Media Islam wants to headline UFC 299 Main Event against Garthje or Oliveira!

[Kenny Powerth]

Well since it’s up to him he should just call Danar and tell him to book it!

 

[RockyLockridge]

But he's a submit or get submitted type of grappler. Gaethje is just a get submitted type of grappler. How is he better in this area

I never said he was better but they are both just as likely to get finished on the ground. I think Gaethjes stand up gives him a better chance than oliveria. Gaethje will have his typical lowkick gameplay and if he can maintain a distance that makes it hard to grapple he has a chance. Charles I see as even less of a chance. Gaethje atleast has a possibillity of making it a battle of attrition, I don't see charles as being able to do that. I think if charles fights him again it goes almost exact as it went the first time, but faster.

 

[Sean Rhino]

Oliveira has a much better change against Malgache than Gaethje. What is Gaethje going to do when Makhachev inevitably takes him down ? I like Gaethje a lot but his ground game is embarrassing for a top 5 guy

It's still a fresh matchup that we haven't seen. I remember people having the same kind of arguments about Strickland getting a shot against Adesanya and being laughably dismissive of Strickland's chances in that matchup.

Gaethje might have a bad ground game, but he's ridiculously hard to take down. He has better defensive wrestling than Oliveira.

 

[markg171]

Islam's 100% doing this because he knows everybody else is going to want to fight on UFC 300 instead. Especially if Conor's indeed back for it and not necessarily fighting Chandler.

Which uh yeah...? Who the fuck wants to be on UFC 299 instead of UFC 300?

 

[markg171]

It's still a fresh matchup that we haven't seen. I remember people having the same kind of arguments about Strickland getting a shot against Adesanya and being laughably dismissive of Strickland's chances in that matchup.

People laughed at Strickland's chances because everybody knew he was a striker and would try and strike with a supposedly better striker than him in Izzy. It was rightfully seen as an uphill battle as he was going to fight Izzy at his own strengths where Izzy was supposed to be stronger.

Turns out Strickland was the better striker though and so was perfectly fine fighting a striking battle with Izzy.

That's wildly different than Islam vs Justin where everybody knows Islam is the better grappler and is going to try and fight Justin there, not on the feet. Where he also might be better as well. They're going to try and implement completely different games against one another, and Islam has the far bigger advantage(s) in his than Justin does and will likely make the fight happen there.

You should be analyzing fights based on where they're realistically going to take place and how the two fighters match up in that domain. Islam/Justin is liekly happening on the ground, not the feet. And Islam's way better there.

Gaethje might have a bad ground game, but he's ridiculously hard to take down. He has better defensive wrestling than Oliveira.

Not exactly sure what you're basing this on. Practically everybody who's tried to take Justin down has, or at least got the fight there anyways to exploit his bad ground game. Most people simply don't try to take him down as they'd rather strike with him as they're strikers themselves and view Justin as hard hitting but rather reckless and untechnical so think they're fine beating him there.

As to Charles, that's a ridiculous comparison. Charles doesn't bother even having defensive wrestling as he WANTS the fight to hit the ground. If he wanted to defend TDs better he could.

 

[JKS]

I wanna see one after the other. Give me Charles in March and Gaetehje in October.

 

[markg171]

how does it affect you physically? like if you eat a lot at night and fast at day. you drink fluids like bodyarmor in night. you can still train, the biggest problem would be dehydration me guessing

Muslims don't want you to know that Ramadan is just intermittent fasting for a month where they skip lunch. They do this so that we leave them alone for a month because they're supposedly going through a very intense "hardship" and need to give them empathy and space.

And not that they're just skipping lunch every day.

 

[DatSamboKid]

Respectfully, even though Charles Oliveira is a great fighter, I'd prefer to see Islam take on Justin Gaethje. We've seen Charles and Islam face off before. Sure, Charles has the skills and might pull it off, but I'm not completely convinced. A fight with Gaethje would be something new. They should set up Charles against Armen for the number one contender spot.

 

[cws80us]

Isn't O'Malley-Vera already the headliner for 299? Will be hilarious if O'Malley gut bumped to co-main! As far as the match-ups, Gaethje would obviously be fresh, but I have no reason to think it wouldn't just be a repeat of Gaethje-Khabib or Gaethje-Charles, where he just gets submitted in round 2 or 3. He just hasn't shown that he can effectively deal with high level grapplers. Charles maybe could give Islam a better fight the 2nd time around, but I'd be skeptical.

 

[ThePimblettEra]

LW division is wank.

 

[Conan the K-9]

Isn't O'Malley-Vera already the headliner for 299? Will be hilarious if O'Malley gut bumped to co-main!

And when you look more at that card, you see that it does not need a fight anymore.

I hate to say, but it looks more like that talk from him wanting fight last summer, but somehow he is the only champ who the UFC does not give any fights.

And ofcourse at the same time, probably even same interview, he dissed Leon as a champ and called him out, said that he wants Leon next.

I don’t really take this talk from him too serious. He is just wanting some attention like every other fighter.

 

[TR1]

this guy never fights! how does volk already have fight lined up before this duck!?

Islam has been fighting more regularly than most top ranked fighters.

WTF are you on?

 

[Sean Rhino]

Turns out Strickland was the better striker though and so was perfectly fine fighting a striking battle with Izzy.

Yes, a lot of people were wrong, which is my point. People having this confident belief of an outcome in a fresh matchup to the point of being frustrated by a potential booking of that matchup between two top lightweights is the weird thing I don't understand.

Not exactly sure what you're basing this on. Practically everybody who's tried to take Justin down has, or at least got the fight there anyways to exploit his bad ground game.

Sadly, you're wrong here. Chandler had 5 of his takedowns stuffed against Gaethje, tried to slam Gaethje once in the last round, but was immediately reversed. Alvarez was able to take Gaethje down once, but Gaethje immediately scrambled out of that and got back up to his feet. Nurmagomedov is really the only man that was able to take Gaethje down and control him in the UFC, and even he had to spend a large part of the first round striking with Gaethje, eating some brutal calf kicks, slowing Gaethje down with pressure, and then taking him down at the end of the round.

Oliveira, as you said, is willing to pull guard or just straight-up lose balance and fall down against anybody, which I think is a big issue against Makhachev.

Either way, I don't think either Oliveira or Gaethje beats Makhachev, so I don't really mind either matchup next. It's just hilarious how frustrated people get over the possibility of Gaethje jumping over Oliveira with potentially getting the next shot.

Islam's 100% doing this because he knows everybody else is going to want to fight on UFC 300 instead.

Perhaps it's because UFC 299 is the last PPV before Ramadan? Yes, a crazy theory. I know.

Who the fuck wants to be on UFC 299 instead of UFC 300?

Do lightweights get a special bonus for being on UFC 300 or something? I'm pretty sure fighting for Makhachev's title is better than just fighting on UFC 300. Or am I missing something?

 

[fightfan70]

all i hear out of islam is ....

i want, i want, i want.

be nice if he just did something about it.

 

[markys00]

Hopefully against Gaethje. Oliveira got nothing on Islam, I want to see other contenders get their tries before Islam retire or move up.

Feed Charles to Arman.

New fans.. it's easy to spot when you use the word feed. Smh

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

Can they just make him fight a top 5 LW already? It is ridiculous he has 0 LW title defenses against any ranked LW fighters.

 

[old school 2]

Of course he wants to fight on a card that already top heavy

Doesn’t really want to fight

See you in September, Islam

You mean October .

 

[old school 2]

But he's a submit or get submitted type of grappler. Gaethje is just a get submitted type of grappler. How is he better in this area

Gaejthe is a banger because nobody is submitting or ever submitted Islam but he has been KO’d. We want a banger!

 

[Dionysian]

lol @ you salty bitches getting upset that a champ wants to defend his belt sooner rather than later

You crybabies will bitch about literally anything

 

[Psychojoe86]

UFC 299 is already a very good and dense card with a TF Main event and tbh this statement smells like the same BS when he "wanted" to fight right after ramadan 2023 and tHe UfC dIdNt WaNt HiM tO fIgHt BeFoRe Ad...

Moreover, both, Justin and Olives both don't want to fight in AD anymore, so they will need to find somebody who doesn't care about all the stuff which is going on there.

Not to mention this card is very near now. Looks like it’s quite possible that’s islams strategy here tbh