Were Arman and Brady the biggest challenges for Islam (beyond Shavkat)?

[phillystyleswag]

LW- Topuria, Arman

WW- Shavkat, Morales, maybe Garry

 

[Mmmmmmma1234]

Please, don’t derail the topic toward Ilia: at 155 it would’ve been the awesomest fight, but they never shared the division.

It pisses me off that we never got to see the rematch between Islam and Arman. I’d pick Islam as the favorite, but I think Arman is an absolute monster of a fighter and he would’ve been his biggest threat at 155.

At WW, I think Sean didn’t need the fight vs Morales and had already earned the right to be the next challenger. It’s a shame that’s no longer the case.
I can imagine Islam picking him apart on the feet, but I don’t think he’s trained much on how to stay out of takedown or clinch range because… well, why would he?
But Sean has top-tier wrestling/grappling and he’s stronger than submarine bolts.

Shavkat needs to win one more fight before getting a title shot, and we’ll see how he comes back after the injury and such a long layoff.

It’s a shame that Dana’s anger robbed fans of an Islam–Arman 2, and that unnecessary matchmaking might keep us from getting an Islam–Sean.

There's a world were Islam went up in weight years ago while Khamzat was able to make ww. That'd have been better than all three of your suggestions imo.

 

[DapperDave]

Islam wont fight Morales. His at the end of his career, looking for legacy fights and to retire in the next year or two. Hes talking Usman and Topuria. Khabib and his team wont want that fight for Islam, seriously.

I know.
Because Islam is not a goat or a pfp, and never will be. He will stay at WW, cherry-pick a few easy fights, duck all the killers, and ufc will let him do it because ufc is a very successful show with a very good business model, and that business model has nothing to do with making meaningful fights or determining real champs.

Morales would fuck Islam up. It would be awesome to watch.

Time is the ultimate decider. Sooner or later, someone will knock Morales TFO, and he will lose some of that sheer confidence that makes him so dangerous, but until that happens, he is a stone killer. Gonna be hard to beat.