UFC 254: Khabib vs. Gaethje

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/gallery/ufc-254-official-scorecards-fight-island-photo-gallery-mma

Who the **** score these fight, I legit think Judges are braindead. Alot of these are terrible 

* Edited at 10.26.2020, 5:58 PM ET *

I gave the 2nd thumbs down. **** Khabib AND the obsession with undefeated records. 

Mutt is not a racial slur. That's a reach

What is the facts ?
Khabib  had 13 fights since being in the UFC since 2012 
Khabib had 6 finishes out of those 13 fights.  2 KOs 4 subs 
Khabib became champion with his fight with Al Iaquinta  ( due to many dropouts / Conor McGregor destruction)

was Al Iaquinta even championship material when other fighters offered to step in ?  Answer to that question is NO !! never been in top 5 Rankings -- ( even though rankings are crap stats these days... I will go by this logic )

So Why did I post all this... to say Khabib truthfully in the UFC has fought a lot of fodder and easy winnable fights before getting to Belt. Several wrestlers tried calling him out and wanting to fight him before he got to the champ fight.  BUT his manager & The UFC is very smart at marketing and clicking the GO HARD Marketing machine behind a fighter so a bunch of Casual fans will fall in love and believe the hype. IF everyone saying the same thing... the public eats it up.  

Khabib is a great lightweight MMA Fighter, but his record seems padded to me before he got into the UFC and after through some cherry-picking fights with his Manager.  

Khabib almost lost his Tibeau fight if you watch it and look into.  King Mo told his team how to beat Tibeau through a lot of pressure in the first round to tire him out -- Because they didnt know how to beat him. 

My point is -- a purebred Dominant fighter who claims to want to be P4P #1 in the world history of UFC  goes in dominants and even challenges himself by moving up a weight division, by fighting more than once a year, etc.

Great MMA wrestler  / fighter in the UFC  worthy of Hall of Fame but not GOAT status.  Jon Jones & Anderson Silva are both HOFers and can be called GOAT status not KHABIB. 

It feels like there is a 70-80% chance a random 30-27 will appear in a close fight every card. Not gonna lie tho, a lot of them saved my predictions at times so it's like a love/hate relationship for me.

@ImperatorFishrat

It was always more of a hope than an expectation. I've seen similar things happen on sites like Reddit where a pro-weed post gets 420 upvotes and everyone then just stops out of mutual respect or on ****hub where a good comment will get up to 69 upvotes and everyone stops. I was curious to see if the same thing could happen here on Tap.


@mulefloyd

I agree with you that we shouldn't get carried away with undefeated records but the reason I love Khabib is not because he is undefeated but because he is a skilled and entertaining fighter who also seems like a really great bloke. Let's suppose he lost to Gaethje and retired with a record of 28-1. I wouldn't hold him in any less regard because of that loss and he would still be a MMA legend. I personally find it quite disrespectful whenever someone says something like "Khabib is great because he never lost" as they are using that little statistic in a way that completely undermines all of the far more legitimate reasons why he is great. 

You and I would probably be one of the rare few that would actually still consider Khabib to be one of the greatest even if Gaethje had chin-checked him last saturday.

P.S. sorry the Upvote dream got ruined by some negative nancy's. It would have been kind of fun and cool to come back to.

@Tieoken

Well... it was worth a try! Que sera sera

I would put Amanda Nunes  in the GOAT  conversation over Khabib ....
she has won two belts in different divisions and defended both belts  in dominant fashion against other dominant female champions. She has done things that no OTHER CHAMPION  has done. Period !! 

** if Khabib had said - I am going to Welterweight to take that belt.  I would have been impressed and he would have my respect especially if he WON TWO BELTS.  But he knows his style of fighting relies heavily on technique as well as having overwhelming  POWER / STRENGTH  over his opponents.  He cuts a lot of weight to get to get to 155lbs  -- 
Daniel Cormier has said it in the past - that in the gym - walking around weight is easily 195 or more pounds.   
Thats Crazy !! 
But he would be the smaller weaker fighter in WW - just facts.

* Edited at 10.26.2020, 11:05 PM ET *

quote "Calling someone a mutt here is not acceptable and will result in a suspension."

also quote "But singling out the female UFC correspondent to hurtfully try and label her a mutt... is not acceptable and has clear racial undertones." 

The ONLY time I was entertained by a Khabib performance and thus at least mildly interested in his next one was this fight. Only time I've seen him be a dynamic ground fighter instead of a static one. 

I agree about the Tibau fight but it was obvious that Khabib had improved over that early version himself. The GSP comparison is very apt imo, at least the post-Serra version as both were too focused on defensive tactics and control to ever be truly entertaining.

* Edited at 10.27.2020, 2:12 PM ET *

6 fighters were making their pro-debut  ( means extremely padded )
only fought 6 fighters with winning records in his first 16 fights  


When Khabib was about to fight someone like Tony Ferguson who had plans for him on the ground game -- mean lots and lots of blood spilled - Khabib would suddenly have a medical issue and cant fight because he cut too much weight or something else.  

You got some personal issues that need therapy it’s not that deep stop hating and enjoy greatness 

you're three years late. he didn't care then and I doubt he cares this long after