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UFC 254: Khabib vs. Gaethje

Khabib or Gaethje?


  • Total voters
    71
  • Poll closed .

MaestroMike

Gold Member
Finally caught the card cuz I was busy on the weekend ! Whoah! Khabib killed ! True domination. Wish he fought once more to get that perfect 30 fight win streak, but gotta do what ya gotta do !! Hope he enjoys his retirement from fighting.
 

manfestival

Member


I agree with Jones here, there are some caveats (drug test related) but in general I agree. The only bullshit post is obvious, the general public don’t hold him down for his skin colour. His star was supposed to shine just as bright as anybodies in the UFC, I believe he was on track for ridiculous success. He put an end to that himself, very sad to witness as an onlooker.

I agree with Jones here and he also puts up a decent argument for his position. I know that hoes mad but he has a point.
 

O-N-E

Member
I think if they were the same weight Khabib would wreck Jones

Why is no-one prepared for Khabib's leg-tying strategy? I understand that he works fast, but there have to be some basic principles that could keep you safe as long as you stick to them.
 
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Why is no-one prepared for Khabib's leg-tying strategy? I understand that he works fast, but there have to be some basic principles that could keep you safe as long as you stick to them.

Because his grappling is two, three levels above the rest of them all. Khabib uses leg-tying because it is the easiest way for him to neutralize his opponents, not because it is the only trick at his disposal; But the guy is a world class Sambo fighter, a professional Judoka, a BB level and beyond in Jiujitsu. His stand up might not be the flashiest, but it is good enough to be deemed dangerous, and sufficiently strong for him to hold his own against most strikers in the division.
It does not matter, ultimately: Khabib’s technique, strength and mental fortitude makes him literally impossible to take on inside the cage. It is a good thing that he has vacated his position, in that Justin, Dustin and McChicken may finally breath again and aspire to the crown...
 
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SpiceRacz

Member
I agree with Jones here and he also puts up a decent argument for his position. I know that hoes mad but he has a point.

Jones should be ranked higher than him not only P4P, but all time as well. To put it into context where Jon sits all time in his divison: http://www.fightmatrix.com/all-time-mma-rankings/all-time-lightheavyweight.

That's the largest gap among #1 and #2 in any division across MMA by a huge margin. Insane. Even crazier when you consider he became champion at a time when LHW was the deepest division in the sport.

If Khabib kept going, he might surpass Jones, but I find that unlikely.
 

Ornlu

Banned
Jones should be ranked higher than him not only P4P, but all time as well. To put it into context where Jon sits all time in his divison: http://www.fightmatrix.com/all-time-mma-rankings/all-time-lightheavyweight.

That's the largest gap among #1 and #2 in any division across MMA by a huge margin. Insane. Even crazier when you consider he became champion at a time when LHW was the deepest division in the sport.

If Khabib kept going, he might surpass Jones, but I find that unlikely.

LHW has always been, and probably always will be (just by numbers) a much shallower division than LW. There's just a much smaller pool of guys who are large enough to fight at LHW. A fighter who is as dominant at LW as Khabib was should probably be considered better than an equally dominant fighter at LHW, in my opinion.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Yep, if we separate personal life and sports achievements, jon is ahead of khabib for me.

Nah, he's been popped by Usada way too many times, too many controversies both inside and out of the cage, and frankly his record isn't as good.

It doesn't mean shit that his only loss was due to a DQ, he got his fool self disqualified and that counts. He's also been on the fortunate side of a few close decisions, most recently Reyes for example.

Noone has come close to stopping Khabib's wrestling and I'm sorry but 29-0, is straight-up better than 26-1-0 (1 NC). End of.
 

GymWolf

Member
Nah, he's been popped by Usada way too many times, too many controversies both inside and out of the cage, and frankly his record isn't as good.

It doesn't mean shit that his only loss was due to a DQ, he got his fool self disqualified and that counts. He's also been on the fortunate side of a few close decisions, most recently Reyes for example.

Noone has come close to stopping Khabib's wrestling and I'm sorry but 29-0, is straight-up better than 26-1-0 (1 NC). End of.
jon has far more wins against straight killers, more than half of khabib wins are against nobodies or mediocre fighters, for me his record is not really on the level of jon (and i hate that prick), i even heard that some of his first victories were against people who was fighting for the first time there in russia, at least this is what justin said and i have no reason to believe that he was lying.

yes jones was popped by usada, but all the skills and IQ and physical gifts are all real, believing that he was dominant only because of peds is absurd.

i don't care if khabib is undefeated, gsp has 2 loss and he is still considered the number one with jones and khabib during these discussions, same for aldo or silva.

this is really not a discussion that anybody can win, we can just discuss about it and having our preferences.

You can be sure that a lot of people who think that khabib is the goat are gonna talk about how jones is the goat if he manages to win against stipe or ngannou, mark my words.
 
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manfestival

Member
Nah, he's been popped by Usada way too many times, too many controversies both inside and out of the cage, and frankly his record isn't as good.

It doesn't mean shit that his only loss was due to a DQ, he got his fool self disqualified and that counts. He's also been on the fortunate side of a few close decisions, most recently Reyes for example.

Noone has come close to stopping Khabib's wrestling and I'm sorry but 29-0, is straight-up better than 26-1-0 (1 NC). End of.
I get what you are saying but I agree with Gymwolf. This is kinda like the "strength of schedule" in other sports. 1 team can be 14-2 and another can be 16-0. However the 2 teams that the first team lost to could have been earlier and could also be a better team than any team the 16-0 played(this happens quite often in college sports). Another example of this(no disrespect to Khabib since I greatly appreciate his career and have been to one of his fights) is with Ronda Rousey. They claimed she was the GOAT when she cleaned out an empty division. This was until actual talent came through. Now Khabib obviously has gone through far greater caliber opponents than Ronda before she crumbled. Jon has been tested by a bigger pool of high caliber fighters. Khabib's greatest claim to the #1 P4P(which you did not even bring up) is his rounds won/lost. At the end of the day like GymWolf already stated, this is not an argument that can be won or lost since it is subjective. If you feel Khabib is #1 P4P... then good. Just use a better argument than what you used.
 

GymWolf

Member
Just for the record, i don't think that jones deserve the number one, i just prefer thinking that jones, khabib and gsp are on the same level, i don't have a favourite one.
 
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SpiceRacz

Member
Nah, he's been popped by Usada way too many times, too many controversies both inside and out of the cage, and frankly his record isn't as good.

It doesn't mean shit that his only loss was due to a DQ, he got his fool self disqualified and that counts. He's also been on the fortunate side of a few close decisions, most recently Reyes for example.

Noone has come close to stopping Khabib's wrestling and I'm sorry but 29-0, is straight-up better than 26-1-0 (1 NC). End of.

If you compare the level of competition between the two, it's not even close. Jon has also been champion way longer and defended his title more. The only argument for Khabib is the fashion in which he's winning. Outside of that, there is no argument.
 

pr0cs

Member
Khabib didn't really clear out the division, he absolutely stomped on all that were put in front of him but there were still a lot of compelling fights at 155 for him. Which is a knock against him if you compare him vs say GSP who effectively did clear out the weltherweight division, to the point they had to manufacture contenders since there wasn't really anyone left.
I am happy Khabib walked away in fine health and likely a wealthy man but I just don't think he belongs in the GOAT realm.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
If you compare the level of competition between the two, it's not even close. Jon has also been champion way longer and defended his title more. The only argument for Khabib is the fashion in which he's winning. Outside of that, there is no argument.

Level of competition not high enough for you in the recent UFC LW division? C'mon, talk about a murderer's row of talent! Certainly stronger than LHW has ever been.

Honestly, take a long hard look at Bones' record. Its padded out with multiple victories over the same fighters and guys late in their careers. You can pretty much discard every fight before Machida, and after that the only fighters with sufficient juice to get themselves back into contention were Gus and DC!

He's had hard outs against Reyes (a fight he lost imho), and a razor thin decision against a crocked Thiago Santos, taking more damage in both those fights than anything bar maybe his first meeting with Gus... and now he's leaving LHW for the traditionally thin HW division.... hmmmm.

I respect Jones skill and toughness as a fighter. No doubt he's one of the best of all time, but Khabib has just been more impressive, consistently, and he's exiting with a perfect record.
 
Yep, if we separate personal life and sports achievements, jon is ahead of khabib for me.
yes jones was popped by usada, but all the skills and IQ and physical gifts are all real, believing that he was dominant only because of peds is absurd.

i don't care if khabib is undefeated, gsp has 2 loss and he is still considered the number one with jones and khabib during these discussions, same for aldo or silva.

this is really not a discussion that anybody can win, we can just discuss about it and having our preferences.

You can be sure that a lot of people who think that khabib is the goat are gonna talk about how jones is the goat if he manages to win against stipe or ngannou, mark my words.

All tarnished by USADA. Jones is a cheat. His record should have more than 1 loss. The NC against DC should be a loss. If you are caught cheating then your record is tarnished and so to go into Greatest of all time consideration is absurd. Look at Jones performances after he was caught I had him losing to Reyes & Santos. Gustafsson as well took him to hospital (not for first or last time). His 10+ inch reach advantage & staying on outside was fine, when it wasn't as clear he got smashed (Gustafsson). Victories prior to him getting caught tarnished. A sporting commission says you can't fight, we'll move the event to another state. Blachowicz beats Jones if they fought imo.

Pound 4 pound ranking & general ranking is time sensitive (sometimes) a la Ortega & is voted for by MMA journalists. If you've seen 1 press conference then you know its a pile of shit at the most. If they used former athletes for these & even judging then it would be less contentious.

To put Jon Jones in the same conversation as Muhammad Ali is insane to me. Khabib less so.
 

GymWolf

Member
Like i said, it's all pretty subjective i think, for every argument there is a counter-argument.

Also when i talk about p4p i still mean inside mma, not every fight sport like boxe or muai thai.
 
Jones should be ranked higher than him not only P4P, but all time as well. To put it into context where Jon sits all time in his divison: http://www.fightmatrix.com/all-time-mma-rankings/all-time-lightheavyweight.

That's the largest gap among #1 and #2 in any division across MMA by a huge margin. Insane. Even crazier when you consider he became champion at a time when LHW was the deepest division in the sport.

If Khabib kept going, he might surpass Jones, but I find that unlikely.
If you go by accomplishment then Jones wins, but a pound for pound list judges fighters based off their CURRENT skill. Jones is barely getting through his fights by the skin of his teeth currently, even losing fights on some judges score cards and Khabib is dominating like no one else and never lost a round. Jones isn't the fighter he used to be and Khabib's skill is far above his comparatively.
 

JimiNutz

Banned
Whittaker is a god damn monster.

For sure.
I've always liked Whittaker. I remember watching him originally on the UK vs Australia season of the Ultimate Fighter with my housemates. The UK team were smashing through the Aussie team and being quite smug about it but Whittaker was this quietly confident beast and I'm pretty sure he ended up winning the entire thing despite the UK dominance that season.

He used to fight at Welterweight back then and I always thought he'd be an undersized middleweight when he decided to move up (and still do really) yet he's had so much success at middleweight fighting bigger guys. He comes across as really likeable in interviews too.
 

highrider

Banned
This biatch can hold the camera while his Irish spouse gets mauled by the Eastern bear in a street fight. Once Khabib is finished with McChicken, he will probably lunge at the screen like in those horror found footage movies...That is the last time anybody will get to enjoy the infamous Danis’s girly screams.


Just send location!

You’re not actually beating anyone up dude.
 

GymWolf

Member
If you go by accomplishment then Jones wins, but a pound for pound list judges fighters based off their CURRENT skill. Jones is barely getting through his fights by the skin of his teeth currently, even losing fights on some judges score cards and Khabib is dominating like no one else and never lost a round. Jones isn't the fighter he used to be and Khabib's skill is far above his comparatively.
Skin of his teeth is a little bit exagerated, he still doesn't have mark on his face nor he get dropped at all, he is still pretty smart at avoiding damage even when he lose some rounds, if you rewatch the reyes fight, 80% of punches from reyes didn't hit the target at all.

The only one who caused some damage (to his legs) was santos and before that the first fight against gus.
And against santos he didn't even tried to take him down because he was trying to prove a point (if you think that jones can't take down a guy with both legs fucked you don't know jon jones)
 
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You’re not actually beating anyone up dude.

tenor.gif
 

Adam Wart

Neo Member
I guess that comparing Khabib to Jones is a bit incorrect towards Jon since Jon is dominating in his division and is scared of no one while Khabib avoided fighting Ferguson. And the reasons for his leaving mma are far-fetched. He is too young to leave too.
 
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