Khabibs striking

[MacGowan]

Re: Khabibs striking

Do you watch/ listen to the mma hour? I tried, but felt lied to since it's not an hour long.

I do, but it's getting far too long. I think it's important that he gets everyone in, and MMA world and the rest of youtube can just cut it down and spread the juicy bits. But I'm more of a Luke Thomas fan nowadays. It's just quicker (around 1 hour), and he's more in line with my values: The sport aspect, long term maintenance, real rankings, technical talk, etc. Ariel and Brendan can get a little too "money fights", trash talk, wwe, for my taste.


Back to the topic: Khabib's coach said he considered Al the second most dangerous out of the 4 replacement fighters, ranking him only behind Max. But of course he's biased in saying so, since they just won. (But I would rank full camp Al even ahead of "fat, injured" Max myself.)

He said he watched videos of Al, and told Khabib to change up the gameplan, saying: Al can take a punch and will fool you into commiting to finishing him. And that Al hits hard. But that they had the upper hand with Al having trained only for a 3 round fight.

He also said sentiments that I share: why are people hating on Khabib's striking? He's an effing grappler, and a smart one. he did what he had to do out there to win.
I remember people hating on Jon Jones when he fought smart against last minute replacement OSP. Or DC against last minute Silva. Or Cris Cyborg against late minute Yana. I think fans don't really care for the absolute favorite to murk underdog Rocky. So we all say "Rocky held in there! and the Russian could have done better."

Edson Barboza is a great striker. And Khabib negated that real quick. There's enough of that fight that was standing and Khabib kept the pressure up pretty well. Sure, he doesn't spin and break dance like Tony and Conor, but he doesn't get smashed in the face over and over like they do either.

Smart.

[aliojin]

Re: Khabibs striking

He landed one million of jabs in that fight.

[Stunna2006]

Re: Khabibs striking

just catching up with this thread. khabib absolutely should have lower standup, but also he should have high power.

he didnt wanna over commit, he worked on the jab, but at the end of the fight when he swarmed al he did bust him up, al was leaking bad from whatever khabib landed in the one exchange he actually committed.

the thing is khabib would be an idiot to try to stand up with conor or tony, but i really dont think conor has a chance in hell of stopping his takedown, and tony is gonna be out for a while

[OPSPunk]

Re: Khabibs striking

just catching up with this thread. khabib absolutely should have lower standup, but also he should have high power.

he didnt wanna over commit, he worked on the jab, but at the end of the fight when he swarmed al he did bust him up, al was leaking bad from whatever khabib landed in the one exchange he actually committed.

the thing is khabib would be an idiot to try to stand up with conor or tony, but i really dont think conor has a chance in hell of stopping his takedown, and tony is gonna be out for a while

Khabib only has to worry about Conor at the star of rd 1 and 2. After Khabib takes him down and works him over the gas will be greatly diminished and Conor will go into survival mode.

Tony is another thing. I think Feeg is out for a year but that dudes grappling could present problems. Ferg is a well prepared grappler and I would like to see how he counters that hovering style of khabib

I am interested in rd 4 and 5 when khabib might be too tired for the takedown but Tony’s sick cardio will allow him to pressure him standing

[Michaelhimself]

Re: Khabibs striking

Khabib’s striking is better than most guys in the top 10, it’s just out shined by his grappling. When your grappling is THAT good, your striking is always going to be considered the “weak part” of your game. In the rare event Khabib fights someone good enough to stop his takedowns, he outstrikes them. Al Iaquinta is known for his hands, and Khabib toyed with him on the feet. Just think about that for a second...

As far as his striking stats, I think his power should be toned down. But I also think both his striking speed and footwork stats should be increased. His hands are quite fast, I’d argue he has some of the fastest hands in the division. His accuracy isn’t great, but his hands are very fast. His footwork is a bit sporadic and chaotic looking, but he moves well. He’s not the slow, plotting fighter the game makes him feel like. He actually moves laterally and bounces around quite well in most of his fights, and his distance control is very nice. He bounces out of range and covers distance quite quickly. The Barboza fight was an exception, because the gameplan was to keep Barboza on the back foot.

Tl;dr
Khabib’s got good standup, it’s just outshined by his grappling. His striking is way underrated. He toyed with Al Iaquinta on the feet, and Al’s known for his hands. As far as stat adjustments, his power should be nerfed, but his striking speed and footwork should be increased. His hands are very fast, and he has good footwork.