Khabib. Ferguson loses to McGregor, Poirier and a couple of others for that matter as well. He's long overdue for a brutal KO loss.
I'm going for Ferguson just to shake it up. My logic brain says Khabib puts him in the Dagestan grip of death and submits him. I don't see Tony tapping because of punches , the dude is tough.
In my judgement the fight with Conor showed that Khabib can't hold everyone down and torture them like he did with Barboza and Michael Johnson. Conor used great inside hand/foot position to keep Khabib concerned about losing position, hence why the first round was basically a lay and pray stalemate. I realize Khabib's grappling prevailed, and he did eventually get off serious gnp, but it was complicated because Khabib was obviously worried about getting swept or Conor getting to his feet and having to worry about punches. Tony doesn't hit as hard as Conor, but he hits plenty hard. Ask Ramsey Nijem. He broke bones in Josh Thompson's face and he sliced up Lando and Barboza. He has very sharp boxing, good wrestling, and he's a nightmare in scrambles and he's so active on the bottom that Khabib won't be able to lay and pray. It's a great fight and Khabib can clearly win, but I'm slightly more inclined to pick Tony after watching Khabib's last two fights. Also, the X factor is that Khabib is talking about hanging up the gloves. Ever since I saw Julio Gonzalez beat Darius Michaelscheski when DM was on the brink of being 50-0 with 25 title defense, I've always viewed retirement talk as an indicator than an upset loss looms in the near future.
You make it sound like Conor gave him a close fight. It was anything but. Khabib came with a gameplan and executed to a perfection. The first man to ever drop Conor with a punch. He arguably won every rd. Conor didn't lay a finger on him, even in that 3 rd where they were standing up. This was totally one-sided and one of Khabib's easiest fights. He proved he could adapt/implement his strategy according to the opponent type. I've seen nothing of Ferguson that could change the equation: his only true chance is if Khabib comes in unmotivated.
I'm picking TFerg. Both guys are excellent lightweight fighters but Tony wins due to gastank, being more well rounded and more ruthless.
I see what hes saying though, Khabib done nothing in the first round with Connor in a perfect position for gnp. The look on CM's face whilst in that position was pure concentration, he done well defending he just got out strengthed by KN coupled with a wicked ground game, but I was impressed he couldn't get anything off on CM for a while, with CM that is !
You need a good engine to compete with Khabib which Tony has. He's also great at scrambling out of bad positions and getting back to his feet. His guard is pretty good too, though I don't think he'll want to be on his back for any length of time vs Khabib. I'm picking Khabib to win a competitive decision but an upset here wouldn't shock me.
I thought Round 2 was 10-8, and Khabib obviously dominated the 4th before the submission, but the rest of the fight wasn't one sided. Conor arguably won the 3rd round, keeping it on the feet all 5 minutes while landing a number of kicks to the body with authority. And although Khabib had top position for virtually the entire 1st round, he inflicted almost no damage, except for the punch which came after the bell. No doubt he won that round, but as I said in my initial post, Conor showed, as Raging Al already had, that Khabib can't hold everyone down with total impunity like he did to Barboza or Johnson. I'm really puzzled to hear you say Conor was one of Khabib's easiest fights. It was probably fair to say it was a relatively easy fight given it was a world championship, but to say one of Khabib's easiest is baffling. Other than Gleison Tibau and Raging Al, who gave Khabib more difficulty? Not Thiago Tavares (1st round TKO), or Abel Trujillo (20+ takedowns in 3 rounds), or Michael Johnson (multiple 10-8 rounds), or RDA (shutout). Although Conor lost definitively, to the point that a rematch is almost pointless, he offered a level of resistance that Khabib has only faced twice before. His ability to maintain inside position and halt Khabib's punching/passing routine indicates to me that Tony would have a chance. As I said, Tony has sharp boxing, nightmarish BJJ, and the critical difference from Conor: he has unlimited cardio and grit.
I assume you haven't seen many of Khabibs fights if you don't realize that Conor although clearly beaten was clearly his toughest fight yet,Khabib hadn't even lost a round in his 27-0 career before this fight. Also I don't think that was the 1st time Conor had been dropped by a punch
Michael Johnson wobbled him with a right hook in the first rd: i assume Johnson won that rd. And the third rd of the Conor fight was even in my book. Conor landed some grazing shots with no consequence because Khabib was controlling distance beautifully while himself landing the harder but fewer shots. In no way Conor dominated that rd in any shape or form.
