Poirier must let Khabib gas himself

[electricfuneral]

I think tony is durable enough and has an active guard to try this but Dustin has to rely on hurting khabib standing. Early.

 

[theleerygoose]

Khabib probably wins the match but itll be way closer than most people expect. Remember Khabib might be 27-0 but his first 20 bouts were against certified cans. He still has much to prove.

 

[mkess101]

No. Because the pressure and gnp put on by Khabib is typically ferocious enough to have the ref hovering with threat to stop the fight. There's no way to keep your gas tank when you're trying to stay alive / stop the ref stepping in.

Depends how good your guard is. Against guys that offer little to nothing off their back? Yeah I agree. Against someone with a good guard you get the boring cuddlefest that was Khabib vs RDA.

 

[Lawrence]

Poirier doesn't have better cardio than Khabib though.

Agree... But Dustin doesn't need to have better cardio.

He just needs enough gas to be dangerous in the 4th and 5th rounds in search of a KO when Khabib will have more difficulty getting a takedown.

Khabib has a great top game as we all know, but the actual damage he inflicts is not as bad as some...

The Champ is rightfully the favorite, but I think Dustin's best chance is to make Khabib work hard from the top without taking too much damage himself, then hope to stun Khabib late...

 

[kalabula]

Khabibs desire to stand and trade in the latter rounds is Dustin’s only chance, IMO. Khabibs corner agrees given there others to take the fight to the ground whenever he does this.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Agree... But Dustin doesn't need to have better cardio.

He just needs enough gas to be dangerous in the 4th and 5th rounds in search of a KO when Khabib will have more difficulty getting a takedown.

Khabib has a great top game as we all know, but the actual damage he inflicts is not as bad as some...

The Champ is rightfully the favorite, but I think Dustin's best chance is to make Khabib work hard from the top without taking too much damage himself, then hope to stun Khabib late...

He does if his plan is to be less tired later, everyone Khabib has fought so far has gotten tired faster than Khabib has.

 

[Furious77]

Cheated the entire 3rd round? No, you're thinking of the 2nd round when Conor was cheating by locking his toes in the fence and an illegal elbow that didn't get called. 3rd round was mostly all stand up. There's was ONE elbow to the head at the very end of the 3rd round with :09 secs left but it wasn't nearly as egregious as the one in the 2nd. But that doesn't change the fact that Conor was out-striking KN during the 3rd round because KN was tired and his TD's weren't effective.

Lmao " third round was mostly stand up" yeah no shit. Conor had is fingers hooked in Khabibs gloves for almost 30's at one point, and it wasn't the only time in the round he did it. He was grabbing shorts, doing everything he can to prevent a takedown. All while Herb Dean was staring right at him. I'm not even gonna bother with you anymore, I can't tell if you're trolling or legally blind. I mean what do you think Khabib was yelling at Herb about at the end of round 3? "You're doing a great job, keep up the good work".

Edit: lmao, what a coincidence theres literally a thread on the 1st page with gifs of all of Conor's cheating round by round.

 

[kingmob6]

Y'all just don't get it. Khabib didn't gas in either of the Iaquinta or Connor's fights. I rewatched the Iaquinta fight recently, Khabib looked fresh as faqq in the later rounds, he made very lazy attempts to take Al down and didn't particularly care whether of success, and was full of energy and completely relaxed dominating Al on the feet. There was no signs of any gassing. In Connor's fight, he was pressing Connor and trading punches, no gassing whatsoever. However, what people misinterpret as gassing is when a wrestler or grappler gets a lot of blood flowing after extended rounds, and gets full and heavy - that's what happens to Khabib. It's not the same as gassing though, Khabib does not look tired to me in later rounds at all. All you little Khabib haters hoping that he gets gassed are going to be severely dissapointed again, as usual when he crushes Poirier.

 

[Knuckledragger]

The ref will just stop the fight if Porier curls up in a ball hoping Khabib gets tired of beating the crap out of him.

 

[Luke Rockhold's Chin]

That was obviously one of the dumbest comments ever,(I am talking about Dom s comment)

I wasn't dumb, if that was someone with 7/10 cardio that would have been valid. No one can understand why conors cardio is so shit to the point where he can barely throw a punch after 2 rounds

 

[MRT]

The idea that Khabib will gas, while his opponent remains comparably fresh (and unhurt), is a bit of a fantasy, IMHO.

Some fans seem to forget that everything Khabib does early tends to also wear out his opponents. Whether they more actively resist (and thus expend energy too) or more passively defend and try to conserve energy (which allows Khabib to more easily advance position and risk him delivering g'n'p), they are going to tire too.

Cruz's commentary during Khabib-Conor seemed to ignore this reality and was *so* off the mark, it was shocking.

Also, Conor is allegedly the best striker in the division and managed to do relatively little when Khabib appeared to ease off in round 3...in fact, Khabib delivered almost as well as he received, and that round was FAR from some decisive 10-9 for Conor. Poirier should be wary of relying on a similar tactic.

IMHO, the better strategy is for a fighter to play to their strengths...i.e. use what got them to this title fight. I would rather see Poirier take more chances in trying to hurt Khabib early. Of course he needs to be smart about using distance and not gift-wrapping the TD for Khabib, but few fighters are 'better' when being pressured and I don't think Khabib is an exception there. Easier said than done, of course...

 

[FrankDux]

The idea that Khabib will gas, while his opponent remains comparably fresh (and unhurt), is a bit of a fantasy, IMHO.

Not sure that anyone is arguing this exactly.

What I'm saying is DP will have to:

1. Minimize as much damage as possible (and survive obviously) when he gets taken down and
2. HOPE that Khabib gets tired (just as he did vs Conor in rd 3) and then
3. Stuff Khabib's tired TD's and try to out-strike him (just as Conor did in rd 3) and/or swing for the fences for a KO/TKO all while being extremely tired from all the wrestling (something that Conor failed to do in rd 3)

Although highly unlikely it'll happen, this is the only scenario I see playing out that gives DP the best chance at winning, albeit still a low chance.

 

[aerozeppelin]

all i know is that po-yay is gonna light beebs the fuck up if he can keep it standing.

 

[broke as hell]

This is how homer simpson became a world champion. You might be on to something.

 

[K-Bag]

I think Dustin should punch him in the face, that could help him win.