Tony was lucky to never face Khabib

It's the opposite. It would've been better had Tony gotten that big payday and would've lost to the GOAT, so it wouldn't have hurt him much.

Instead, he never got the cash, and now he's losing to Gaethje and Aloe Vera.
 
Tony 2 to 3 years ago was a different tony of today. I think Tony is done now.
 
Tony 2 to 3 years ago was a different tony of today. I think Tony is done now.
how ? he had better fighting IQ ? better grappling skills ? he got better wrestling lmao ?

castillo, kevin lee on staph and bjj bottom fighter oliveira showed us what they could do to ferguson on the ground. Khabib would ve crushed him against the cage and mauled him, tony was saved by the MMA gods.
 
If Tony face him the 1st 3 times they were scheduled his win streak would be 5 not 12

If it were the 1st or 2nd time it may have changed his career drastically come to think of it
 
Tony 2 to 3 years ago was a different tony of today. I think Tony is done now.
tony 3 years ago fought kevin lee.

he got knocked down, taken down, guard passsed, and mounted.

i agree that he's old enough and has had enough fights to show signs of slowing down, but stylistically he's the exact same guy, and it became pretty clear that a strong ground fighter would be very problematic for him in the lee fight.
 
I understand the point you are making, but it's wildly inaccurate to compare Askren's style of wrestling with Khabib. Khabib is an expert in combat Sambo, which has an extremely different focus than Olympic wrestling.

Khabib vs Maia is an interesting style matchup, but I think we can both agree it would not look like Askren-Maia.

I think Khabib would just stuff the TD's and beat Maia on the feet like everyone else did.
 
Yeah, always seemed like a really bad match up to me.

Also hilarious how people said Khabib would mentally fold if he got cut by Tony with elbows from the bottom. Dude has been fighting in his Dagestani mountain village since 5 years old, you think he's never seen blood?
 
i wouldn't agree that his bottom game sucked, but i've been saying forever that khabib would've annihilated him on the ground.

that became clear when kevin lee took him down several times, passed his guard, and mounted him for an extended period of time. if kevin lee can do that to you, khabib will mop the floor with you.

doesn't mean that ferguson's groundgame is bad, but uneducated fans mistake his spamming of triangles from the guard as some world class jiu jitsu. it's not.
When Lee had him in full mount and Tony was throwing his legs up trying to hook under Lee's arms with his feet reminded me of a beginning grappler.

Then somehow this idea that Tony being active on the ground was good enough to overcome one of the greatest top games ever seen in mma started and I never understood it.
 
The hindsight-shertards can fuck right off. Tony is past his prime. Yes, Khabib would have taken him down and controlled him, but there is no doubt that in a 5 round fight he would have sliced Khabib's face open with elbows and gotten many submission attempts.
Once Khabib starts bleeding all over the place you don't know how he would have reacted because he never had to. So he might have just kept the fight standing which would have favored prime Tony. All in all I think prime vs prime this would have been a great close fight.
Keep dreaming.
 
Tony was overrated because people overrated pettis and cowboy, both far past their primes by the time Tony beat them.
 
Tony in the Charles fight seemed to forget about his so called lightsaber elbows and legendary scrambles... also wasn't he meant to be a good wrestler? Dude was getting rag dolled like he's a noob.
 
RDA was #2 when Tony beat him.
The eye poke was a huge turning point in that, as was the illegal kick in the Barboza fight, possibly his two best wins and they both swung massively after Tony cheated.
 
When Lee had him in full mount and Tony was throwing his legs up trying to hook under Lee's arms with his feet reminded me of a beginning grappler.

Then somehow this idea that Tony being active on the ground was good enough to overcome one of the greatest top games ever seen in mma started and I never understood it.
most people just don't know anything about jiu jitsu.

i mean, not long ago i was arguing with someone here who claimed nate diaz could win the mundials. it was ridiculous.

when penn was the lightweight champion, you had tons of threads about how his ground game was overrated because he was just RNCing everyone. people think lots of exotic submissions make you a top grappler, because they've never done jiu jitsu, or even followed it. their only exposure to it is through MMA, and so of course they assume that the flashier the moves, the better the practitioner. oh and of course, number of submission wins equals skill level.

meanwhile true bjj greats in the sport like maia and jacare were finishing people with the same moves you get taught in your first month of training... but the positional brilliance they displayed to get those finishes was lost on 90% of the fan base.
 
What I am saying is that he avoided his stylistic threats. Again, you know EXACTLY what I'm saying.

And saying Khabib retired in not debatable. Saying he decided to retire undefeated is also not debatable. What the fuck does that have to do with anything?

He decided to retire before facing his biggest challenges? You want a medal for that?



Look at this post... another "would" guy.

Your boyfriend WOULD have fought Tony in his prime if he didn't eat tiramisu before the fight. If HE AND HIS TEAM didn't INTENTIONALLY go to an UNSANCTIONED doctor after the weigh ins and didn't INTENTIONALLY evade that fight.
Avoided stylistic threats? Is it Khabib's job to find the hardest fights possible? Why is this laid on him only,and not everyone else? When Khabib won the title,should he only give title shots to wrestlers who are ranked well below #1?

<36>
 
Back
Top