Joe Rogan on Conor McGregor vs Tony Ferguson, Khabib

I thought, the only way you get a superstar, the only way you get a sugary Leonard, a Muhammad Ali, those, the cult of personality that comes around those people, they do have all the power. There's no getting around it. You can't stop that as a promotional organization. You have to somehow or another ride with the wave and make some sort of cohesive agreement. You have to make some sort of agreement with that person. They made it with Brock Lesnar, they made it with Ronda Rousey, the only other two superstars. But they didn't last because what keeps a champion relevant and in the lore is the guy who keeps answering the call. And Connor did that in two different weight classes. I mean, he beat the impossible to be the other. And then people can argue that because he hasn't defended a bite. And what he's saying is that that's what I'm saying. That's why I agree with your point about the evolution of the combat sport. What it's done now is put so much power on his hands. He's got a hundred million dollars, whatever he has, which I love. And me too, because I like the guy. But at the same time, like it's not going to see him. You're not going to see him fight these monsters like Tony. No bullshit. You're going to fight Tony this year. Yeah. Wait, wait. Why would you say that? First of all, I don't like anybody saying this guy's not going to do this or he's not going to do that. Because we really don't know. But why wouldn't he fight Tony Ferguson if he wants to fight again? I haven't seen him even training. I don't know. He's training. He's trying to not stop. Do you fall on his screen? Brian. No. Well, so you can't say that. He can't say that. But he's going to fight Tony Ferguson. He hasn't come to my house. He hasn't been training in Santa Monica. That's the problem. Where are you going to see him train? How can you say he's not going to fight? I didn't mention fighting. Yes. Yes. He talks my next fight. He goes, hey, are you going to box pack? He goes, no, my next fight is mixed martial arts. I'm going to fight inside that octagon. Yeah. He said my next fight is going to be a real fight. Yeah. No, he's going to fight Tony. He's going to fight. When I look at it more and more, I watch footage. I think it's not that bad of a matchup for Connie. He's like, that's a tough fight. But I think early, especially early rounds one through three with Connor's accuracy and the way Tony gets hit. It's a good fight for here. Two parts when it goes past the third round, it could get two parts. The problem one, Tony finishes motherfuckers off his back. He is nasty off his back. If he gets taken down. Yeah. If he gets taken down, doesn't get tired. I'm saying if he gets hit, if he gets hit like Nate Diaz does and goes down like Connor is not. It's not like 100 percent that he's going to beat him up and ground and pound him. Tony, if he gets dropped, we'll wrap you up like a fucking mummy and submit you. So we'll do that. And Connor doesn't entertain that. Maybe Nate. Yeah. You don't have to play that game. The difference is if Tony goes, you know what? I know you're fast apart from these first three rounds. I'm a college collegiate wrestler. Fuck this noise. I'm just going to ankle pick you all fucking day. It's true. And then third, fourth, fifth, I'm going to start striking with you. But Connor could catch him. What law? Correct. It's a good fight. Ridiculous speed. Tony doesn't get tired. I have seen him get tired. It's a big difference. He's tired. He doesn't show it because he's a fucking serial killer. I think he is less tired than the other guy. My mom actually gets tired, but everybody gets tired. No, it's just here for him. But it is. But he also is ridiculous conditioning. Bravo is his fucking jujitsu trainer. And Eddie said he's never seen anything like this guy. He said the guy trains for six hours a day. He said he's in Big Bear. He's running hills, literally lapping his training partners. I turn around and go back and run up to the top of the hill. Yeah, that is such an advantage in a five round fight. I mean, such an advantage in a three round fight. I mean, his ability to just not like when you're less tired than the other guy. Oh my God. All his camps are Big Bear. He goes, he rents a house. He builds his own fucking training facility. He sets up his own heavy bags. He mats up floors. He takes a fucking room. He's got like a living room, but a house. He sets down the borders, brings in the mats and they start training. He finds hills, runs those fucking hills at 6000 feet out to the animal. Conrad 55. No punk man. He's not. He's good. Ask Eddie Alvarez. Look at Eddie Alvarez. Nobody's there. No, I'm just saying like, at first I was like, God, this guy's a scary fighter. Then I look at him like, you know, he does get hit first and gets hit, man. The problem child is Khabib. Khabib, it's almost a round table because Khabib versus Tony. Hell of a fight. Khabib versus Connor. God, that's tough fight for Connor, but they can eliminate each other. Whoever shows up that night. It's a fucking good fight, man. Yeah. Khabib takes your legs down. We're going to know all about Khabib this weekend. When he fights Edson Barboza, we're going to see him with arguably the fastest striker in the hundred fifty five pound division. Who doesn't give a fuck about going to the ground. He's like, no, we're not going to the ground. I'm not even entertaining that. Where other guys will play that game. Right. Anti-wrestling will kick you in the fucking face. Right. But how do you keep him from taking you to the ground when he kicks him in the face when he gets in the clench? You avoid the clench. How do you avoid that with Khabib? It's hard. It's fucking hard. It's not an easy fight. My name is Trudge, the imagination. It's a tough fight for Khabib. Michael Johnson cracked Khabib when they fought and had him wobble. It's the first time we've seen any adversity that Khabib had to face inside the octagon, but he handled it with fucking four aces, took him to the ground. He's got so I had no idea Khabib went up to two oh five when he trains. Well, he gets heavy. He gets heavy in between fights, but he didn't do it this time. No. Daniel Cormier say he has a new nutrition and he said he has been lighter getting ready for this camp than any fight before. He was 179 pounds just a couple of weeks ago. Josh Thompson was like, dude, you've never seen anything like it because I was talking about Connor and Khabib. He's like, dude, I'm telling you, man, I've seen him go with DC. I've seen him go all these guys and think about think about what he did. Joe Sanjos. Think about what he did. Ragdolled him. Ragdolled him. He's like, oh, you're fighting at 70 and I go, why does Khabib just go to 70 after he sees what he's going to? He's going to. That's his plan. All he wants to do is get the belt at 55. As soon as he gets that, he's going peace. And then at 70, enjoy that. Enjoy that motherfucker at 70. It's like he gets you and he breaks your legs down. It's like, oh, you're a table. I'm going to take your legs down. Now you're on the ground and that's it. Well, I've never seen anybody get them off all elite wrestlers, right? Whether you know, talking about Dave Schultz or whether you're talking about, you know, Corellan, all the best of the best wrestlers, they have an ability to enforce their will. Yeah. To just power into guys and do shit to them that they don't want done and break them. They wear you. They wear you like a technique with will, with physical conditioning, with everything. DC's the same way. All the best guys have everything. They have all the components. And that's one of the things Nirmak Ahmedov does. Then you add the fact that he's from Dagestan. You add the fact that he grew up in one of the hardest places in the fucking world. That's right. And everyone around him is hard as nails. Where I think the national sport might be wrestling. Might be murder. Yeah. Get a varsity and murder in high school. It's a crazy place. What's ridiculous is him versus Barboza. If it's like a video game, you look at their attributes, Barboza striking like this, but just wrestling's like this. Yeah. Like it could be because wrestling's like this, but striking. So you're, you're intrigued by this. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. This to me is the most intriguing fight that Khabib has ever fought. Why far? He's never, two reasons. Yeah. One, the two fights where he had so much difficulty making weight that his body was shutting down. It happened in the Michael Johnson fight. Then it happened again in the Togi, Tony Ferguson fight, the point that he pulled them off the cart. So they were saying his liver was shutting down. Like this is serious, serious shit. He has not made 155 cents, right? He hasn't fought since. So there's so much pressure on him to do this correctly, but who knows if he can, when your body does not want to do that anymore, you run into serious problems. It's one of the things that happens to older athletes when they've been cutting extreme amounts of weight over and over again, they get to a point where their body is take every time you cut 30 pounds of water from your body, your body goes into like a state of shock. You do some damage. The question is how much damage are you doing? Think how long he's been doing it to Josh Johnson brought that point. He goes, dude, he's been cutting weight since he was a kid. Like he's been in these wrestling terms, the Sambo terms since he was a kid. So he's older now. He's been cutting weight for fucking F. And here's a real question. Here's a real question. If he wins the title, if he wins the title, how the fuck is he going to defend it in California?