If Khabib never existed, would we have witnessed the Diamond era?

[13Seconds]

Dustin has been very dominant at LW, and he seems to be getting better and better. Im starting to think Khabib messed up his greatness by dominating him and then retire....

I think Dustin would have defeated any LW to get the belt and he wouldn't retire early. We could have witnessed a GSP type run. It's just that Khabib wrecked him

 

[Mammothman]

Its very likely, I think he would have been champ a couple of times but not DJ/GSP level, probably Miocic/TJ level.

We also have to see how he handles Oliveira.

 

[D'z]

Yes.

 

[theleerygoose]

Probably not. Porier is fantastic but he gets caught in almost every fight. Eventually someone at the championship level will catch him and KO/TKO him

He is most likely the number 1 LW without Khabib and I expect him to win the title, but I don’t think he gets more than 3 defenses.

 

[Peli]

Dustin has been very dominant at LW, and he seems to be getting better and better. Im starting to think Khabib messed up his greatness by dominating him and then retire....

I think Dustin would have defeated any LW to get the belt and he wouldn't retire early. We could have witnessed a GSP type run. It's just that Khabib wrecked him

I don't think so. I think Dustin is having a great run. I don't think Dustin is as good as people are hyping him up to be.

Don't get me wrong. He's a hof, has impressive resume. One of the best LWs to ever do it. But I don't think he would have reigned long. I think he would have lost. gameplanning for him would have been mch easier than gameplanning for khabib. Most of his wins aren't shutout wins. They're grind it out, JBG wins. that's the type of wins he likes. That could also be his downfall too

 

[RemyR]

Ya

 

[TerrorTimmy]

Dustin would certainly be up there. He may have had the title, but there's other great fighters at LW. Oliveira is a tough test. A refined Gaethje would have been tough as well

 

[DebtCollectorMMA]

Dariush and Olivera strangle him. Chandler sleeps him. Would've been a short lived destiny.

 

[Cauliflower Ear]

Probably not. Porier is fantastic but he gets caught in almost every fight. Eventually someone at the championship level will catch him and KO/TKO him

He is most likely the number 1 LW without Khabib and I expect him to win the title, but I don’t think he gets more than 3 defenses.

This, Chandler, Justin, Tony, Charles etc could always catch Dustin. He would not go undefeated for long

 

[I Am Legion]

I do think he is under rated. I do think at any given time GSP could have come back and beaten Khabib and made 50 million for it.

 

[usernamee]

lol no

 

[Candy Routure]

I love Dustin, but my answer is no. I don’t even believe Khabib had an “era”.. He walked away with a few defenses, but an era is multiple defenses over several years, in my opinion. Khabib may be the most dominant LW ever, but in championship talk, he falls way behind some.

To make it clear, I am a Khabib fan. I am a Poirier fan.

 

[youllneverwalkalone]

Probably not. Porier is fantastic but he gets caught in almost every fight. Eventually someone at the championship level will catch him and KO/TKO him

He is most likely the number 1 LW without Khabib and I expect him to win the title, but I don’t think he gets more than 3 defenses.

This 100%, although to be fair, no LW on earth besides Khabib could get more than 3 defenses right now.

 

[USMCTKD]

He'd probably be champ, but not for long. His style takes too much damage to be at the top for long. There would be a lot of exciting matchups at the top though. LW has a ton of killers.

 

[BodybagJohnny**]

Motivated BJ Penn would have beaten him and won the belt again.

 

[balkanbomber85]

No, Dustin is always the bridesmaid and never the bride, he just istn champ material.

Don’t misunderstand me, he is a great fighter but just this whole LW top5 is not good, its actually one of the weakest division in the ufc which was just pushed marketing vise a lot because of Conor and later on Kabeb but in general its just a few kickboxers with close to zero ground game. Jesus, charles olivera is the champ, chandler, a b-league reject, slipped in the top5 like nothing, and so on and so on.

 

[JosephTessaro]

What if we are witnessing it now? What if Dustin gets the belt, beats Conor again, then runs through the LW top 5?

 

[theincognito]

Dustin wasn't even in the title picture until about 2018.

It would have been Conor vs Tony instead of Conor vs Khabib. Either Conor would have had a longer reign or Tony would have been the champ and probably rematched Conor.

Dustin would have got the shot about the same time he did IRL so either way he wouldn't have been a long time dominant champ to this point. In fact he probably would have lost the title to Oliveira a few months ago.

 

[Poirierfan]

Dariush and Olivera strangle him. Chandler sleeps him. Would've been a short lived destiny.

Not

 

[Yojimbonufc]

Its very likely, I think he would have been champ a couple of times but not DJ/GSP level, probably Miocic/TJ level.

We also have to see how he handles Oliveira.

Stipe feels like a level above TJ level tbh.