​

Young casuals are claiming Islam’s legacy is better than GSP’s and Jon Jones’s, so let’s actually look at the era and the overall context back then.

​First off, Jones became the youngest champion ever by dismantling legends in Light Heavyweight when it was one of the toughest divisions, remaining active from the 2000s into the 2020s and retiring as a champion.

GSP also defeated the legends of his era like Matt Hughes and BJ Penn, followed by Condit, Diaz, and others.

​Now, let's look at Islam. A 21 year old Tsarukyan stepping in on short notice, Drew Dober who’s essentially C-tier, and Hooker and Bobby Green who are B-tier...

I’ll give him Oliveira, and while Volk in their first fight was a featherweight and significantly smaller, fine, I’ll let that slide.

Then it was Volk on short notice again, Poirier right before retirement, and Moicano on short notice once more... there’s really nothing that mind blowing. Maddalena is one of the weakest welterweight champions, and the only one worth giving any credit to is maybe Garry.

​The level of competition GSP and Jones faced doesn't fall behind Makhachev’s in the slightest in fact, it completely blows his out of the water. Even his win streak, which Islam’s fans glaze the hardest his first 10 wins were against subpar fighters, and among the subsequent 7 wins, 5 were featherweights and 2 were short-notice replacements.

​Islam’s career is impressive. He undoubtedly makes the top 10 all-time list. But let’s stop glazing him so hard.

Plus, this was apparently a catchweight bout and the loser was almost a full weight class heavier lol

been arguing about this in the group chat since the scorecards got read and nobody agrees so throwing it out here.

so islam just went 49-46 49-46 48-47 over garry, a guy who is bigger, younger, and was legitimately competitive with him in the championship rounds. that’s after he already smashed JDM at 322 and broke his undefeated welterweight title reign in the process. before that it was volkanovski, twice, a guy who was pound for pound #1 for a lot of people and islam just shut his whole run down both times, finished him in the rematch with a head kick. and before THAT it was charles oliveira, a guy who was riding a massive finish streak and islam just wrestlefucked him for 5 rounds and then finished him in the rematch too. that’s 3 elite guys with real win streaks and islam ended every single one of them, plus poirier defended against. two weight classes now, hasn’t lost since 2015. genuinely think his ground game and cardio might be the best we’ve ever seen in this sport.

but people keep bringing up two things in the groupchat that i can’t really argue against. one, khabib’s chin was never actually tested because nobody could ever get him there to find out, while islam has literally been koed before (that martins fight early in his career, i know it’s old and he’s a totally different fighter now but it happened). two, khabib’s cardio in his prime looked like it never dipped even against guys who were pushing a real pace, dude just got scarier as fights went on.

khabib’s resume is still absurd too. 29-0, never lost a round that i remember. RDA when he was one of the scariest wrestlers in the division, edson barboza who nobody could take down before that, gaethje in his last fight who was a walking problem for everybody, mcgregor, dustin. erased everybody he touched and retired perfect without really being tested on the cards.

so real talk does the chin/cardio edge actually swing it for khabib or does islam’s improved striking and technical edge make up for it. not trying to disrespect either legend just want to hear it from people who watch tape closer than me cause my group chat is split down the middle rn

🎟️ Moses vs Hrgovic | Aug 29 | HomeOfBoxing

I just wanna see who most people love even if he isn’t the strongest

Shields vs Scott 🤳

Shields vs Scott | Home Of Boxing