I am a fan of both fighters but I see Khabib winning this one. He is undefeated, bigger, and had a full training camp.
I like the unpredictability factor Max brings for taking the fight on short notice (kinda like Diaz/Conor1) but Khabib is too disciplined.
Khabib by TKO, crucifix 3rd round
Chrissakes, he missed the birth of both of his kids for MMA related stuff, and he goes, "That's normal"
Khabib by TKO, crucifix 3rd round
Chrissakes, he missed the birth of both of his kids for MMA related stuff, and he goes, "That's normal"
Exactly my predictionHolloway via TKO late on the midway into the 4th.
Nice
I would like to go on record as saying I see zero chance max wins. Even with the perfect fight, he simply doesn't have what it takes to beat khabib.
Parallels have been drawn to Nate vs Conor 1 but it's not the same. Holloway will be cutting more weight than Nate, is just coming off an injury, has half as much notice (half of fuck all, but every day helps in this situation), instead of fighting a guy who he is bigger than will be fighting a guy with a big size advantage, instead of fighting a guy with shit cardio he will be fighting a guy with good cardio, and unlike Nate will be fighting a guy who on paper is a bad-style match up.
Khabib's terrible striking gives it that small element of doubt, but I think you'd be a fool to actually predict Max to win based on the above.
Khabib's terrible striking gives it that small element of doubt, but I think you'd be a fool to actually predict Max to win based on the above.
Khabib will smesh
what if...
Max played everyone.
When he was on Ariel's show and mentioned he was nursing injury was all just Hawaiian mind-trick shit, maybe he was already training to fight in case Khabib/Tony didn't go through.
Remember during the press-conference, when media asked if there was going to be any insurance for Khabib vs Tony, Max stepped in with the Mic and said, "Right Here, 145 pound champ!"
Without a full training camp for Max, I have to go with Khabib. With a full training camp and the right game planning I think Max would have a shot. But he will need a full gas tank that can last 5 rounds. He won't have that this time and I think Khabib will grind him down and wear him out. It will still be a fun fight to watch while it lasts. I don't expect it to go past 3 if that.
Without a full training camp I'm not sure Max will have the time and energy to deploy his power. Have you seen Khabib's head and jaw? It looks like you would need a baseball bat to rattle that massive melon.
Michael Johnson hit him and it definitely wobbled him alittle. He just couldnt do it enough and got rightly mauled within an inch of his life. Max is a better mover and better striker than Johnson. We all said that Conor, the man with relatively zero grappling compared to Khabib would have a chance due to his striking, whilst he has a lot more power Max is, these days, incredibly accurate with a much better grapplig game than Conor.
Dont get the wrong idea, on paper Khabib wins. But I like Max. He is the one to root for here. Because if Conor comes back to a rematch, I want it to be Nate or Max, this way we might actually see the latter...
The key here for me is the training camp issue. Max most likely won't have the cardio to deploy his striking strategy. I'm sure Khabib's game plan will be to try and smother him and get him to the ground early and sap his strength.
I agree with you that Max has the tools. On one of the other threads I wrote up a game plan for Max that I thought could possibly work for him. It called for him getting on his bicycle early and using a lot of lateral movement and to keep his legs away from Khabib. A gameplan that would take a lot of energy though. Without a full camp I doubt Max will have it. He seems to be struggling just to peel off the pounds right now. That's not a good place to be going up against a huge grappling workhorse like Khabib.
If Khabib misses weight does Max still take the fight?