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A good friend of mine who was a very good MMA fighter was having a similar conversation with me. We trained together in BJJ in the early 2000s, pretty hardnosed, so he knows I understand the game.This is on point. I agree.
Too many here are hung up on cosmetics, as usual, missing the bigger picture.
He was saying, he can take a guy from scratch and train him in MMA, and in 3 or 4 years, have him be a good MMA fighter. He'll be able to do takedowns, stop takedowns, do and counter submissions, strike, etc. But the way it's going today, everyone is doing MMA as a specific art, and a guy that is trained like that won't be able to beat a guy like Cro Cop.
The point is, while it's important to be well rounded, even within the context of being well rounded you need to have an edge, and that edge means being specialized in some aspect of fighting.
In my opinion, Khabib's additional skills in grappling add more to his overall ability AND PRODUCE GREATER ROI as a fighter than Islam's more polished standup.