Joe Rogan Hypes Khabib vs.Tony Ferguson

A lot of experts out there talking about stuff. That's why a fight like next weekend is so fascinating. Because between Tony and Khabib, nobody knows what the fuck is going to happen. It's one of those fights where everybody's like, damn, I don't know. And you got all these people breaking it down on one side, and then you got people making compelling arguments on the other side, and you're like, hmm, okay. This one's going to be weird. I've been bouncing back and forth between my pick for that fight. But I guess because I've been bouncing back and forth, this isn't necessarily where I'm going to stay. But I feel like, okay, I don't see how that can change. But again, like you said, there are people making these arguments. And if somebody convinces me of something that kind of defeats this argument, then it's like, man, now you open the door for this again. And what I think is like, what I felt, my first thought was, Khabib is this guy, he takes everybody down, and he controls you and beats you up. And you think he's going to do that. But Tony is this guy, he's like one of these submission first kind of guys. Remember that argument, submission or position? Tony isn't too worried about position. He'll create scrambles. He's aware of where he is at all times and what he's giving up. So I feel like he would just continue to scramble. He'd be able to get back to his feet at least. And then I go back to Khabib and seeing Tony against Kevin Lee. And Kevin Lee kind of controlled him early in that fight. He was able to pass his guard and do some good controlling things. Now if a guy like Khabib can do that, then he's not getting back up. And Khabib is going to be able to take him down. He is the best wrestler in the game. Without a doubt. Good arguments, good arguments. I think another argument is that when Kevin Lee fought Tony, I think everybody knew Kevin had a staph infection. I knew. I saw him walking in the cage. I looked at his chest. I was like, holy shit. This guy's got staph. I knew he was going to be weak. I knew in compared to the Kevin Lee, the destroyer that you see when he's on point and in shape, it's like this guy's going to be compromised. And he's also a big 155. So it's a hard cut for him. Whereas Tony makes it, I mean Tony can get pretty heavy, but he's super disciplined. He makes it easy. Tony's endurance, his endurance is off the charts. Off the charts. Impeccable. He was posted the other day that he went on a six mile run at one o'clock in the morning. He said extra credit. He wrote hashtag extra credit. I mean, he's an animal. I mean, Eddie Bravo trains them up there in Big Bear all the time. He says never seen anything like it. So the dude is just everybody else is like pacing everybody up the hill, coming back down. They're still trying to make it up the first time. He's running past him the second time. He's a fucking animal. He wants it. Oh, he wants it bad. But so he knew that Kevin going into that fight was compromised. So if he knew Kevin was compromised, maybe he decided to just let him work. Let him work that first round. And Kevin's no joke. He's fucking dangerous. Yeah. Very skilled, very skilled, very aggressive, very strong, very dangerous. You know, so Tony, he got in bad positions in that fight, though. Didn't he get mounted? He got mounted. He is. Guy got passed pretty, like pretty easily early in the fight. But that's crazy because if he could, if he did take that time off, even knowing that a guy like Kevin Lee was, you know, compromised, that's still a high level guy to be. I'm take this time off. Yeah. I'll be a little bit lax. Yeah. I know. I mean, it might just have been Kevin is that good. I really wish that fight took place with Kevin healthy. Really wish that fight took place with Kevin. I think Kevin is an interesting guy because he's he talks a lot of shit. He's really aggressive. He fights well. He looks the part when you look at him. He's fucking jacked. You know, that's a bad break for a guy like that. He had like a golf ball growing out of his tit. Yeah. That was crazy. That could happen again relatively soon, depending on how his fight with with Barbosa goes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's an interesting fight for Barbosa to Barbosa's got to recover from that mauling that can be put on him. That was horrendous. That's the common opponent. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I want to look back at the Barbosa fight. But when I when I did look at it, he defended he defended some of those takedowns early, you know, and I mean, it's against Khabib now. Yes, you can defend you're going to be strongest in the first round. Right. Still, there's not a lot of people defending Khabib's takedowns. No, you know, there's a great New York Times article that was just on like three or four days ago about wrestlers from Dagestan. Yeah. And about how wrestling is their way out because so many of them trying to prove themselves. They wind up joining those Islamic terrorist groups. And these coaches try to take these young, aggressive kids and give them something something something else and give them another alternative. Really, really well written article. Interesting stuff about like how powerful these guys are and how young they get them into it. And when you see Khabib, the thing about him is like he's not doing different things than everybody else. You know what I mean? Like some people are doing different things like Wonderboys doing different things like he stands totally sideways. His hands are down. He's throwing front leg sidekicks. He's doing a lot of different things. You're like, oh, okay, this is a new thing to adjust to Khabib's doing standard shit, but he's just doing it at not just a notch, but several notches past what everybody else is doing. I think that's the thing about these Dagestan guys. It's crazy because like this American wrestling style, folk style wrestling of being on top and having that control. That's a big deal. But like Nick Lentz, that's one of his strengths. When Nick gets on top of you, it's like a Lidorf. He's not going anywhere, but he can also escape that a lot of guys. Same thing with Mike Brown, but Nick Lentz got written out in the fight in Brooklyn. I forget which car that I'm, Holly Holmes and Jermaine Durandamee. You know that car. He won by guillotine, right? No, Lentz lost. Which one? Which fight? I forget who he fought. I forget he fought a Dagestani guy. But he just got written out against his own style. Like that's what I'm saying. These guys are better at what the American style is. But like for something like that, I want to see one of those guys against a guy like Gregor Gillespie. You know, because that style of wrestling of being on top and grinding on you, that's a high, like a high level wrestler like that. I know a four time American national champion kind of guy with that kind of conditioning who's not going to break. I want to see that battle. Because that'll be like a national championship with two guys that can punch and kick a bit. Well like a guy like Jordan Burroughs. Jordan Burroughs getting into MMA. Like what happens when he fights one of those Dagestani guys? Yeah, exactly. But see, there's Dagestani guys and then there's Khabib. He's another notch above them. He's a notch above them. Like there's a lot of those guys that are real good. They're real tough, you know? But he's another level. He's a scary level. When you see him on top of guys, like especially the Michael Johnson, that was mauling, man. Horrifying. And having a conversation with him. Leading with him to give up. You must quit. You must shut this mind. You know, shut they deserve. Bam! And he's got his arm tied behind his back. He's punching him in the face. It's horrific. It's horrific. I mean, he can do shit to you that like, it's like white belt, black belt beat ups. Yeah, against the best guys in the world. Against the best guys in the world. Michael Johnson, but Michael Johnson clipped him though. But here's the thing about that fight, which is interesting to me. Khabib came into that fight with the same problem. He went into the Tony Ferguson fight that was canceled. He cut too much weight and his liver apparently shut down, making weight for that fight. So then they went into the next fight and he didn't make weight at all. You got rushed to the hospital. Then he hires a nutritionist, looks fucking fantastic against Barbosa, has zero problems making weight. Now he's got it all under control. But you got to wonder if he was compromised in the Michael Johnson fight, how much of a factor did that play? Into him getting stunned. Yeah, he got clipped. He got clipped. And you know as well as anybody that when you're dehydrated or you have been dehydrated, you just don't take a punch as well. Yeah, dehydration, conditioning, those things help you recover when you're hydrated and your conditioning is up to par. Yeah, I don't know. You see him take some punches. He always backs guys up. He's always coming forward and he does eat a lot of shots coming forward. But if his conditioning is fine, then that's the only time that I can remember him getting hurt in a fight from taking shots. Like the same thing with Barbosa. Barbosa was throwing at him hard. Hard. You know, especially barely. Walked it off. Yeah, just walked off everything. He's like a zombie. He got wheel kicked a couple times. It's nothing. Yeah. Club in the back of the head with wheel kicks. Nope, sorry. Not today. Just constantly charging forward, man. He's a fucking tank. He's a fucking guy. But this is the fight to me that's most intriguing other than him fighting Connor. Him fighting Connor for the name value is like chaos, right? Like holy shit. Like they might do that if he wins. They might do that in Russia. Dude, if they do that in Russia, Connor better bring his own food. I'll tell you that. He better bring some fucking corned beef and cabbage right from the motherland. You don't want to take any chances. But when Khabib, when Khabib's fighting Tony, the thing about Tony is that Tony's so creative. Like he's very unpredictable. You don't know what he might step in and throw an upward elbow. You know, he'll do all kinds of weird shit. He'll do Grammy rolls on you. He'll die for a leg. You know, he might try to take Khabib down. Who knows what he's going to do and stand up. He's got legit knockout power, legit, and he can take a shot. Rolls with punches real well, doesn't mind when he gets hit hard. He just kind of rolls with shit, comes back. Like the Barbosa fight. The Barbosa fight with him was a very interesting fight. Yeah, that fight was fun to watch. Like I can't remember all the details right now, but I remember thinking, I remember tweeting, man, I'm watching this and these guys are savages. I can't believe I fought one of these dudes. I bet daddy can steal. I was like, man, I fought them both. Yeah, that fight was fun to watch. And that's that common opponent thing that you say. And yeah, I don't know. It's one of those things also, though, because, you know, the rule fighter ABC, that thing doesn't play out like stout beats like Jeremy Stevens beat stout. I beat Jeremy. Yeah, you know, Jeremy stout beats me. It's this crazy, crazy thing where it just doesn't add up. It doesn't add up. MMA math just doesn't work.