was so extreme.
Also nobody is taking away the Chuck win. We are talking about his wins as defending champ - not the perfectly legit win he claimed to become chaml.
Nobody is saying Islam is shit. I am saying his title reign has been shit. Two different things.
At least Islam didn’t create an interim title situation twice with inactivity.
You can argue #1 p4p Volk > 2+ years off Conor. If you do the butt butt he beat a FW, you can say the same about Conor really. They both essentially moved up to fight for LW belt.
Dustin x2 and Justin are fairly equal regardless. Dustin was a 5 fight win streak when he got Khabib and Justin 4 fight win streak (and arguable every guy he beat were washed or not that great. (Vick, Cowboy, Barboza and Tony?) weren’t all those guys winless after that minus Barboza who is a .500 fighter and loses half his fights on the reg. He also changed weight classes.
Dustin was 5-2 going into the Islam fight since losing to Khabib and he was 5-1-1 (both streaks he was brutally KO’ed in 1 loss) going into the Khabib title fight. Justin losing and Arman wanting 6 months to train for him made him the best choice to remain active honestly. It’s not terribly undeserving.
If Islam were Khabib he would have taken 13-14 months off after Volk 2 and we would have Arman vs Dustin for interim title.
Also Dustin may not have deserved the fight this time around but he’s still a threat. IMO Dustin and Justin lost value as a win regardless. They were both soundly beaten by Charles and have taken losses after the declaration by Khabib that “they’re the best and nobody is left”. Neither were never a strong and solid #2 like other champions had in their divisions.
I do think short notice Volk is the weakest win between the two for defenses.
Khabib lacks a marquee win. Like someone with crazy momentum that was a solidified top 3 for a long period of time (without squatting or fuckery). He almost had it with Tony. Islam has that in Charles and Volk, 2 guys with insane momentum that he defeated.