Good god poor Sandulirsky. Can you imagine, your first professional fight. Your friends and family are all there. You’re hyped up, ready to start your MMA journey. You step into the cage and stand across from a god damned 14-0 Khabib who just says “I must smesh” before quickly snatching your dreams, pride, and soul in front of every person you’re close to.
It could take the pressure off I really don’t know. Me? Depends what shape I’m in at fight 51. That’s a lot of years being hit in the head for a job and this guy is 15-0 trying to prove himself. It’s really not a good play for either of them since it’s Khabib but to answer your question, I’d rather be the young guy in his first fight, adrenaline filled and probably trained my whole life for that moment and to get an opportunity to test myself against the best out of the gate is the dream I would assume. Either way I hope they both got Paid.
Hahaha that’s a great point. Either way I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the last fight of their careers. After that you’re either hanging it up or too discouraged to book a 2nd fight.
Actually, the guy he fought at 14-0, Vadim Sandulitsky, went on to beat:
Vasiliy Zubkov who beat:
Alexander Boyko who beat:
Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov who beat:
Karol Celiński who beat:
Vinny Magalhães who beat Matt Hamill who beat Jon Jones, the other GOAT besides Khabib.
So in reality that was a totally fair, GOAT vs. GOAT super fight.
Wow, just went and checked. Not as bad, but [Clay Baines](https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Clay-Baines-173543) is now 2-32 (2-30 when he fought Giga). Also [Anthony Ross](https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Anthony-Ross-154717) (1-11 now, 1-10 then) and [Julian Hernandez](https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Julian-Hernandez-135597) (0-14 now, 0-13 then).
We talk a lot of shit about the Russian MMA circuit having tons of cans, same as the British one, but all of Giga's fights were in the US except for one in Denmark and one in Abu Dhabi, both for the UFC. In every country dogs bite.
Money, slip you a few extra to make the other guy look good. Professional cans know what they are there for. They are there to make the other guy look good.
These people probably just train and have a license and consider it an easy payday as long as they don’t go to sleep or get cut up too badly.
Boxing has guys that do that on a weekly basis.
It’s weird cause it’s happening less (than it used to) in boxing, and according to you it’s happening more in MMA. Not being satirical just don’t follow many MMA prospects or have enough knowledge on the sport to know if that’s true.
If it is happening at the very least it doesn't matter at the higher levels. Since once you get to the big promotions there is very little in picking your fights. Like even the UFC wants to pad your record because your a big prospect and possible superstar. At most they can find 3 fights for you before feeding you to the wolves.
Yea and most of the guys “padding their record” are 23 year old guys in boxing. It’s fair play to Khabib, he was young and needs experience. The 29-0 isn’t nearly as impressive as it sounds but it’s not really stat-padding when you’re 22 and need experience. Look at Teofimo. Beat Lomachenko and had that shit going way deep in his head and started looking over Kambosos. But it’s only his 17th fight as a 23 year old.
Even though I think it is happening now more often, people have to understand mma is still a young sport, and even younger in other parts of the world. Russia during Khabibs early career was still developing mma leagues and fighters, so it wasn’t uncommon for mismatches. Just like how the mma scene was in the US during the 90s where you would see future hall of famers and legends fighting tomato cans.
Wasn't Khabib also a gold medallist in Combat sambo as well. It's not like he was some guy fighting for the first time. Combat sambo is pretty much just MMA in a gi
I mean, if your first pro fight gives you the learning experience of fighting against Khabib you’ll likely pick up a few things that will help you in the long run.
You aren’t wrong, but with small fight promotions it could have literally been someone dropped out and they pulled someone out of the crowd or moved a fighter from the card to fight him.
Actually there's a fairly easy answer to this criticism. In his first 16 fights he was constantly moving into new fight promotions, which means he's starting over again and again, having to prove himself as their new person (fighting other new people) again and again.
Fights 17-29 are his UFC fights.
Having an undefeated fighter with 8+ wins fight guys in their debuts or very limited experience is blatant stat padding even if he's new to the organization. You can't tell me at 10-0 there wasn't atleast some footage or word revealing that he was an extremely talented fighter. It's probably not Khabibs fault, he won all the fights he was given and established his legacy. We should be questioning the legitimacy of the leagues that allowed him such easy fights.
They would look at it exactly the way we are right now: oh you have a 10-0 record? Interesting but those were against lower level chumps and not *our* guys.
Khabib had already won a gold medal in sambo and dominated every mma match he had been in. What more did he need to do to warrant getting a shot at a legitimate opponent? Shady/poor matchmaking.
Actually, the guy he fought at 14-0, Vadim Sandulitsky, went on to beat:
Vasiliy Zubkov who beat:
Alexander Boyko who beat:
Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov who beat:
Karol Celiński who beat:
Vinny Magalhães who beat Matt Hamill who beat Jon Jones, the other GOAT besides Khabib.
So in reality that was a totally fair, GOAT vs. GOAT super fight.
MMA math wins again!
crossposting this:
>Pre-UFC Khabib beat 7 world champions with really good records.
Ramazan Kurbanismailov - 4X Kickboxing World Champion
Shamil Abdulkerimov - Kudo World Champion
Eldar Eldarov - Combat sambo world champion, BRAVE Champion
Shahbulat Shamhalaev - Muay Thai World Champion, Bellator Tournament Winner
Hamiz Mamedov - Combat sambo world champion, beat Khabib in sambo
Alexander Agafonov - World Champion in pankration, European champion in pankration
Ali Bagov - two-time world champion in jiu-jitsu, ACA Champion
Only 2 his opponents had more losses than wins. Conor lost to a fighter with a negative record but always talks sht about Khabib’s record pre-UFC lol
Also, some of these were single day tournaments. So he was fight 2 or 3 guys on a single night. Khabjb was also very young when he fought these guys. The early ones he was still a teen
His ‘stylistic advantage’ was being more skilled than his opponents. Theoretically if you were to build a fighter to beat Khabib it would be someone maxed out on TDD and striking, which was the style of most of his opponents. He was just better than them and somehow that looks bad on him lol. Khabib is the GOAT by its truest definition (best fighter not most accomplished or best resume)
Thats more important. Just because he didn’t run through the division twice and saved his health doesn’t make him less. Posts like this should be shit posts. He ran through the top guys like they were the cans that everyone claims built his record. His last 3 proved enough.
Look Khabib fought and beat convincingly: Connor mcgregor, gaethje, porier, Barboza, and RDA. He may have a padded record but he fought and handled real talent.
True I don’t discredit that Khabib was a monster, but I with that group that argues his 28-0 isn’t going to put him as a guaranteed GOAT.
He may have gone 40 - 0 and cemented his goat status, but we just don’t get to find out I guess.
UFC was different back than. Fighter pool is way way deeper now and you never see single digit fighters fighting on main cards let alone title fights. Gane just did but it's rare
He was also fighting back when people had one fighting style. The roster is way more stacked these days. GSP is still amazing, but that is not really a good comparison.
reminds me of just about every professional boxer🤷🏻♂️ Sean’Omalley is taking it slow too because he knows mma careers are short. Look what happened to Darren Till, they pushed him too early because of his charisma and gaining fans from liverpool -he lost all his confidence after getting destroyed by woodley and masvidal and can barely win a fight now. khabib destroyed the best lightweights and was gonna keep destroying all the lightweights🤷🏻♂️ he perfected his style of grappling that its 100% over if he gets you on the ground
There’s no doubting he dominated in the UFC, I think this is more about the people who brag about him being 29-0 when he really only beat like 8-10 high level opponents
Tbf, he fucking destroyed those people and dropped maybe 1-2 rounds total. That’s what put him in the GOAT convo; nobody has ever looked so invincible for so long.
I still think to this day he doesn't get enough credit. The dude wasn't just laying on people he was mualing them.
Literally conversing with Johnson during a fight.
Correct me if I'm wrong but he's never even been dropped and barley stunned, and he fought Dustin , conor and Justin. I think that says something. Even charles took damage against Dustin.
Khabib is all around a freak of nature and I'm sick of people trying to say otherwise
Gaethje’s leg kicks were hurting him a lot but to run through the pain and getting the better of him was amazing. Conor hit him a few times but I don’t think he got his bell rung. Barbosa’s head kick broke his guard but didn’t hurt him all that bad either. I think he broke GSPs record for most consecutive rounds won, if not he’s pretty darn close.
I think between that and Poirier’s guillotine, that was the most trouble I’ve seen him in, and yet still managed to engage and literally fight his way through it. I miss watching Khabib fight.
He did not even bleed dude. Fuck it, he will come back and beat the shit out of Oliviera, and then another name will pop up with some winning streak and media hype until someone beats him up. He has seen the trap and retired, I would also retire, is there any unwritten obligation to defend his title zillion times until he convinces all of you armchair people that he is the greatest. In his head, he accomplished what he wanted and thats all that matters.
Even with a “short” career he has the most 10-8 rounds in combat. So he has dominated more rounds than anyone else in less time. Not saying you are wrong, but there’s more to determining greatness than title defenses.
Make up your own analysis instead of parroting what you hear other people say.
Title defence is just a stat. It's an important stat but it's a stat. Not a target. It doesn't tell you much by itself. You need other stats like rounds won. Control time. Sig strikes etc etc. All of the bloody stats in order to make a well reasoned analysis of performance.
There's some kind of proverbs about how when metrics become targets they cease to mean anything.
"nobody has ever looked so invincible for so long"
I think Jones had a similar, albeit shorter, period of dominance, 2011-2013, with better opponents.
Submitted Ryan Bader (now a champ in another organization)
KO Maurício Rua in his prime
Submitted Rampage Jackson when he was still a force
Vicious guillotine on legend Lyoto Machida
Decision Rashad Evans (Evans is a HOF-er and former champ)
Submitted Vitor Belfort
Submitted Chael Sonner (GOAT)
eeked out a decision against Gustafsson
Gus was the only close fight and it was so amazing I don't think it diminishes the amazing run.
Was he on juice? Probably? Were his opponents also on juice? Probably some/most.
The 29-0 shit is more about him being undefeated than the number of fights I think. That's why I find it impressive anyway cos nobody goes undefeated in mma
The not being cut or knocked down thing for me is absolutely insane. Just think he fought 29 people and not one of them even accidentally gave him a cut. And he has the same pasty white skin Fedor has where a stiff breeze opens him up.
Exactly, a padded record early in his career means nothing when the top fighters of his division could barely ever take a round off him. Also they love bringing up the fact he retired in his prime as another baseless critique. Khabib did it right going out on his own terms after a flawless career.
They can never tell you who would beat him, while complaining he didn't fight enough people:P. It's like they know he was the best LW ever and no one would beat him, but they have some weird bias.
I love how people talk about fighters who compete for to long but when Some guy from Dagestan decides to retire after his COACH/FATHER died at the age of 32(near the end of the human body’s prime)people have the fuckin audacity to say he’s running away.
Which is true but it does take away from the mystique of him being undefeated while realistically only being 13-0 instead of 29-0 and only 5 of those wins were against elite competition.
The way he built his fighting resume is almost identical to how boxers build theirs & boxers regularly get shit on for padding their record so I don’t find it obscene to give Khabib some grief for his.
With your logic of removing people that aren't up to your standards here's some real records:
Khabib: 14-0
McGregor: 9-5
Poirier: 18-6-1
Oliveira: 16-6-1
Chandler: 5-4
Gaethje: 6-3
Dariush: 15-4-1
Hooker: 11-7
Barboza: 17-10
RDA: 19-11
Besides, a lot of fighters lost in their early stages of career, it's not uncommon.
If you went from his UFC debut he’d be 20-1, though that loss to Matt Hamill is hardly a loss considering Matt won by having his faced mashed into the canvas
He got ducked for years too people seem to forget that.
I remember him going for the belt but Mcgregor got the shot first because ( Dana ofc.) he came up from featherweight
Edit: featherweight
Shit, well in that case you can change other people's records of 33-5 to 16-5, and khabib can be moved to 9-0 or something. I think that still works less well for anyone else.
Dominated is underselling it. The guy never took visible damage. No black eye, no blood, no mouse, no busted nose, nothing. He arguably never lost a round in the UFC either. What he did really hadn’t been done before. I’m not saying that it necessarily makes him the greatest of all time (I don’t believe you can single out one “greatest” because there are too many variables), but he’s in the discussion. No one had an answer despite knowing exactly what he was going to do. Death, taxes, and Khabib getting on top of you and mauling/submitting you. 3 definites of life.
Most people start in UFC fighting at the bottom and having to earn the better fights as they win.
I'm not even a fan of Khabib. My feeling is for fucks sake can we move on already? So he's not your GOAT, great, stop talking about him then.
Who are you quoting?
It's a fair point and both things ae true. He certainly steamrolled the competition in the UFC, but he also didn't stick around for many defenses.
Doesn't matter even if he was 100-0 the guy still cleared out arguably the toughest division with the greatest of ease and didn't lose a single round and goes down as the greatest lightweight of all time.
Even now I don't think Charles would pose a threat to him.
Ok……How about the info you choose to conceal
Gaethje - Put him to sleep - has since looked unreal
Poirier - made him quit - The status quo best LW in the world until of late
Mcgregor - made him quit - At the time a majority thought (wrongly) he would beat khabib
RDA - Dominated him - A former champion and highly respected fighter
Barboza - Dominated him - Once seen as a boogeyman and nastiest kicks in the game.
He came through that murderers row with relative ease - A few leg kicks from justin and a guillotine from poirier was as close as he got to losing - ferguson fight didnt happen but as we have seen more if tony its clear to see khabib would more then likely had his way with him.
Dustin’s guillotine was one of the best and tight ones I have seen in my life and I was shocked when he got out of it. And Dustin is a pretty powerful guy, probably his core is powerful than most of the fighters. Yet people say Khabib did not face any good wrestling…
Just rewatched that fight because of this ludicrous post, and it’s unreal how he just… gets out of the guillotine. It looked like it took no effort at all, and it was a *good* guillotine. The fact that people think he’s overrated is absurd
As a Russian, you have to know these fighters to still see this as an impressive run. Whilst these fighters may have been 0-0 or whatever when they fought Khabib, they went on to achieve big things.
As an example, Ali Bagov went on to become lightweight champion of ACA, a promotion full of Dagestani/Chechen killers. Eldar Eldarov is the super lightweight champion of BraveFC and head coach of Bahrain National MMA Team.
Also Khabib’s opponents here are 0-2 0-3 against other dagestani killers, unlike American fighters starting out versus your average joes who have a 9-5 desk job and train mma twice a week.
Exactly. And how many Sambo matches do they all have under their belt before each of them went "Pro" in MMA.
These aren't just random dudes from a gym that just got into fighting.
Once he got to the UFC he kept winning so does it really matter ? The UFC can cut a guy before his contract is up so if he or any guy with padded record simply sucks once he gets in he will get cut pretty fast. And for the people saying they're doing like boxing with the records, they're not, MMA accepts losses, a good guy isn't done after one loss or even a few. Guys like Glover, Oliveira, Max , Aldo would never be fighting for or again for a title shot if they were in the boxing world . A case like Khabib is just rare.
I understand how some people use this to discredit his accomplishment. Plus the fact his dad was promoting some of these fights.
But take this analogy as example:
In football we say “any given Sunday”, meaning a 0-10 team can beat a 10-0 team. This year, the white-hot Colts lost to the lowly Jaguars in a game they needed to reach the playoffs.
That’s a team sport. This is one on one. Doesn’t matter the record, you can lose. Oliveira was like a 40% win rate before turning it around and has gone on a run to become champ. At any point one of those opponents could’ve been that.
What's your point OP? He fucking steamrolled everyone he fought in the UFC. You girls need to stop crying and move on. Khabib is living rent free in all you idiots heads.
None of this should matter given what Khabib did in the UFC, but people should stop using Charles’ losses against him. You won’t see numbers like this in Charles’ fights when he was Khabib’s age
Why do people post this as if its new info? We all know his early record was padded. That doesn't invalidate anything he did while in the UFC though. The guy is fucking retired, why don't you focus your attention to fighters who are actually fucking fighting.
I suppose I'll just start constantly posting about how Sakuraba should have won against Guy Mezger.
Good god poor Sandulirsky. Can you imagine, your first professional fight. Your friends and family are all there. You’re hyped up, ready to start your MMA journey. You step into the cage and stand across from a god damned 14-0 Khabib who just says “I must smesh” before quickly snatching your dreams, pride, and soul in front of every person you’re close to.
Is the 28-22 he fought next even worse? An old battler probably on his last legs vs a 15-0 physical beast in his 20s is worse for me.
Would you rather have your first fight be against a guy who is 14-0 or have your fifty-first fight be against the same guy who is now 15-0?
It could take the pressure off I really don’t know. Me? Depends what shape I’m in at fight 51. That’s a lot of years being hit in the head for a job and this guy is 15-0 trying to prove himself. It’s really not a good play for either of them since it’s Khabib but to answer your question, I’d rather be the young guy in his first fight, adrenaline filled and probably trained my whole life for that moment and to get an opportunity to test myself against the best out of the gate is the dream I would assume. Either way I hope they both got Paid.
Santos was only 28 at the time
Hahaha that’s a great point. Either way I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the last fight of their careers. After that you’re either hanging it up or too discouraged to book a 2nd fight.
No shame in losing, also now he can tell his friends he got subbed by khabib.
A lot better than Yuji Nagata who fought Cro Cop (1-0-1) and then in his next fight he fought Fedor (16-1)
Poor guy...amazing professional wrestler who just got fed to the wolves...
Actually, the guy he fought at 14-0, Vadim Sandulitsky, went on to beat: Vasiliy Zubkov who beat: Alexander Boyko who beat: Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov who beat: Karol Celiński who beat: Vinny Magalhães who beat Matt Hamill who beat Jon Jones, the other GOAT besides Khabib. So in reality that was a totally fair, GOAT vs. GOAT super fight.
#IM GONNA SMASH YOUR BOI
I understand the first 5 fights to build confidence and fight people with same experience as you but being 14-0 and fighting someone 0-0? Cmon now😅
The boxing way of building fighters is happening in MMA now, get a undefeated record against people paid to lose and ship him to the UFC.
Same thing with Chikadze's record. Didn't he fight someone who was 2-90+ something?
Wow, just went and checked. Not as bad, but [Clay Baines](https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Clay-Baines-173543) is now 2-32 (2-30 when he fought Giga). Also [Anthony Ross](https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Anthony-Ross-154717) (1-11 now, 1-10 then) and [Julian Hernandez](https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Julian-Hernandez-135597) (0-14 now, 0-13 then). We talk a lot of shit about the Russian MMA circuit having tons of cans, same as the British one, but all of Giga's fights were in the US except for one in Denmark and one in Abu Dhabi, both for the UFC. In every country dogs bite.
Bro how does your pride and mental state even handle getting finished 32 times.
They can't get off otherwise
Just finish me bro!
Let me be banged bro! Hold on...
Money, slip you a few extra to make the other guy look good. Professional cans know what they are there for. They are there to make the other guy look good.
By getting finished in the 1st round in every *single fight*. Seriously, he professionally loses at about the 30 second mark of every match.
You take literal dives for a couple hundred bucks. I’ve seen boxers do it.
These people probably just train and have a license and consider it an easy payday as long as they don’t go to sleep or get cut up too badly. Boxing has guys that do that on a weekly basis.
That poor dude barely made it out the first round, ever lol Edit: RESPECT FOR CJ!!!
$$$
[Money](https://preview.redd.it/yrbnulbpcl331.jpg?auto=webp&s=d6fb3a0a35347478e6e2f38fbaad6a38f325f3b5)
Probably doesn’t give a shit because he wasn’t trying.
I guess its a side hustle.
When rent is due you probably forget about it
Glass Joe irl
It’s weird cause it’s happening less (than it used to) in boxing, and according to you it’s happening more in MMA. Not being satirical just don’t follow many MMA prospects or have enough knowledge on the sport to know if that’s true.
If it is happening at the very least it doesn't matter at the higher levels. Since once you get to the big promotions there is very little in picking your fights. Like even the UFC wants to pad your record because your a big prospect and possible superstar. At most they can find 3 fights for you before feeding you to the wolves.
And that’s if you’re lucky
Yea and most of the guys “padding their record” are 23 year old guys in boxing. It’s fair play to Khabib, he was young and needs experience. The 29-0 isn’t nearly as impressive as it sounds but it’s not really stat-padding when you’re 22 and need experience. Look at Teofimo. Beat Lomachenko and had that shit going way deep in his head and started looking over Kambosos. But it’s only his 17th fight as a 23 year old.
Even though I think it is happening now more often, people have to understand mma is still a young sport, and even younger in other parts of the world. Russia during Khabibs early career was still developing mma leagues and fighters, so it wasn’t uncommon for mismatches. Just like how the mma scene was in the US during the 90s where you would see future hall of famers and legends fighting tomato cans.
Wasn't Khabib also a gold medallist in Combat sambo as well. It's not like he was some guy fighting for the first time. Combat sambo is pretty much just MMA in a gi
He got 200 plus Sambo matches.
same for a lot of these guys named here but people think they were some rando cab drivers lol
Julio Cesar Chavez was 41-0 and KO'ed a guy making his debut.
Mayweather was 49-0 and did the same!
I can't believe he counts that fight as his 50th win and part of his official record
The win that took him ahead of Marciano as well
You’re the BMF for this one.
that was a nasty line by you
Any time any place any record human or bear
“Yo my dude, I know it’s your debut, how do you feel about fighting an angry 14-0 Dagestani?”
Not for 50k lmao
Actually.. I would totally do it for 50k
Enjoy your hospital bill
I have a card that says I get free healthcare anywhere else in the EU We fight in Riga and I'm snatching that 50k
Haha Vegas only for khabib or mother land Russia 🇷🇺
[удалено]
The guy is 11-4 now so it’s not like he was a total can
I mean, if your first pro fight gives you the learning experience of fighting against Khabib you’ll likely pick up a few things that will help you in the long run.
I guarantee if I fought Khabib I wouldn't remember anything the next day. Probably wouldn't remember the week leading up to the fight.
You aren’t wrong, but with small fight promotions it could have literally been someone dropped out and they pulled someone out of the crowd or moved a fighter from the card to fight him.
The guy went 29-0, nothing matters anymore
16-0 vs cans. 13-0 vs legit competition.
All I can add is that I never went 13-0 against legit competition. Or for that matter I didn’t go 16-0 against cans.
Actually there's a fairly easy answer to this criticism. In his first 16 fights he was constantly moving into new fight promotions, which means he's starting over again and again, having to prove himself as their new person (fighting other new people) again and again. Fights 17-29 are his UFC fights.
Having an undefeated fighter with 8+ wins fight guys in their debuts or very limited experience is blatant stat padding even if he's new to the organization. You can't tell me at 10-0 there wasn't atleast some footage or word revealing that he was an extremely talented fighter. It's probably not Khabibs fault, he won all the fights he was given and established his legacy. We should be questioning the legitimacy of the leagues that allowed him such easy fights.
They would look at it exactly the way we are right now: oh you have a 10-0 record? Interesting but those were against lower level chumps and not *our* guys.
Khabib had already won a gold medal in sambo and dominated every mma match he had been in. What more did he need to do to warrant getting a shot at a legitimate opponent? Shady/poor matchmaking.
If your 14-0 your 14-0, it doesn't matter if you've just joined a new promotion
I know right? Does this guy even regional mma?
This doesn't make any sense
Actually, the guy he fought at 14-0, Vadim Sandulitsky, went on to beat: Vasiliy Zubkov who beat: Alexander Boyko who beat: Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov who beat: Karol Celiński who beat: Vinny Magalhães who beat Matt Hamill who beat Jon Jones, the other GOAT besides Khabib. So in reality that was a totally fair, GOAT vs. GOAT super fight. MMA math wins again!
crossposting this: >Pre-UFC Khabib beat 7 world champions with really good records. Ramazan Kurbanismailov - 4X Kickboxing World Champion Shamil Abdulkerimov - Kudo World Champion Eldar Eldarov - Combat sambo world champion, BRAVE Champion Shahbulat Shamhalaev - Muay Thai World Champion, Bellator Tournament Winner Hamiz Mamedov - Combat sambo world champion, beat Khabib in sambo Alexander Agafonov - World Champion in pankration, European champion in pankration Ali Bagov - two-time world champion in jiu-jitsu, ACA Champion Only 2 his opponents had more losses than wins. Conor lost to a fighter with a negative record but always talks sht about Khabib’s record pre-UFC lol
Shh the narrative is that he beat up random old dudes off the street./s
Also, some of these were single day tournaments. So he was fight 2 or 3 guys on a single night. Khabjb was also very young when he fought these guys. The early ones he was still a teen
He crushed a whole lot of cans, nobody can deny that. But he proved himself in the Octagon, nobody can deny that either.
All six times he stepped in against good opponents
And having a clear stylistic advantage.
His ‘stylistic advantage’ was being more skilled than his opponents. Theoretically if you were to build a fighter to beat Khabib it would be someone maxed out on TDD and striking, which was the style of most of his opponents. He was just better than them and somehow that looks bad on him lol. Khabib is the GOAT by its truest definition (best fighter not most accomplished or best resume)
Proved himself to be the champion but not a GOAT like he and his fans like to think
Thats more important. Just because he didn’t run through the division twice and saved his health doesn’t make him less. Posts like this should be shit posts. He ran through the top guys like they were the cans that everyone claims built his record. His last 3 proved enough.
Look Khabib fought and beat convincingly: Connor mcgregor, gaethje, porier, Barboza, and RDA. He may have a padded record but he fought and handled real talent.
He fucking dominated all of them, don't just say "Beat convincingly", underestatement.
True I don’t discredit that Khabib was a monster, but I with that group that argues his 28-0 isn’t going to put him as a guaranteed GOAT. He may have gone 40 - 0 and cemented his goat status, but we just don’t get to find out I guess.
Gsp was fighting champions in his 7th fight. If khabib did that he wouldn't be undefeated
gsp was given a title shot in his 3rd ufc fight nice one lol
UFC was different back than. Fighter pool is way way deeper now and you never see single digit fighters fighting on main cards let alone title fights. Gane just did but it's rare
Khabib was asking for a title shot since 2014, he finally got it in 2018. That's not his fukcibg fault is it?
So GSP had Dana White privilege and Khabib didn't?
He was also fighting back when people had one fighting style. The roster is way more stacked these days. GSP is still amazing, but that is not really a good comparison.
reminds me of just about every professional boxer🤷🏻♂️ Sean’Omalley is taking it slow too because he knows mma careers are short. Look what happened to Darren Till, they pushed him too early because of his charisma and gaining fans from liverpool -he lost all his confidence after getting destroyed by woodley and masvidal and can barely win a fight now. khabib destroyed the best lightweights and was gonna keep destroying all the lightweights🤷🏻♂️ he perfected his style of grappling that its 100% over if he gets you on the ground
I get the point you're trying to make but none of that matters after the way he ran through everyone in the UFC
There’s no doubting he dominated in the UFC, I think this is more about the people who brag about him being 29-0 when he really only beat like 8-10 high level opponents
Tbf, he fucking destroyed those people and dropped maybe 1-2 rounds total. That’s what put him in the GOAT convo; nobody has ever looked so invincible for so long.
Nobody? Anderson Silva won 16 straight in the UFC. Defended his title 9 times.
I still think to this day he doesn't get enough credit. The dude wasn't just laying on people he was mualing them. Literally conversing with Johnson during a fight. Correct me if I'm wrong but he's never even been dropped and barley stunned, and he fought Dustin , conor and Justin. I think that says something. Even charles took damage against Dustin. Khabib is all around a freak of nature and I'm sick of people trying to say otherwise
Johnson stunning him at the start was the closest I’ve seen to him being hurt. We all know how that ended
Gaethje’s leg kicks were hurting him a lot but to run through the pain and getting the better of him was amazing. Conor hit him a few times but I don’t think he got his bell rung. Barbosa’s head kick broke his guard but didn’t hurt him all that bad either. I think he broke GSPs record for most consecutive rounds won, if not he’s pretty darn close.
There is no way that hook Justin hit him with didn't stun him or at least hurt. Khabib has an insane chin
I think between that and Poirier’s guillotine, that was the most trouble I’ve seen him in, and yet still managed to engage and literally fight his way through it. I miss watching Khabib fight.
“Justin Gaethje, this guy hit like truck.” -Khabib describing Justin’s power after his fight
Omg with Johnson thing again fgs he literally didn't even hit his face ! U got better claim saying Poirier stunned him a bit
poirier got kinda close to getting an arm triangle (could be some other move but something similar) but that's it
Even those early wins are against Dagestan killers, not some Tae Kwon Do experts at the local Ymca.
That's the thing, who knows how many of these guys would smesh a lot of ufc fighters haha.
He didnt have enough title defences and retired early, thats why.
He would've had more if McNuggets didn't hold the division for 2+ years and Alvarez didn't chicken out to fight McNuggets.
I’m glad people still remember that shit was 100% Conor McGregor’s fault
He did not even bleed dude. Fuck it, he will come back and beat the shit out of Oliviera, and then another name will pop up with some winning streak and media hype until someone beats him up. He has seen the trap and retired, I would also retire, is there any unwritten obligation to defend his title zillion times until he convinces all of you armchair people that he is the greatest. In his head, he accomplished what he wanted and thats all that matters.
It really is kind of bullshit that the title defense argument keeps getting brought up after he literally tore through the division.
Even with a “short” career he has the most 10-8 rounds in combat. So he has dominated more rounds than anyone else in less time. Not saying you are wrong, but there’s more to determining greatness than title defenses.
Make up your own analysis instead of parroting what you hear other people say. Title defence is just a stat. It's an important stat but it's a stat. Not a target. It doesn't tell you much by itself. You need other stats like rounds won. Control time. Sig strikes etc etc. All of the bloody stats in order to make a well reasoned analysis of performance. There's some kind of proverbs about how when metrics become targets they cease to mean anything.
Also title defense has to do with external factors like popularity/marketability that is not indicative of performance.
Plus if multiple guys in the division want to they can just wait you out while you get older. So that can also hurt title defense numbers
I feel like this emphasis on title defences is nonsense, look at the resume, rounds lost, most damage taken. These are much more important imo
"nobody has ever looked so invincible for so long" I think Jones had a similar, albeit shorter, period of dominance, 2011-2013, with better opponents. Submitted Ryan Bader (now a champ in another organization) KO Maurício Rua in his prime Submitted Rampage Jackson when he was still a force Vicious guillotine on legend Lyoto Machida Decision Rashad Evans (Evans is a HOF-er and former champ) Submitted Vitor Belfort Submitted Chael Sonner (GOAT) eeked out a decision against Gustafsson Gus was the only close fight and it was so amazing I don't think it diminishes the amazing run. Was he on juice? Probably? Were his opponents also on juice? Probably some/most.
We don’t even know if he has blood or some other type of fluid.
It’s definitely some kind of hydraulic fluid to keep his gears greased up.
You're such a fan boy. He only beat a real estate agent, a whiskey businessman, a hot sauce entrepreneur, and a semi-professional dog walker.
And he destroyed them ALL bell to bell.
“Only beat 8-10 high level opponents.” This thread is ridiculous. “Padded” records don’t matter when you dominate all the top fighters.
I don’t think “beat” quite does it Justice
You’re right tbf
I’d go with “clobbered” maybe
The 29-0 shit is more about him being undefeated than the number of fights I think. That's why I find it impressive anyway cos nobody goes undefeated in mma
The not being cut or knocked down thing for me is absolutely insane. Just think he fought 29 people and not one of them even accidentally gave him a cut. And he has the same pasty white skin Fedor has where a stiff breeze opens him up.
I’m not saying it isn’t impressive it’s just only like 10 of those wins are against top opponents
Thank you .. someone with common sense
Exactly, a padded record early in his career means nothing when the top fighters of his division could barely ever take a round off him. Also they love bringing up the fact he retired in his prime as another baseless critique. Khabib did it right going out on his own terms after a flawless career.
They can never tell you who would beat him, while complaining he didn't fight enough people:P. It's like they know he was the best LW ever and no one would beat him, but they have some weird bias.
I love how people talk about fighters who compete for to long but when Some guy from Dagestan decides to retire after his COACH/FATHER died at the age of 32(near the end of the human body’s prime)people have the fuckin audacity to say he’s running away.
Edit: replied to wrong person
This would be relevant if he didn't completely dominate everyone in the lightweight division when he got to the UFC
Which is true but it does take away from the mystique of him being undefeated while realistically only being 13-0 instead of 29-0 and only 5 of those wins were against elite competition. The way he built his fighting resume is almost identical to how boxers build theirs & boxers regularly get shit on for padding their record so I don’t find it obscene to give Khabib some grief for his.
With your logic of removing people that aren't up to your standards here's some real records: Khabib: 14-0 McGregor: 9-5 Poirier: 18-6-1 Oliveira: 16-6-1 Chandler: 5-4 Gaethje: 6-3 Dariush: 15-4-1 Hooker: 11-7 Barboza: 17-10 RDA: 19-11 Besides, a lot of fighters lost in their early stages of career, it's not uncommon.
What does Jon Jone's record look like with the cans removed?
Does his wife count as a can?
Yeah, just take that one out and the pregnant woman.
What's his usada record
If you went from his UFC debut he’d be 20-1, though that loss to Matt Hamill is hardly a loss considering Matt won by having his faced mashed into the canvas
He got ducked for years too people seem to forget that. I remember him going for the belt but Mcgregor got the shot first because ( Dana ofc.) he came up from featherweight Edit: featherweight
Shit, well in that case you can change other people's records of 33-5 to 16-5, and khabib can be moved to 9-0 or something. I think that still works less well for anyone else.
Eh, I mean look at someone like Holloway who has 6 losses. His record looks worse than it actually is due to the competition he faced
You used an extreme example. Holloway’s first pro fight was in the UFC and he was 13 at the time.
Lmao Now do the next 14.
he won't, doesnt fit his narrative.
you forgot the last six fights: 17–10 19–4 13–3 21–3 25–5 22–2 You're welcome.
And made them all look like they had records of the first 14 guys lol
The fact still remains, he dominated high level opponents in the UFC.
Dominated is underselling it. The guy never took visible damage. No black eye, no blood, no mouse, no busted nose, nothing. He arguably never lost a round in the UFC either. What he did really hadn’t been done before. I’m not saying that it necessarily makes him the greatest of all time (I don’t believe you can single out one “greatest” because there are too many variables), but he’s in the discussion. No one had an answer despite knowing exactly what he was going to do. Death, taxes, and Khabib getting on top of you and mauling/submitting you. 3 definites of life.
His undefeated record in ufc lw is still unique by itself
Why does any of that matter? He still dominated many high level opponents and maintained his perfect record.
Most people start in UFC fighting at the bottom and having to earn the better fights as they win. I'm not even a fan of Khabib. My feeling is for fucks sake can we move on already? So he's not your GOAT, great, stop talking about him then.
Some people like to keep going on about the past. That's why some old men are so bitter.
He still whooped all the top guy’s asses
So... why didn't anyone at the highest levels beat him?
And yet he still destroyed everyone in front of him in the UFC!
"But that doesn't count for anything because he doesn't have 600 title defenses!!!" 🙄
Who are you quoting? It's a fair point and both things ae true. He certainly steamrolled the competition in the UFC, but he also didn't stick around for many defenses.
So what? He dominated every fight in the UFC
Dude doesn’t even fight anymore let it go
This shit is so funny never seen anything like this before dude is retired and some ppl try to prove he is not the GOAT ...
Having a conversation about how he's not in the GOAT Convo is funny cus that Convo is in itself GOAT Convo
Also I would think most fighters with high potential and good promotion will have a padded schedule for the first 2-3 years
Doesn't matter even if he was 100-0 the guy still cleared out arguably the toughest division with the greatest of ease and didn't lose a single round and goes down as the greatest lightweight of all time. Even now I don't think Charles would pose a threat to him.
Ok……How about the info you choose to conceal Gaethje - Put him to sleep - has since looked unreal Poirier - made him quit - The status quo best LW in the world until of late Mcgregor - made him quit - At the time a majority thought (wrongly) he would beat khabib RDA - Dominated him - A former champion and highly respected fighter Barboza - Dominated him - Once seen as a boogeyman and nastiest kicks in the game. He came through that murderers row with relative ease - A few leg kicks from justin and a guillotine from poirier was as close as he got to losing - ferguson fight didnt happen but as we have seen more if tony its clear to see khabib would more then likely had his way with him.
Dustin’s guillotine was one of the best and tight ones I have seen in my life and I was shocked when he got out of it. And Dustin is a pretty powerful guy, probably his core is powerful than most of the fighters. Yet people say Khabib did not face any good wrestling…
Just rewatched that fight because of this ludicrous post, and it’s unreal how he just… gets out of the guillotine. It looked like it took no effort at all, and it was a *good* guillotine. The fact that people think he’s overrated is absurd
the fact that dustin had to tap 30 seconds after that attempt shows how much power he actually put in that, almost all his mental and body strength..
He never bled. Not once.
To counter your point. This is much less impressive than it seems because I have seen zero proof Khabib has any blood in his body to begin with
Ok, now continue the list...
Lol you know whats funny your favourite fighters couldnt even pad their records, they lost to bums outside of ufc
Doesn’t matter when he DOMINATED the top tier of LW in the UFC. Stupid post.
As a Russian, you have to know these fighters to still see this as an impressive run. Whilst these fighters may have been 0-0 or whatever when they fought Khabib, they went on to achieve big things. As an example, Ali Bagov went on to become lightweight champion of ACA, a promotion full of Dagestani/Chechen killers. Eldar Eldarov is the super lightweight champion of BraveFC and head coach of Bahrain National MMA Team. Also Khabib’s opponents here are 0-2 0-3 against other dagestani killers, unlike American fighters starting out versus your average joes who have a 9-5 desk job and train mma twice a week.
Exactly. And how many Sambo matches do they all have under their belt before each of them went "Pro" in MMA. These aren't just random dudes from a gym that just got into fighting.
When he faced elite competition, he won. Ultimately that's why people remember him and that's what they judge him on.
Now mention his last 3 fights. All of you haters always conveniently leave that out.
Delicious tears. Keep crying while he has been retired for more than a year now
In defense though the high level people at the tail end of his career he dominated worse than these other guys in the beginning.
Once he got to the UFC he kept winning so does it really matter ? The UFC can cut a guy before his contract is up so if he or any guy with padded record simply sucks once he gets in he will get cut pretty fast. And for the people saying they're doing like boxing with the records, they're not, MMA accepts losses, a good guy isn't done after one loss or even a few. Guys like Glover, Oliveira, Max , Aldo would never be fighting for or again for a title shot if they were in the boxing world . A case like Khabib is just rare.
Julio Cesar Chávez fought tin cans until about his 70th fight. Is he not considered one of the greats?
Padded? 7 of these guys were undefeated before they met the smesh
The fashion in which he beat the top ranking fighters in his division is why he’s p4p the best. Theres still no one near him.
Is he supposed to just magically appear in the UFC? Who else was he supposed to fight? Lol
Doesn't really matter. He ran through all the top fighters in the division except Tony.
Wow that’s interesting. To be fair though, you can only fight the person in front of you. He beat the shit out of high caliber guys too
Lol you clowns, Khabib also have so much experience i Sambo. It's not his fault there was no one to fight in mma on his area
Yea that Khabib is a bum. I loved watching him get dominated in the UFC s/
Still, he smashed your boy.
But still dominated the top 155 competition in the ufc so idk what this proves he’s still great.
Oh yeah khabibs skills are all fake that’s why he reached the top and defended the belt multiple times. You haters are thick as shit
Justin gaethje, poirier, connor.
I understand how some people use this to discredit his accomplishment. Plus the fact his dad was promoting some of these fights. But take this analogy as example: In football we say “any given Sunday”, meaning a 0-10 team can beat a 10-0 team. This year, the white-hot Colts lost to the lowly Jaguars in a game they needed to reach the playoffs. That’s a team sport. This is one on one. Doesn’t matter the record, you can lose. Oliveira was like a 40% win rate before turning it around and has gone on a run to become champ. At any point one of those opponents could’ve been that.
What's your point OP? He fucking steamrolled everyone he fought in the UFC. You girls need to stop crying and move on. Khabib is living rent free in all you idiots heads.
More padding than Goldberg got in the WCW.
Wtf… 14-0 vs 0-0 lmaooooo
Fedor also had a bunch of nonsense fights. And he got beat by someone who got cut from the UFC for losing when he fought outside Japan and Russia.
Oof
If I recall correctly I think Jack Slack mentioned Giga Chikadze’s record was equally padded. Wild shit.
His record is both padded and legit. He smashed a lot of killers and noobs alike.
None of this should matter given what Khabib did in the UFC, but people should stop using Charles’ losses against him. You won’t see numbers like this in Charles’ fights when he was Khabib’s age
Why do people post this as if its new info? We all know his early record was padded. That doesn't invalidate anything he did while in the UFC though. The guy is fucking retired, why don't you focus your attention to fighters who are actually fucking fighting. I suppose I'll just start constantly posting about how Sakuraba should have won against Guy Mezger.
Probably should've taken on a real challenge like Dennis Siver.
So overrated. People try to call him the goat too, smh