Khabib's single biggest win (and it isn't close)

[JoeRowe]

They hated Khabib so much that they offered him a title fight vs Al Iaquinta. Meanwhile, when Khabib pulls out they offer Tony non-title vs MJ at a reduced pay.

 

[Lawrence]

His most impressive MMA win technically speaking I believe was against Dustin. But that wasn't his most impressive career win. His most impressive career win was against WME UFC. When a 4+ billion company makes it their sole intent to ensure you can't reach the top, and you not only reach it but break through the ceiling imposed on you... that is something that has only happened once in this sport's history (though I hope it happens again).

Brief recap on how massive of a task this was:
1. Matchmaking was rigged from the start. They needed Khabib (and Tony) gone. That's why they kept trying to have them pick each other off, and why they could amass the longest-ever contender streaks (and doing it in the deepest division) without getting title shots. Before Khabib haters shifted to the "he never fought a wrestler" meme they embraced the "Khabib never fought a striker" approach. People forget the perceptions around MJ and Barboza at the time Khabib was matched against them... they were perceived to be wrestler killers with one shot KO power. Exactly the kind of guys UFC thought, on paper, had the potential to derail Khabib.

2. Promo work was rigged from the start. First it was endless non-defense excuse making on the part of WME. Mayweather for a year. Then once that was over it was a year of maternity leave for a male fighter. It set the record for non-defense by an uninjured champion. When WME finally stripped their cash cow when it was clear he would never defend, they still promoted him as double champ. In a clear bid to derail Khabib before he could even be champ, UFC security allowed 30 into the Barclay's center the night before Khabib fought. Then when they attacked the bus, rather than drive away from the attack/out of the area like 99.99% of vehicle drivers in the history of vehicle attacks, they instead STOPPED the bus, then reversed into Conor's goons. I can't take credit for pointing this out though, so I'll credit Khabib himself.

Hilarious this is overlooked so often. UFC apparently also told Khabib the day before he had to go without any of his teammates on that bus. Gee I wonder why they'd request that... and so weird that 30 guys get past security, along with multiple cameras to record it and the UFC used it as promotion for 6 months...

Fact of the matter is if Khabib got off the bus, as planned, and so much as touched Conor, UFC would have pushed for criminal charges and for Khabib to be held in title limbo. That was the plan/to cancel the 223 title fight.

3. Reffing was rigged from the start.
This has been documented better than any other fight because there has never been a fight as obvious with fight fixing by the ref. Maybe second place is Mirg in Rumble-Vitor when Rumble was obviously supposed to be fired for missing weight again. Really though this was even more transparent.

There have been 100 threads on this. Any where from 14 to 18 fouls depending on who is counting. Khabib actually called out Herb on live TV at the end of round 3. He points out to Herb Conor is holding the gloves in hopes of demonstrating on international TV how much fight fixing is going on. Herb literally replies “let’s work” twice to try and redirect attention away from himself and blame Khabib for Conor cheating WHILE Khabib is pointing it out. Next level corruption. Dom explicitly concedes “he is holding that so he can’t complete the takedown.”

In between round 3-4 is when Khabib wouldn't let it slide. Khabib points out the glove grab happened 3 times to Herb yet again. Herb says “stop… stop” and separates them. Khabib states “three times now… you said if it happened twice you’d take away one point.” This is important to note. Dom literally just pointed out the cheating seconds ago but now Khabib is pushing back on the corruption of Dean, so there is a power disparity (fighter vs UFC corruption, as opposed to UFC-on-UFC criticism). The best way I can explain this from a PR POV is “I can insult my family but you can’t insult my family” sort of thing. So this part is amazing in that Dom JUST SAID IT but now that Khabib is pointing it out on NATIONAL TELEVISION you hear the reactions. Rogan replies “HE SHOULDN’T BE TALKING” immediately. Anik then tries to segue way from this uncomfortable spot to explain to the public to not internalize what Khabib said by saying “Khabib is not in his element unless he is jabbing… and talking… to whomever… the referee or his opponent” which can be translated as “don’t listen please.” Shills gonna shill. I almost counted that night's commentary as rigged as well, but we all know they're so obviously rigged in favor of certain outcomes that it isn't worth pointing out any longer as being a 4th factor at play.

4. UFC's calculus was rigged from the start.
They tried. My god, they tried. Conor got a do-over when he lost to Nate. Conor got a do-over when he lost to Dustin. The only other time I know of where a clear promotional favorite got an immediate rematch "do-over" for a non-controversial ending was when SF gave Cung Le a do-over vs Scott Smith.

As soon as the fight ended Dana was talking about lives being in danger and floated the idea of stripping Khabib and criminal prosecution. Rogan said the same. UFC shills all-around who cheered the bus attack couldn't wait to express their moral outrage. Ariel pushed moral outrage, king of corporate-brown-nosing and serial cheater Sonnen lectured us about the seriousness of breaching Unified Rules on jumping on a cage with a straight fucking face. Dana set the stage for the next phase (stripping of belt) to rig the game:


But they didn't do shit. Because even ESPN (and all public opinion) neutered their ability to do what they wanted. UFC was at the very least going to give Conor a do-over, at most would encourage criminal prosecution as an excuse to rip the belt away from Khabib just after defending it. There was an avalanche of PR in favor of Khabib.


Khabib beat all these factors.

1. Khabib understood he needed to belt's leverage to beat back the UFC's corruption. Not sure how much he understood it at that exact moment of the bus attack, but I guarantee that he did in general. So instead of them prosecuting Khabib we had to watch Dana feign outrage over Conor (and surprise, surprise... zero criminal charges!)

2. Khabib won the PR game. He went from a promotional supervillain with all the UFC shills hand-wringing the dire moral consequence of cage jumping, to becoming the undefeated legend who dominated LW and placed P4P #1 by that same PR machine.

3. Khabib took the long road to the title, won the belt anyway, and kept it. Zero bullshit rematches, zero contention, all justice, all accountability.

April to October 2018 truly was a master class in politics from Khabib. Much more than destroying Conor... he defeated a 4-billion dollar company that absolutely rigged it in every conceivable way... from the promo work to Conor's fight schedule to Herb Dean putting the fix in to attempts to strip Khabib after he won. He outplayed them every step of the way. Didn't get off the bus. Pointed out Herb's corruption on live TV in the 3rd round, to which the commentary quickly tried to cover it up. Annihilated the UFC in the media when the public pushback was so strong (even on ESPN) to Dana floating the idea of stripping him after he won.

TLDR: 30-0. Khabib vs WME ended in a submission victory for Khabib, bending the UFC PR power machine to his will until it snapped in two, ultimately serving his interests to close out his career.

I would argue that the UFC put much more effort into keeping Charles Olivera away from the Title.

Dana and the top 10 fighters would not even say his name out loud until 2020...

Unlike Khabib, Olivera was very busy when he moved up to 155 and fought anybody the UFC put in front of him. The UFC tried HARD for a long time to keep Olivera far away from ranked fighters.

 

[Hatorade]

Look at all these stupid trolls commenting that can't read above a first grade level.

This thread is brilliant.

You read all that bullshit?

 

[BigGucci]

Khabib 30-0, undefeated, undisputed

 

[Coolkid666]

You read all that bullshit?

Yeah. I know reading is a terrifying concept for you

 

[Amsterdamn]

I read everything !! Word for word true talking!!

 

[FKAri]

The UFC definitely did not make it easy for him or want him to win initially. A wrestler from Russia? lol. But once it became clear that he had a huge following, was tapping into a new market for them, and was actually really good, they were all not only aboard but driving the hype train.

 

[Dionysian]

This thread is way overthought and ridiculous. You really think the UFC really wanted to jeopardize the UFC 249 main event in New York City which already lost Ferguson by possibly getting Khabib to disqualify himself from fighting? Not to mention all of the other fighters on that bus, do you realize how much money the UFC would have lost from that event losing Khabib?

No, I don't think that / never said that.

Khabib started to break down the UFC machine after 229 and finalized that breakage at 242, after which the machine was working for him. By UFC 249 the UFC was firmly in Khabib's pocket.

The referees don't work for the UFC they work for the athletic commission. Herbs reffed fights all over the world for numerous organizations. That's why I say he's overworked.

Hell yes he's overworked. Did you know that he's reffed 100% of Conor's fights since Conor won the LW belt in 2016? Weird how he's particularly overworked when it comes to fights that the UFC has a lopsided interest in one person winning. They have countless refs to chose from and instead pick just one "overworked" guy over and over and over.

Do you really believe that Herb Dean only got his $1,900 reported payout for reffing Conor's 4th consecutive fight?

Khabib has that Dana White privilege. He would have been given a shot long ago if he didn't keep getting injured.

Tony is the one they looked to truly fuck over. Not khabib.

In my OP I compared Tony and Khabib as being in an extremely similar position (equally fucked over) while Conor was artificially maintained as champ. The difference was Khabib broke the machine to work for him, which is why I painted it as his biggest win.

Tony's problem was in not understanding the game as much. He probably knew they were trying to fuck him, but then made decisions that further decreased his chances of breaking them/getting career leverage to overcome the UFC. He turned down Michael Johnson rematch and Holloway fight (when Max was FW champ of course) when both would have empowered him... yet then accepted a short-notice Justin fight when it couldn't help him at all (he was already slated to fight Khabib for the unified title, and he would have been in the same exact position if he beat Justin)

 

[The Schmoop]

Telling the ufc to get fucked after beating conor was the best win. Reinstate my homies and Conor ain’t getting a rematch. GOAT.

 

[gluehuffer1776]

Khabib only has around 5 legit wins in his career - conman, gaethje, rda (before he became a beast), peahead, and michael johnson. Khabib spent most of his career feasting on nobodies while enjoying a massive weight advantage.

 

[Bumblebeef]

getting the title fight for khabib while conor clowing around biggest time in his life is a own documentary on disney + worth

 

[KillerIsBack V2]

Too Long Didn't Read

Khabib took long because he kept getting injured

UFC has the fighters PR metrics they knew Khabib had huge following. They gave him multiple title shots but he or Tony kept getting hurt

This^
TS needs to get a life.

 

[blaseblah]

How to spot low IQ, uneducated individuals 101.
They're not willing to read a couple paragraphs because their attention spans are too short.

Cry more because people don't want to read pointless essays. Khabib took multiple years off due to injury and constantly missed weight. His long road to the title is entirely his fault.

Look at that, I debunked TS with 3 sentences and didn't even have to read his essay to do it.

 

[Bumblebeef]

funny thing was while conor had his new born how many time took he off and hold the division ? khabib actually fought while his child was born smth. u missed this info in you khabib sherdog wiki

 

[Dionysian]

Cry more because people don't want to read pointless essays. Khabib took multiple years off due to injury and constantly missed weight. His long road to the title is entirely his fault.

Look at that, I debunked TS with 3 sentences and didn't even have to read his essay to do it.

... or because you didn't read any of it your reply addresses absolutely none of the topics discussed in the OP.

So instead of proudly declaring that you can't read you ALSO look like someone who lacks the self-awareness to stop themselves from looking like a moron when they say "I debunked TS with 3 sentences" as you post clearly unrelated bullshit.

 

[blaseblah]

... or because you didn't read any of it your reply addresses absolutely none of the topics discussed in the OP.

So instead of proudly declaring that you can't read you ALSO look like someone who lacks the self-awareness to stop themselves from looking like a moron when they say "I debunked TS with 3 sentences" as you post clearly unrelated bullshit.

I shut down his initial claim which I did read, I didn't have have to read the rest of his long winded pointless essay to do that. You don't have any real arguments against anything I said, you're just shitposting. Was Khabib not constantly injured? Did he not miss weight multiple times?

 

[TheWave111]

You are right. A bunch of white supremacists who accept every criminal act of Conrat as entertainment and tell Khabib to stop complaining to the referee about cheating.

The UFC doesn't care where you are from as long you represent income for the UFC.
The UFC tried to stop Khabib from a title fight for years.
Khabib is the perfect example to stay focused and just take everyone out and do what is in your power.
The UFC won't change. They will always make decisions in favour of money.
Impressive records or belts in the past mean nothing if you can't generate money for the UFC. It is what it is.

 

[Rdude92]

His most impressive MMA win technically speaking I believe was against Dustin. But that wasn't his most impressive career win. His most impressive career win was against WME UFC. When a 4+ billion company makes it their sole intent to ensure you can't reach the top, and you not only reach it but break through the ceiling imposed on you... that is something that has only happened once in this sport's history (though I hope it happens again).

Brief recap on how massive of a task this was:
1. Matchmaking was rigged from the start. They needed Khabib (and Tony) gone. That's why they kept trying to have them pick each other off, and why they could amass the longest-ever contender streaks (and doing it in the deepest division) without getting title shots. Before Khabib haters shifted to the "he never fought a wrestler" meme they embraced the "Khabib never fought a striker" approach. People forget the perceptions around MJ and Barboza at the time Khabib was matched against them... they were perceived to be wrestler killers with one shot KO power. Exactly the kind of guys UFC thought, on paper, had the potential to derail Khabib.

2. Promo work was rigged from the start. First it was endless non-defense excuse making on the part of WME. Mayweather for a year. Then once that was over it was a year of maternity leave for a male fighter. It set the record for non-defense by an uninjured champion. When WME finally stripped their cash cow when it was clear he would never defend, they still promoted him as double champ. In a clear bid to derail Khabib before he could even be champ, UFC security allowed 30 into the Barclay's center the night before Khabib fought. Then when they attacked the bus, rather than drive away from the attack/out of the area like 99.99% of vehicle drivers in the history of vehicle attacks, they instead STOPPED the bus, then reversed into Conor's goons. I can't take credit for pointing this out though, so I'll credit Khabib himself.

Hilarious this is overlooked so often. UFC apparently also told Khabib the day before he had to go without any of his teammates on that bus. Gee I wonder why they'd request that... and so weird that 30 guys get past security, along with multiple cameras to record it and the UFC used it as promotion for 6 months...

Fact of the matter is if Khabib got off the bus, as planned, and so much as touched Conor, UFC would have pushed for criminal charges and for Khabib to be held in title limbo. That was the plan/to cancel the 223 title fight.

3. Reffing was rigged from the start.
This has been documented better than any other fight because there has never been a fight as obvious with fight fixing by the ref. Maybe second place is Mirg in Rumble-Vitor when Rumble was obviously supposed to be fired for missing weight again. Really though this was even more transparent.

There have been 100 threads on this. Any where from 14 to 18 fouls depending on who is counting. Khabib actually called out Herb on live TV at the end of round 3. He points out to Herb Conor is holding the gloves in hopes of demonstrating on international TV how much fight fixing is going on. Herb literally replies “let’s work” twice to try and redirect attention away from himself and blame Khabib for Conor cheating WHILE Khabib is pointing it out. Next level corruption. Dom explicitly concedes “he is holding that so he can’t complete the takedown.”

In between round 3-4 is when Khabib wouldn't let it slide. Khabib points out the glove grab happened 3 times to Herb yet again. Herb says “stop… stop” and separates them. Khabib states “three times now… you said if it happened twice you’d take away one point.” This is important to note. Dom literally just pointed out the cheating seconds ago but now Khabib is pushing back on the corruption of Dean, so there is a power disparity (fighter vs UFC corruption, as opposed to UFC-on-UFC criticism). The best way I can explain this from a PR POV is “I can insult my family but you can’t insult my family” sort of thing. So this part is amazing in that Dom JUST SAID IT but now that Khabib is pointing it out on NATIONAL TELEVISION you hear the reactions. Rogan replies “HE SHOULDN’T BE TALKING” immediately. Anik then tries to segue way from this uncomfortable spot to explain to the public to not internalize what Khabib said by saying “Khabib is not in his element unless he is jabbing… and talking… to whomever… the referee or his opponent” which can be translated as “don’t listen please.” Shills gonna shill. I almost counted that night's commentary as rigged as well, but we all know they're so obviously rigged in favor of certain outcomes that it isn't worth pointing out any longer as being a 4th factor at play.

4. UFC's calculus was rigged from the start.
They tried. My god, they tried. Conor got a do-over when he lost to Nate. Conor got a do-over when he lost to Dustin. The only other time I know of where a clear promotional favorite got an immediate rematch "do-over" for a non-controversial ending was when SF gave Cung Le a do-over vs Scott Smith.

As soon as the fight ended Dana was talking about lives being in danger and floated the idea of stripping Khabib and criminal prosecution. Rogan said the same. UFC shills all-around who cheered the bus attack couldn't wait to express their moral outrage. Ariel pushed moral outrage, king of corporate-brown-nosing and serial cheater Sonnen lectured us about the seriousness of breaching Unified Rules on jumping on a cage with a straight fucking face. Dana set the stage for the next phase (stripping of belt) to rig the game:


But they didn't do shit. Because even ESPN (and all public opinion) neutered their ability to do what they wanted. UFC was at the very least going to give Conor a do-over, at most would encourage criminal prosecution as an excuse to rip the belt away from Khabib just after defending it. There was an avalanche of PR in favor of Khabib.


Khabib beat all these factors.

1. Khabib understood he needed to belt's leverage to beat back the UFC's corruption. Not sure how much he understood it at that exact moment of the bus attack, but I guarantee that he did in general. So instead of them prosecuting Khabib we had to watch Dana feign outrage over Conor (and surprise, surprise... zero criminal charges!)

2. Khabib won the PR game. He went from a promotional supervillain with all the UFC shills hand-wringing the dire moral consequence of cage jumping, to becoming the undefeated legend who dominated LW and placed P4P #1 by that same PR machine.

3. Khabib took the long road to the title, won the belt anyway, and kept it. Zero bullshit rematches, zero contention, all justice, all accountability.

April to October 2018 truly was a master class in politics from Khabib. Much more than destroying Conor... he defeated a 4-billion dollar company that absolutely rigged it in every conceivable way... from the promo work to Conor's fight schedule to Herb Dean putting the fix in to attempts to strip Khabib after he won. He outplayed them every step of the way. Didn't get off the bus. Pointed out Herb's corruption on live TV in the 3rd round, to which the commentary quickly tried to cover it up. Annihilated the UFC in the media when the public pushback was so strong (even on ESPN) to Dana floating the idea of stripping him after he won.

TLDR: 30-0. Khabib vs WME ended in a submission victory for Khabib, bending the UFC PR power machine to his will until it snapped in two, ultimately serving his interests to close out his career.

You just reminded me how much i have to hate Herb Dean. He even have the audacity to wxplain himself in a video after the event

 

[Rdude92]

The UFC definitely did not make it easy for him or want him to win initially. A wrestler from Russia? lol. But once it became clear that he had a huge following, was tapping into a new market for them, and was actually really good, they were all not only aboard but driving the hype train.

Yeah people are saying how he didnt face any good wrestler never look up to his first opponents in the UFC. His first match was against an Olympic caliber wrestler in Shalorus. Then he fought wrestlers / grapplers like tavares, Trujillo, Tibau and RDA after. Only when he reached the later stage of his career did he face strikers. And those he made it look easy

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

You can make up the same shit for anybody on a good win streak that hasn't fought the for belt yet. The UFC hates Makhachev and Dariush! The UFC loves Makhachev and that's why he's ranked 5th despite his best win being over a guy ranked #14. Took Khabib a while to fight for the belt but like others said "he kept getting injured".