Unpopular take: I'd already rank Pereira's resume above Khabib's

[BJJ4Tone]

Khabib had 13 fights in 8 years

Pereira has captured 2 titles in less than 3 years, fighting 8 times during that stretch

Fuck Khabib lmao

I understand that perspective.
I also understand the perspective that Pereira got choked out by a fucking jobber that no one's ever heard of.
If he didn't come into MMA/UFC with a pre-existing rivalry with a current (at the time) UFC champion (Izzy), he would NEVER have gotten the opportunities he got. He was fast-tracked, so he got the opportunity to accomplish a lot in a small amount of time.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Now give him a wrestler and watch this...

Which wrestler at the top of LHW would you propose?

 

[r-harper-1]

Quality over quantity. Even with his small number of fights, Alex has just as many top level wins as Khabib.

Plus 2 losses in 12 fights ….close fight with Jan …..Knocked out cold already….Im an Alex fan , but I’d personally rate Khabib ahead

 

[Kevin Sorbo]

Pereira has some great wins, but he hasn't shown the one sided dominance that Khabib did and Khabib never lost.

 

[Papasmurf45619]

Lol. Never thought I'd have to defend Khabib's resume but here we are.

Fucking Sherdog. Recency bias is a hell of a thing.

This thread is a depressing read. TC should be getting reemed out but here we are.

 

[arcadeperfect]

Plus 2 losses in 12 fights ….close fight with Jan …..Knocked out cold already….Im an Alex fan , but I’d personally rate Khabib ahead

Jan is a former champion that's still performing well and that fight was in high altitude. Yeah he was knocked out by Izzy, one of the best strikers in MMA, but Alex also has multiple wins over him. In only 12 fights Alex has more top wins that Khabib does.

 

[aali14]

In terms of number of quality wins, yes he has surpassed Khabib

 

[Istryker]

Sure

 

[Hog-train]

Needs more wins to surpass Khabib.

Alex has 2 losses already - 1 by KTFO. Khabib has never even been knocked down.

 

[Simple Southerner]

Just another not so thinly veiled khabib hate thread

 

[r-harper-1]

Jan is a former champion that's still performing well and that fight was in high altitude. Yeah he was knocked out by Izzy, one of the best strikers in MMA, but Alex also has multiple wins over him. In only 12 fights Alex has more top wins that Khabib does.

29-0 vs 10-2 ……Alex is off to a great start ….was matched super carefully on
His road to the belt and has fought mostly strikers …. Khabib fought in a much better division…..barely lost a round and dominated almost every fight …..I don’t rate Khabib as high as some others ….but Khabib haters are getting out of control

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

prime gaethje, khabib's best win, just got absolutely dominated then slept by a featherweight.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

Someone is stealing your thoughts, bud.

 

[Poatan Power]

It's an interesting conversation.

Khabib is all time due to his dominance, but his resume lacks power since he barely competed in the UFC.

That's what makes Alex so special. He has accomplished more in his time in the UFC than Khabib did. But Alex obviously isn't as dominant.

It's kinda the nature of styles, though. being a dominant grappler/top game fighter vs being a dominant striker. One comes with a ton of risk, one comes with much less.

 

[ThePimblettEra]

Pereira has some great wins, but he hasn't shown the one sided dominance that Khabib did and Khabib never lost.

Easier to show dominance when you won't move up + retire in your prime after 3 title defences.
We don't know for sure how he'd have fared with bigger/stronger guys who were more grappling-based.

Alex's record is simply much more impressive at this point given Khabib's early retirement, we'll never know how good he could have been.

and Khabib never lost.

That's cool and all, but he only has 3 or 4 really good wins.
Nobody cares about can-crushing for 20 fights in a row, it shouldn't be an important metric.

 

[arcadeperfect]

29-0 vs 10-2 ……Alex is off to a great start ….was matched super carefully on
His road to the belt and has fought mostly strikers …. Khabib fought in a much better division…..barely lost a round and dominated almost every fight …..I don’t rate Khabib as high as some others ….but Khabib haters are getting out of control

Alex didn't have 16 bums to feast on to pad his record before fighting in the UFC. Even in the UFC, Khabib got easy fights whereas Alex got 1. The rest of Alex's fights have either been vets or champions. Even with only 12 fights Alex has fought and beaten more champions than Khabib. In fact, Khabib has beaten only 2 champions, RDA and Conor.

 

[Joe Mama]

Not to mention Panera's run in Glory before he came to teh MMAs.

 

[markg171]

Needs more wins to surpass Khabib.

Alex has 2 losses already - 1 by KTFO. Khabib has never even been knocked down.

Why would Alex needs more wins to overcome his own losses?

He's being compared against Khabib's wins lmao.

 

[Dirty Frank]

I don't think there's any fighter in combat sports that has lived as rent-free in so many people's heads for so long.

Khabib Bless!

 

[maximus__]

Khabib's uniqueness was his dominance such that it was hard to imagine him losing.

Alex still looks beatable. Izzy almost finished him in the first fight, and was saved by the bell, and Izzy won 3 out of the first 4 rounds before getting finished in the 5th.

Izzy knocked him out in 2nd fight.

Jan took him down and held him down for decent portions and went to a very very close decision.

Jiri took him down and held him down for a lot of the 1st round and was landing a lot in round 2 before he got caught.

Khabib never been dropped, seriously wobbled or held down.

In terms of pure resume Khabib not that impressive compared to others.

Pereira has been hurt and KO'd by the second best guy to ever do it at MW. Izzy knockded him out in the 4th fight. That's how many tries he needed to get that finishing punch as one of the best to ever do it in MMA.

Jan had success in one round with the grappling and to remain there he gassed himself for the rest of the fight.

The finishing sequence vs Jiri was very similar to vs Hill. Alex had worked out the range against one of the most awkward strikers in the division, caught him and then followed up with G&P. Nobody else in the UFC has managed that yet.

Khabib looked great because of his level of competition. He was starting to take those big shots and struggle at points with his takedowns during that title defence run. He still soundly beat them, but Conor had success early and was defending takedowns in the first round, he also took the 3rd round off Khabib and he took 4 rounds to get the finish. You can say that was Khabib dragging it out, biut that's not Khabib.

Same in the Poirer and Gaethje fights. He went into both after bad camps. Poirer had him in a tight guillotine and landed a big shot, Gaethje also landed some big shots that worried Khabib enough he went for a finish via triangle to get things done fast. His team can say whatever they want about him baiting the guillotine or not wanting to hurt Gaethje, but the reality is, these guys were starting to give him some trouble (albeit minor) and he was smart enough to know it was time to leave because that loss was coming.