Khabib isn't a better striker than McGregor not by a long shot. But his striking is competent and a lot better than most give him credit for. This isn't anything new in MMA. When you're worried about the takedown an inferior striker can have success if not outright outstrike you. I wouldn't say he completely outstruck him though. Conor did the better work in rounds 1 and 3 as far as striking is concerned.
Conor didn`t land any hard shots in Rd 1 and was very composed and knew what he was doing by pinning Conor that long.
Khabib dominated Conor on the floor and knew Conor would gas and has never scoredd a KO in the 2nd, Conor had to get the KO early and never got close, so Khabib was in control just biding his time, mismatch entirely.
Mirko vs Randleman 1 comes to mind. Got so distracted by the takedown threat that Mirko got hit by a bomb and GNP'd after. Fedor vs Mirko also comes to mind, Fedor doesnt have Mirko's striking pedigree, but the threat of the takedown made Fedor able to use his striking game to neutralize Cro Cop.
In rd 1 from memory the hardest/best strikes of the rd came from Khabib with a few hard g'n'p shots right before the rd ended imo. Even in rd 3 which Conor probably edges in an uneventful rd he landed nothing of real consequence/nothing that bothered Khabib. It really was a $hit performance from Conor he was dominated badly.
Tbf, altough he should never ever have been caught with that right hand shot he was more concerned with defending the take down at that time but still , he should,ve bin able to defend that
