Transcription
As of right now, there are only two things that get me through each day. Huffing spray paint and the knowledge that Islam Mahachev is gonna fight Jack Dela Matalena one day. Uh, really, those are the only two things that, that, that, you know, get me out of bed every morning. And it's just because of the fact that, look, man, Jack Dela Matalena versus Islam Machov is such an interesting fight to no end, and I'm so excited for it.
And speaking of, yesterday I was doing a little bit of film study, and I had a bit of an epiphany. I had a bit of an epiphany that I think sheds some light on this fight. And I'll be honest, makes me very nervous for a so-called Jack Dela Matalena. And listen, it's no secret the last time we discussed Islam moving up to 170, we weren't super optimistic for the young lad. And I think it's for the main reason that, you know, obviously, uh, Habib and Islam will get compared to no end. And, you know, I felt like Islam Maj, there are definitely aspects of his game that are a lot better than Hhabib. We're actually going to talk about a lot of those today. But I think there was one key thing that does sort of give him problems sometimes, and it's the fact that Habib's striking game complemented his takedown setups extremely, extremely well.
Um, the thing about Habib is, I've always said he's actually a very underrated striker. I think that, you know, he's not super polished, but he has very good eyes. He's very good at managing distance. He's always moving. He's very hard to hit clean, and he's very good at finding moments to blitz at you with flurries, which forces his opponent to cover up, back up, and as soon as they hit the fence, his takedowns open up. But you look at someone like Islam Mahachev, whose striking game is much more pretty. He likes a lot more movement on the outside. He doesn't pressure. He doesn't blitz the same way. So, there are times that he can't set up his takedowns as cleanly because obviously both Habib and Islam are not super, super high-level pure wrestlers. They're both obviously Sambo guys. All right, their takedowns open up specifically up against the fence. And this could definitely be a problem for somebody like Islam, and it had been a problem in the past. But obviously Islam has gotten around this because his striking is so good that he can just box with Dustin Porier. All right. Even if he can't hit the takedowns out in the open super consistently, well, that's fine. He'll just step in, double jab, uppercut, [ __ ] crack Dustin.
But looking at the welterweight division, I think this sort of approach seems a little scarier for someone like Islam. I mean, come on. Dustin Porier is not better than Jack Dela Matalena anywhere, anywhere. Dustin Porier's defense isn't that good. He's very stationary. I mean, dude, he was getting tagged and cracked by Michael Chandler, who has zero ability to set up punches outside of just throwing overhand over after overhand after overhand after overhand. You know what I mean? And you look at JDM, who has elite footwork, really good movement, head movement, can counter on the front foot, can counter on the back foot, is taller, is longer, is probably the most technical boxer in the UFC. Uh, I think Ilia might be a little bit more effective, but I think he probably is more technical. And of course, Dustin Por essentially is only a boxer through and through outside of maybe a leg kick. I think JDM has way better kicks and just is an all-around way better striker and is a way, way, way, way better grappler than Dustin Porier. I mean, his grappling blows Dustin Porier's out of the water.
Now, here is the thing though. If we're still comparing Hhabib and Islam like we just did, what you'll hear the layman say is that, well, Islam's a better striker. Hhabib is a better wrestler, and that's all they say. And I'm here to tell you, I actually don't think that's true. And I think that that is actually completely, and I think that's unrefutable. I, I, I don't, there's not really an argument outside of that. I mean, look, if you want to sit here and say that, that Habib is a better fence wrestler, I guess I'll let you say that. Um, again though, I think that the takedowns that Islam was hitting on Volkanovski up against the fence were more impressive than, you know, taking down a Conor McGregor or a Dustin Por up against the fence. I think that the one thing that Hhabib truly was better at was pins. Uh, he used more folk style pins while Islam is much more jiu-jitsu based, which we will talk about later. But man, you just compare their takedowns out in the open. I mean, dude, it's not, it's not close, dude. It's just not close. The Al Iaquinta fight, the fight that Joe Rogan coined as the one time Hhabib slowed down. No, he didn't slow down. Al Iaquinta just didn't get backed up to the fence. So, Hhabib kept going for the same low single leg every single time. Al Iaquinta was all over it, and Hhabib had zero ability to chain wrestle from that position.
Or, you know, let's just compare this sequence right here, right, where Hhabib takes honestly a very shitty shot on Conor McGregor. Connor sprawls, and Hhabib gives up on the shot. All right, let's compare that when Islam Mahachev went for the same double leg on Renato Moicano. Renato Moicano also sprawls right here, and also Renato Moicano was 181 lbs on fight night right here. Conor was 171. You know what I mean? But, you know, regardless, Renato sprawls, but this shot from Islam was just so much cleaner than the one we're comparing it to. So, he got a lot deeper on it. He was able to get his hands locked. So, he pulls Renato in. Renato goes for a crossface. So Islam transitions to a single leg crossbody grip, runs the pipe, and takes him down. I mean, this is like legitimate chain wrestling out in the open against somebody who's an actual grappler. Or how about this [ __ ] double leg that he set up on Volkanovski? Like, you cannot find a clip of Hhabib hitting a takedown this clean out in the open, man. Like, this is, I'm sorry, there, there's not really a comparison here. If we're just looking at straight up traditional pure wrestling, Islam is better.
And I think the one other thing that Islam does have over Hhabib is the fact that, uh, he is much more of a pure jiu-jitsuist, if you want to call it that. Obviously, Hhabib's game was pressure and smash. Hhabib's game was to get chest-to-chest with you, you know, grab wrist control, fatigue you, tire you out, make you work, and then once you're dead tired and fatigued and grapple [ __ ] he will take the submission that you're leaving open because you're gassed, obviously, right? Took him four rounds to submit Conor McGregor. It took him three rounds to submit Dustin Porier when Dustin Porier was trying to cause scrambles and trying to explode, which was a terrible game plan decision that obviously he fixed against Islam. But I mean, the point is, right, it's, it's that they're different. They have different approaches. Not necessarily that one style is way better than the other one, but they're different and they have their advantages and their disadvantages. But again, you look at all these sequences, he's smashing Dustin Porier this entire time. Then eventually once Dustin was [ __ ] he submitted him. And like we mentioned earlier, Islam just has a different approach to how he looks to finish fights and get submissions. Islam dives on them much more like a pure jiu-jitsu fighter. All right. Charles Oliveira rocks him, jumps on the arm triangle. Drew Dober from a transition here, dives on the armbar. Renato Moicano. The second Renato tries to cause a scramble and end up in a front headlock position. Boom. He's in a darce choke. Dustin Porier. Islam hits this wild takedown out in the open, swings the leg, and then dives on his neck, jumps to the front headlock, and then hits the darce choke, which is obviously just, just a different parallel to how someone like Hhabib's going to do it.
And this finally leads us into the topic of today's video. We've caught wind that Islam Mahachev is 190 lbs right now. Now look, he's never going to have the real frame of a welterweight. Uh, you know, even JDM, who doesn't have the biggest frame, is going to be taller. He's going to be longer. And of course, he, you know, is going to be a step ahead of Islam when it comes to just striking, which is a topic for another day. But Islam is going to absolutely be strong enough to contend with JDM in the grappling. Now, here is what scares me about JDM's grappling game. He is a scramble-based grappler. All right, we all know that the elite aspect of JDM's game is to cause scrambles. And this works beautifully against control-based grapplers. Somebody like Belal Muhammad, whose game is to get in on takedowns, lay on top of you, control you from the body lock, then, you know, the ability to cause scrambles works beautifully against somebody like that. But submissions open up during scrambles. I mean, this is just an absolute fact. When people are scrambling, when it's a 50/50 position, a dangerous submission artist capitalizes in these sequences. And you look at the one time that JDM fought a Dagestani in Ramozan, who I will add, by the way, Ramozan is, you know, nowhere near to the level of Islam. Though of course, he does share a lot of the characteristics of most Dagestanis, which is, you know, very good grappler, good submissions, very technical all around, you know, look, yeah, JDM folded in round one with a body shot. But, you know, regardless, he gets in on a single leg against JDM, transitions to the back standing. JDM does what he does, which is jump to cause a scramble, and it was while they were scrambling the anaconda choke opened up, and EMV actually got very deep on this submission. Now again, Jack Dela Matalena is a very good grappler. He's able to escape the position, but, you know, this was a real attempt right here against somebody who is not Islam Mahachev with the submissions. And of course, you know, JDM is going to be working with somebody in Craig Jones, who I can guarantee you is going to see this. He's going to understand this, and they're going to be drilling the hell out of submission defense. He's going to be, you know, more or less as prepared as somebody could be for these positions. But it's just, it's one of those things, even if JDM escapes one submission attempt, right? He's going to be constantly looking to set up scrambles every single time Islam gets in on a shot. And I, I, I think these submissions are always going to be there. You know, submissions that are close to ending a fight are scored very highly to the judging criteria. I think that this is just a weakness that JDM's grappling style is always going to have against somebody who is extremely deadly with submissions. And I think that obviously, you know, this problem is not going to be there against a Belal Muhammad. Um, but this problem will be there against an Islam Machov, especially an Islam Mahachev who is, you know, big and strong and has fully grown into being a welterweight.
So then at that point, the only relevant question now is, can Islam consistently get in on takedowns? Well, obviously the last time we saw Jack Dela Matalena have to fight a very good takedown artist, one giant change that he made to his style was obviously when Belal would start approaching and pressuring, JDM would switch from his high guard to start lowering his hands so he can dig underhooks as Belal shoots. So, you know, I, it's up to Islam to really mix in the punches with the takedowns. I mean, that's going to be the key for him. If he can get JDM to raise his guard and then immediately shoot and get in on the hips, that is where his game is going to open up. Again, he doesn't need to take JDM and hold him down to win this fight. He just needs some sort of scramble to happen so he can try to go for submissions. And I think that's a very dangerous, dangerous game you're playing with Islam. And again, just fundamentally, JDM's style of constantly looking to cause scrambles to escape positions is just going to leave him open for submission attempts like it did the last time he fought a Dagestani. So, you know, it's, it's a very interesting fight back and forth. Obviously, there's a lot more to talk about, which, you know, we will one day when this fight finally gets announced. But I think that, you know, that, that to me is something I'm very scared for with JDM.
And, you know, before we go, I did want to show off this one thing. I ratioed Gordon Ryan's entire Instagram post with a single comment. I just wanted to show that off because I'm proud of it. Um, and follow me on Instagram if, if you're not.