Gaethje v Kahbib

[kramer_456]

I'm calling it now. I think Gaethje beats Khabib. Can't wait for this one! Styles make fights. This is the worst match up for Khabib ever. Khabib has never faced an elite UFC fighter who also has a 1st class wrestling background. There are a few like Tibau and Abel Trujillo who are B level fighters and wrestlers who he didn't do so well against. He's been lucky that his division doesn't have the likes of Kumaru, George or Colby in it!

[Cerberus]

I am surprised that Khabib has even taken the fight, after the death of his father I thought he would retire undefeated, never to return to the octagon or the UFC. I cannot believe they can be paying him enough to make it worth his time.

If he proceeds, I think it has the making of a great fight but with a 28/0 record having fought the best in his weight class in the UFC  and been two-time Combat Sambo World Champion and unbeaten on the Russian circuit you cannot dismiss him. I believe that he will beat Gaethje  but admit to being concerned about his mental conditioning following the passing of his father.

[kramer_456]

3 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

having fought the best in his weight class in the UFC

I agree with everything you say apart from this. He really hasn't fought the best of his division? Gaethje and Tony are the best of his division right now. So unless he fights them he has really had an easy run. His style matches the rest pretty easily. And the rest of his record is pretty padded considering he came into MMA as a world champ Sambo fighter, fighting chumps with very little record. His 15th fight was a 0-0 MMA fighter. Until he fights a legit superstar who also has wrestling like Gaeithje, to me his record is suspect. Or say Tony who is a killer off his back! He's been lucky that there are no legit wrestling beasts like Kamaru, Woodley or Colby in his division.

[Cerberus]

2 minutes ago, kramer_456 said:

I agree with everything you say apart from this. He really hasn't fought the best of his division? Gaethje and Tony are the best of his division right now. So unless he fights them he has really had an easy run. His style matches the rest pretty easily. And the rest of his record is pretty padded considering he came into MMA as a world champ Sambo fighter, fighting chumps with very little record. His 15th fight was a 0-0 MMA fighter. Until he fights a legit superstar who also has wrestling like Gaeithje, to me his record is suspect. Or say Tony who is a killer off his back! He's been lucky that there are no legit wrestling beasts like Kamaru, Woodley or Colby in his division.

Kramer, one cannot challenge your logic regards UFC but the Russian Sambo circuit can be a killer in itself. Without doubt this is the biggest fight Khabib has faced  in the UFC and Gaethje  is a beast, however I have yet to see him resort to wrestling in the octagon, surely he should have beaten Poirier if he had used said wrestling? 

I would not bet money on this fight but hope it stacks up as fight of the year, as opposed to fight of the night  the only guarantee is, I will be watching it.

 

[kramer_456]

18 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

surely he should have beaten Poirier if he had used said wrestling? 

Have you watched his early fights. He destroyed guys with his wrestling. But he was winning non stop with his do or die style until he met Porier and Alvarez. Why change when it was working? Since then he has completely changed his style. So you can't compare the guy who fought Porier with the guy who fought Tony! He's a whole different ball game now. Plus guys like Porier couldn't learn to wrestle like Gaethje in 10 years of training. Being a wrestler from age 4, state champ at high school and then Div 1 AA at college. This is a rare human when it comes to wrestling. No-one can mimic that no matter how much they train later in life. Khabib has never faced a guy like this. Ever!

Watch the Tibau and Trujillo fights. Khabib couldn't take Tibau down at all. And Trujillo reversed him multiple times and got on top of him heaps. If Gaethje does that its going to be a lot different to Trujillo.

Edited August 7, 2020 by kramer_456

[Cerberus]

1 hour ago, kramer_456 said:

Have you watched his early fights. He destroyed guys with his wrestling. But he was winning non stop with his do or die style until he met Porier and Alvarez. Why change when it was working? Since then he has completely changed his style. So you can't compare the guy who fought Porier with the guy who fought Tony! He's a whole different ball game now. Plus guys like Porier couldn't learn to wrestle like Gaethje in 10 years of training. Being a wrestler from age 4, state champ at high school and then Div 1 AA at college. This is a rare human when it comes to wrestling. No-one can mimic that no matter how much they train later in life. Khabib has never faced a guy like this. Ever!

Watch the Tibau and Trujillo fights. Khabib couldn't take Tibau down at all. And Trujillo reversed him multiple times and got on top of him heaps. If Gaethje does that its going to be a lot different to Trujillo.

Just watched the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Abel Trujillo fight, Gaethje better be a far better wrestler than Abel who was dominated throughout. Looking forward to it even more now. 

[kramer_456]

28 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

Just watched the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Abel Trujillo fight, Gaethje better be a far better wrestler than Abel who was dominated throughout. Looking forward to it even more now. 

Yeah Trujillo gave up. But you can see how he kept getting out and on top of Khabib. Some pretty good GnP on top. He was NAIA All American. Quite a bit lower than NCAA Div 1. But he was having some success before he gave up. He never went anywhere in the UFC where as Gaethjie has been a star apart from the best of the best. Literally no one has reversed Khabib like he did, even Porier. So shows you what a legit wrestler can do compared to a non-wrestler. Watch the Tibau fight. Khabib got zero taken downs and Tibau got 2 on him. Plus Khabib got tired in a 3 round fight where he couldn't get him down. So different! Me and a lot of people thought Tibau won that fight. Khabib did nothing apart from move forwad.

 

Edited August 7, 2020 by kramer_456

[MrJ200]

It's going to be a hugging match. Khabib wins and will retire, meanwhile Mcgregor will be begging Dana White to take him back from the 5th (?) time of retirement.

[Addlepated]

I like both of these fighters. I'm fine with either one winning but I think Khabib will.

[Thom Savage]

This should be a great fight, but it's hard to know just how good Gaethje's wrestling truly is. He hasn't had to use it too much in his career in the UFC thus far and certainly not against someone on the level of Khabib. It will be interesting to see if he's able to stuff enough take-downs to give himself the time to do damage on the feet. He looked incredible in his last match against Tony. 

[kramer_456]

8 hours ago, Thom Savage said:

This should be a great fight, but it's hard to know just how good Gaethje's wrestling truly is. He hasn't had to use it too much in his career in the UFC thus far and certainly not against someone on the level of Khabib. It will be interesting to see if he's able to stuff enough take-downs to give himself the time to do damage on the feet. He looked incredible in his last match against Tony. 

I went back and watched every fight in his career. In the early days he used his wrestling a lot. His 1st pro win he won by body slamming the guy and knocking him out. He uses it a lot to keep guys off him. Then he'll collar tie them and hit them with big upper cuts while he's holding their head.

[Thom Savage]

On 09/08/2020 at 05:30, kramer_456 said:

I went back and watched every fight in his career. In the early days he used his wrestling a lot. His 1st pro win he won by body slamming the guy and knocking him out. He uses it a lot to keep guys off him. Then he'll collar tie them and hit them with big upper cuts while he's holding their head.

Cool. It's always been said his wrestling is great and I'm not doubting it. It just hasn't been on display against any of the top tier UFC fighters.  Will make for an exciting matchup.

[kramer_456]

1 hour ago, Thom Savage said:

Cool. It's always been said his wrestling is great and I'm not doubting it. It just hasn't been on display against any of the top tier UFC fighters.  Will make for an exciting matchup.

Interesting thing came out this week in interviews. Gaethje during his college career wrestled Jordan Burroughs twice and stuffed over 20 of his double leg take downs. Burroughs is 1xOlympic and 4xWorld Champ gold medalist.

[kramer_456]

On 07/08/2020 at 22:42, MrJ200 said:

It's going to be a hugging match.

If you don't understand or like MMA stick to Soccer or whatever....

[manni2011]

5 hours ago, kramer_456 said:

Interesting thing came out this week in interviews. Gaethje during his college career wrestled Jordan Burroughs twice and stuffed over 20 of his double leg take downs. Burroughs is 1xOlympic and 4xWorld Champ gold medalist.

It’s impressive that he was able to stop Burroughs (but he did still lose the matches) but it’s a very different sort of takedown.  Burroughs is going for incredibly powerful and fast blast doubles.  His ability to close space is just shocking. You either evade the shot or you get taken down (or blasted off the mats in Ben Askrens case)  

Khabibs shots are just for entry. It’s rare his initial shot secures a takedown. It’s the third or fourth step in the chain that does. The other aspect is that he’s chaining takedowns in somewhat unorthodox ways (I mean that from my perspective as a former  college wrestler, now a middle aged asshole with opinion). 

Regardless, should be a fun fight and will answer questions about both guys. In  the meantime we have Cormier/Miocic to argue about. 

[English rose]

When is this fight happening?

[kramer_456]

7 hours ago, manni2011 said:

It’s impressive that he was able to stop Burroughs (but he did still lose the matches) but it’s a very different sort of takedown.  Burroughs is going for incredibly powerful and fast blast doubles.  His ability to close space is just shocking. You either evade the shot or you get taken down (or blasted off the mats in Ben Askrens case)  

Khabibs shots are just for entry. It’s rare his initial shot secures a takedown. It’s the third or fourth step in the chain that does. The other aspect is that he’s chaining takedowns in somewhat unorthodox ways (I mean that from my perspective as a former  college wrestler, now a middle aged asshole with opinion). 

Regardless, should be a fun fight and will answer questions about both guys. In  the meantime we have Cormier/Miocic to argue about. 

Yeah I get it. My point has always been that in Khabib's career in the UFC he's never faced a high level UFC guy that ALSO has good wrestling. How many of Burroughs double legs do you reckon Dustin or Connor could stop? haha

The only guy Khabib fought with top college wrestling was Abel Trujillo who never even made it into the top 15 in the UFC. But although Khabib mauled him, that fight has the record for the most take downs in UFC history at 21 for only a 3 round fight. Khabib took him down but he couldn't hold him down. Trujillo just stood back up pretty much every time. Khabib even got him in a triangle he couldn't finish, mounted him, had his back with body triangle. Trujillo even reversed him and mounted him at one stage. Trujillo has average striking and zero leg kicks. James Vick mauled Trujillo and submitted him. Gaethje is a better wrestler, has great striking and some of the best leg kicks of all time. 

I'm not saying Khabib can't win. I just think everyone overestimates how good his game is because "styles make fights" and he's had a dream run of being one of the best MMA wrestlers we've ever seen fighting top level guys with no wrestling base.

That's about to change.

[kramer_456]

19 minutes ago, English rose said:

When is this fight happening?

Oct 25

[English rose]

Thanks.

[Cerberus]

On 08/08/2020 at 11:31, Addlepated said:

I like both of these fighters. I'm fine with either one winning but I think Khabib will.

I agree, mainly as I want to see him fight GSP.

 

[jj94]

i don't even really like Khabib, but i can't see him losing to Gaethje. If anything, the fact his father died will give him even more motivation to fulfill his legacy in LW. I can see Gaethje fighting him off better than most, but Khabib will eventually prevail and the ground and pound will really come into play round 3/4. 

[OoJohnnyoO]

Moment of truth not too far away. Not too sure who wins and how, but hopefully it's a solid contest.

 

I am hoping Rob Whittaker gets a solid W though, I've been following him since he was in The Ultimate Fighter.

Fun fact; we worked for the same employer before he went onto become a UFC superstar, although in very different sectors 

 

Main card starts at 5am AEDT, I finish work at 6am so should catch most of it by the time I get home 

[OoJohnnyoO]

HOLY FUCK!!!

[Mr Wombat]

7 hours ago, OoJohnnyoO said:

Moment of truth not too far away. Not too sure who wins and how, but hopefully it's a solid contest.

 

I am hoping Rob Whittaker gets a solid W though, I've been following him since he was in The Ultimate Fighter.

Fun fact; we worked for the same employer before he went onto become a UFC superstar, although in very different sectors 

 

Main card starts at 5am AEDT, I finish work at 6am so should catch most of it by the time I get home 

Rob Whittaker is one of the nice guys. Hope he gets another chance at a title

[MickyBangBang]

Khabib surely has to be the GOAT now.