Who would win in a combat between light-weight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov and reigning UFC 155-pound champion Islam Makhachev?
That was the subject of dialog between former two-division titleholder Georges St-Pierre and head coach Firas Zahabi.
“Effectively, it’s exhausting to say,” St-Pierre mentioned when requested who would come out on prime between the 2 Dagestani icons. “Khabib may need a extra strong recreation when it comes to positioning, ground-and-pound, and takedowns. I say that, however I don’t know both of those guys personally. I’ve by no means skilled with them. I’m simply basing this on my evaluation of their types once I watch them combat.
“On the opposite aspect, I feel Makhachev has a greater submission recreation. I feel he’s extra aggressive and extra opportunistic relating to submissions.”
Statistically, Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are pretty even relating to submission finishes. In 29 profession fights, ‘The Eagle’ pressured 11 of his opponents to faucet out, together with Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Justin Gaethje.
On the flip aspect, Makhachev has 12 submission victories to his credit score throughout 26 complete wins.
khabib might have had the ability, however is makhachev the higher striker?
So relating to making their opponents faucet, snap, or nap, it’s neck-and-neck. However what about hanging?
“Yeah, however within the hanging division, Khabib may need extra energy,” GSP continued. “He appears to land photographs with extra energy, however Makhachev is longer and possibly extra fluid. Possibly extra fluid—maybe, sure.
Whereas the consensus appears to think about Makhachev the higher striker, he solely has 5 knockouts on his resume whereas Nurmagomedov KO’d eight of his opponents, although solely two of these finishes got here contained in the Octagon.
In the long run, ‘Rush’ thinks it’s just too near name between two of the best fighters to ever step onto MMA’s greatest stage.
“However the factor is, we can not examine these two fights, I consider, as a result of we by no means combat the identical fighters twice,” St-Pierre mentioned. “We would combat the identical identify twice, however it’s not the identical fighter they was. They’ve improved lots since their final fights, I consider. There are such a lot of X-factors, so we will’t actually examine.”
