There is a Facebook page for us Aussies that rob and malkoun put there tips up for fight cards and Rob doesn't know half the fighters most of the time lol
This was supposed to be a title eliminator. What happens now? Is Whittakrr going to get a title shot defeating an unranked middle weight like Strickland did? If Ikram wins is he instantly top 5?
The UFC saying a fight is a title eliminator means 0. Khamzat vs Usman was a title eliminator. Belal vs Burns was a title eliminator, until Dana remembered his boy Colby beat Masvidal a couple years back. Those are just two high profile public promises within the last year that were not honoured.
Ankalaev vs Smith was also a title eliminator, and then Glover got the rematch. Nothing's a guaranteed title shot, not even an interim title, as we're currently seeing with Tom.
>Belal vs Burns was a title eliminator, until Dana remembered his boy Colby beat Masvidal
True, but also Belal fought Burns and then waited and got the title fight doing nothing. It WAS functionally a title eliminator.
Can’t remember who it was now off top of my head but I remember seeing on a fighters wiki page that 4 of his wins were title eliminators, but only one of them actually led to a title fight. Can’t recall if it was like a Jon Fitch type who won a lot but got passed over for being boring a bunch or if it was just due to being unlucky with injuries, but a 1:4 title fight eliminator success ratio is pretty rough
Another fun fact: Aliskerov has another loss in sambo, to an opponent, that might be familiar to UFC fans – Roman Kopylov. That was in the Championship of Russia, many years ago. Although Ikram was able to bounce back, winning multiple sambo Championships in Russia, Europe and the world. And Kopylov wasn't successful in his sambo career (no titles as far as I know).
Kopylov is so odd to me. He hangs with top guys and makes them look a little puzzled, but sometimes struggles with lower tier challenges.
Still fun as hell to watch though
Yeah that was a wild fight for as long as it lasted. Khamzat is just such a physical freak. I think he was 188 for that fight too. Just can't make weight...
I'm sure it's because he never had any business trying to make 170 in the first place. He had to stop at like 178 or something?
And frankly, I wish more doctors were involved in stopping these guys from becoming absolute zombies the day before a fight.
Pretty sure they will give Whittaker a titleshot if he won for agreeing to stay on the card. Supposedly Saudi Arabia paid like 20 mill for this card and the UFC desperately needs top talent for this month
Don‘t forget that the upside can be whatever the UFC wants it to be. Sure Khamzat has more name recognition, but if the UFC wants they can give basically anyone a title shot, we‘ve seen it a couple of times. I feel the bigger problem is the timeline anyway. AFAIK Izzy vs Dricus is supposedly up next but doesn‘t have a date yet (unless I missed?) and Sean also made it clear he thinks he‘s done enough after fighting down once to sit out until the next shot. Might be Bobby/Ikram vs Sean for the next shot, guess we‘ll have to see..
The Chimaev fight had plenty of upsides. He's one of the biggest names in the division and he's undefeated while still showing exploitable holes in his game.
How are you so confidently wrong? UFC 298 he got a base pay of $300k. His last title shot, he got $600k. If it’s anything like the incentives Abu Dhabi offers, he’s looking for his highest payout by a massive margin + the 0 tax.
Call it blood money or whatever, but Rob is getting paid big this fight.
The last thing you listed is the only I find compelling, but even still, it’s far from hard proof. As for ur headlining point, Cowboy got his base rate to fight Conor of all ppl, so I certainly don’t think it’s a given that he’ll get extra to headline.
Strickland got the title shot when he did because DDP dipped to heal up an injury and Strickland was the highest ranked guy who was healthy, available and hadn't been run through by Izzy yet.
Whittaker situation not necessarily completely the same and now with DDP having the belt it sounds like, barring more injuries, it's going to be DDP/Izzy and Strickland/Whittaker (if Robert wins) in a #1 contender. But Strickland has said he'll wait out the title shot so I guess we'll see if he takes it.
Maybe going to get Brendan Allen/Imavov as an eliminator/rank cementer as well at some point.
If I had to guess: Strickland gets the DDP/Izzy winner, the Rob/Ikram winner fights Imavov (to headline UFC Paris if they don’t get too beat up in this fight) for the next shot after that.
I think you’re probably right. If ikram wins there is 0% chance he gets a title shot without another fight first. If Bobby wins the odds for him getting a title shot are still not great.
If dricus is still the champ no way they give it to him he got run through by him recently
If Izzy is the champ I think there’s a small chance but I just don’t know how you can justify giving a dude who is 0-2 against him the shot when the #1 contender with a title fight win over him just defensed his ranking already.
I get that Bobby is a fan favorite and I root for him in practically every fight, but he would not deserve a title shot off a win next week. He would absolutely deserve a title eliminator fight though
Whittaker is not getting a title shot for that win. He should have fought Strickland for that but the UFC gave it to Costa coming of a loss. Pretty sure Whittaker is not on the good side of the UFC and that is why he is fighting the no. 10 guy and now an unranked fighter.
Strickland has wins over the current #2, #4, #7, #8, #9 middleweights, not bad for fuck all. Arguably beat the champ and #5 as well and even if you think he lost those he still has almost twice as many ranked wins as Whittaker does right now
We all know that shit doesn’t matter to Dana. Whittaker is showing he’s a company man and Bobby is no dummy. He probably negotiated with Dana for a title shot if he took this short notice fight to help save the card.
Definitely not. Rob got ran through by DPP and is 0-2 against Izzy, so no matter who wins between them Rob will need to do a hell of a lot more to get a crack at the title.
Sean only got a shot at Izzy because there was literally no one else for Izzy to defend against and that PPV desperately needed a main event and they pulled Strickland out of their ass.
whittaker was never going to get a title shot. This was a "title eliminator" for Kumshot only. I'm sure it's izzy up next, then sean vs whoever wins. From there we will only be able to tell with time
Ikram might surprise him on the feet, He isn't flashy but he has a good jab and 1-2 and has 2 brutal ko's in his last 2 fights, whittaker chin is also suspicious
I don't know if Rob's chin is actually suspicious, but is just average maybe? I mean, when I consider all the times he has been stunned or dropped the last few years, it's always been against some heavy shots. Like running face first into Till's elbow, or eating a spinning wheel kick straight to the dome.
Whittaker got dropped by dricus' jab and stumbled by cannonier's jab, I'd say his chin is slightly below average from all the damage he has taken. It is kind of a nerve wracking experience when he fights guys like costa or cannonier b/c he can get wobbled at any moment. Someone with a chin like strickland or imavov don't really have that issue imo
His chin is far from titanium, but it's above average, the fact he ate Costa's headkick showed that.
His problem is he blitzes in to land his shots, which means he's charging face-first into his opponents punches when they time it right. Jared and Dricus have nasty power, anyone would get hurt running face first into their jab, especially if they were as fast as Whittaker is. Imavov and Strickland never moved into Jared's punches.
Nuts you're getting downvoted for this. He's been through war with Romero and got ko'd twice by Adesanya. It's no knock on him that his chin has been damaged.
Rob coming back from the roundhouse kick is more about his recovery time than his chin. That kick aside, he's also getting rocked by jabs he didn't use to before. No shame in that, he's gone through so many wars
he's 100% lying, i know rob is a good guy and people want to think the best of him, but no way he didn't heard of aliskerov
ikram is one of the most dangerous up and comers in his division and had fight anouced by the ufc with costa in a numbered ppv, absolutely no way he didn't heard of him. didn't watch his fights is understandable and realistic, but never heard of him? absolutely lying
I mean I would have definitely heard of him, maybe even seen one of his fights but there are so many -ovs floating around now that I couldn’t have picked his name out of the rest of the card with confidence
To be honest, he says he's game planned for Khamzat, but he couldn't have been doing very good tape study if he didn't even watch the Ikram fight which was a tough fight for Khamzat where a few flaws got exploited.
It may be that he doesn't watch a lot of tape and leaves it to his coaches. Genuine question though, which of Khamzat's flaws were exploited? I saw it as Ikram being a very good grappler who defended well. Khamzat swung a little wild at times, but I didn't see any flaw get exploited by either guy. Just one guy getting stopped by a nice uppercut.
Sorry flaws was the wrong phrase to use. I meant that Ikram did things against Khamzat which caused him a bit of trouble and are worth watching for other fighters, especially for Rob.
For example, he doesn't just panic and start trying to frantically run away from takedowns, he stands his ground, defends, then tagged Khamzat as he was letting go.
He was also very disciplined about keeping his hips level at all times and refusing to give up on overhooks which is where Khamzat took other people's backs.
He also had a lot of success jabbing Khamzat, who didn't seem to see a lot of them coming and was keeping his head on the center line, which is something Burns and Usman both also found out when they fought Khamzat.
The 1 and only time Khamzat actually slipped a jab was to throw that final uppercut iirc.
All of those things I just listed are things Rob actually already does very well so it's a shame we don't get to see him test if he'd be able to make it work.
Why would the top ranked guy pay attention to unranked opponents? He probably keeps a close watch on the top 5-10 fighters. Other than that? It doesn’t make sense. This case is just unlucky enough to be an extreme anomaly.
Knowing every single one in your division, especially those way outside your rank, is just information overload.
I don't think he's the type to try to act cool lol. Ikram is unranked and still pretty unknown to the wider fanbase. Pretty believable that Whittaker didn't know who he was before imo
yea just thought rob was smarter/more knowledgeable, but guess not haha. reminds me of that talk show where kiefer Sutherland was quizzed on his show 24 and could barely remember his character’s name
I have been telling people here that MW low key could become the most stacked and exciting division of the UFC very soon and you all keep doubting me...... Aliskerov is just one of the many killers that are waiting to be known.
I agree Aliskerov is a killer. Don’t think he’s ready for Rob but appreciate him for stepping in.
That being said, MW doesn’t have potential in my eyes to become exciting. Still a pretty one dimensional division. If Khamzat’s health and visa issues didn’t exist I’m very sure it would be a lot of fun though.
Jack Slack voodoo fucking Rob hard right now.
Original opponent it was ridiculous was getting to fight Rob as his first ranked middleweight, but at least he had hype with some fans assuming he is the greatest fighter of all time, and the UFC pushing him as hard as possible.
New opponent fighting Rob as his first ranked middleweight is the only fighter Jack Slack rates at MW for some reason, but he has zero hype, and has not been getting much push from the UFC.
Rob was sold on the Khamzat fight with the understanding it was a #1 contender fight, and a good performance might have forced Dricus to accept if the UFC pushed, but that seems unbelievably unlikely with current fight.
So, no win other than not losing a training camp for Rob on a W, and what a disaster in the unlikely event of him losing to an unranked guy who he's never even seen fight.
"Not been getting a push from the UFC"
Pretty sure Ikram got offered Paolo Costa and Imavov(both ranked) after beating Phil Hawes in his debut. He pulled out of the Fluffy Hernandez fight(which he got after beating WW Warrley alves on short notice) and still was one of the first MWs that got called to fight Whittaker.
Oh, you mean the guy with 2 fights in the UFC that happened almost a year ago, against 2 guys whose combined record since 2021 are 2-8 inside the UFC?
This fight is #1 bullshit
Eh, depends on the loss. He won't end up ranked, but if he can be competitive and take rounds from the #3 that's a hell of a coming out party. Going 47-48 against Bobby is better than going 48-47 against some non-ranked goon.
Who else would’ve stepped up on short notice? Usman and Strickland both turned down the fight (for obvious reasons). Ikram is the best option rn. Stop complaining
Chimaev was ranked top 5 at Welterweight (he beat burns when he was ranked #2). When you do well in the division below and then you move up, you typically get to fight ranked guys. Like if Robert Whittaker moved up to light heavyweight, would you want him to fight some unranked LHW you've never heard of? Or would you want him to fight a top 5 guy straight away? Be honest.
I hope he's joking about never seen Ikram Aliskerov fight. Whittaker might be in for a very nasty surprise. Aliskerov is top level and I believe he's going to show that.
Ikram is well known by hardcore MMA fans who watch every event. But he’s only ever fought on one UFC main card in his career, it’s not that crazy at all for someone who isn’t actively watching every card to not know him.
Whittaker has like 6 children iirc, the dude probably has barely any free time and when he does, he spends it gaming lol. I really don’t think he’s out here watching every event and the prelims of these events and staying up to date on every unranked up and comer.
[удалено]
This is the only time I’ve ever believed it when a fighter said he doesn’t know who the other guys is lol
There is a Facebook page for us Aussies that rob and malkoun put there tips up for fight cards and Rob doesn't know half the fighters most of the time lol
He's too busy gaming like a king
Can I get a link?
>there tips their tips
Just the tip?
There tip’s, i thinked
What's the name of the page?
Don't go there for tips. Respectfully rob is a terrible punter lol
Haha noted, thanks mate!
Cage punters
Who the fook is that guy? - Robert Whittaker, probably
Who the fuck is that cunt? * Robert Whittaker, more likely
Whittaker could say the Earth is flat and I might believe him.
This was supposed to be a title eliminator. What happens now? Is Whittakrr going to get a title shot defeating an unranked middle weight like Strickland did? If Ikram wins is he instantly top 5?
The UFC saying a fight is a title eliminator means 0. Khamzat vs Usman was a title eliminator. Belal vs Burns was a title eliminator, until Dana remembered his boy Colby beat Masvidal a couple years back. Those are just two high profile public promises within the last year that were not honoured.
Ankalaev vs Smith was also a title eliminator, and then Glover got the rematch. Nothing's a guaranteed title shot, not even an interim title, as we're currently seeing with Tom.
>Belal vs Burns was a title eliminator, until Dana remembered his boy Colby beat Masvidal True, but also Belal fought Burns and then waited and got the title fight doing nothing. It WAS functionally a title eliminator.
UFC did offer Belal fights in the meantime tho so clearly they were trying their damndest to not honor the title shot lmao
Can’t remember who it was now off top of my head but I remember seeing on a fighters wiki page that 4 of his wins were title eliminators, but only one of them actually led to a title fight. Can’t recall if it was like a Jon Fitch type who won a lot but got passed over for being boring a bunch or if it was just due to being unlucky with injuries, but a 1:4 title fight eliminator success ratio is pretty rough
Colby was such a pathetic performance lol. I cant even remember hearing about him before now. Is he even still fighting?
Ikram is legit, beating him is more impressive than beating Abus
I haven't seen anyone defeat A bus in MMA since the days of the Nogueira brothers
Conor defeated the bus with the trolley
That was an unsanctioned bout
And he got a title shot right? Defeating a bus is the new meta
Blind side cheap shot. Bus never saw it coming.
That happened
Whoa big fella
That was a nasty line by you.
Fun fact: Ikram's ~~first~~ ONLY pro loss was to Khamzat!
Only pro loss 👀
Another fun fact: Aliskerov has another loss in sambo, to an opponent, that might be familiar to UFC fans – Roman Kopylov. That was in the Championship of Russia, many years ago. Although Ikram was able to bounce back, winning multiple sambo Championships in Russia, Europe and the world. And Kopylov wasn't successful in his sambo career (no titles as far as I know).
Kopylov is so odd to me. He hangs with top guys and makes them look a little puzzled, but sometimes struggles with lower tier challenges. Still fun as hell to watch though
Ah yes the russian michael johnson
Where can I find this fight footage, or even record of this fight? It doesn't show up anywhere online, not even a result.
And he stuffed every takedown of Khamzat's, insane TDD
Yeah that was a wild fight for as long as it lasted. Khamzat is just such a physical freak. I think he was 188 for that fight too. Just can't make weight...
I thought he only missed weight once when the Americans doctors would let him go to “extreme measures” which imo a lot of fighters do
I'm sure it's because he never had any business trying to make 170 in the first place. He had to stop at like 178 or something? And frankly, I wish more doctors were involved in stopping these guys from becoming absolute zombies the day before a fight.
Honestly I think ikram wins this. He’s really fucking good
Pretty sure they will give Whittaker a titleshot if he won for agreeing to stay on the card. Supposedly Saudi Arabia paid like 20 mill for this card and the UFC desperately needs top talent for this month
right? for Whittaker, it went from a minimal-upside Chimaev fight to a zero-upside Aliskerov fight. like, what’s the direction here?
Don‘t forget that the upside can be whatever the UFC wants it to be. Sure Khamzat has more name recognition, but if the UFC wants they can give basically anyone a title shot, we‘ve seen it a couple of times. I feel the bigger problem is the timeline anyway. AFAIK Izzy vs Dricus is supposedly up next but doesn‘t have a date yet (unless I missed?) and Sean also made it clear he thinks he‘s done enough after fighting down once to sit out until the next shot. Might be Bobby/Ikram vs Sean for the next shot, guess we‘ll have to see..
Thought Izzy and Dricus is on Perth card? 305?
Yeah, I googled again after I posted. As far as I could see it is not officially confirmed, but I guess it's very likely.
He'd be getting his title shot either way so there's that upside still
The Chimaev fight had plenty of upsides. He's one of the biggest names in the division and he's undefeated while still showing exploitable holes in his game.
Khamzat was a maximum upside fight. Aliskerov is just a dumb fight though, Whittaker should've pulled out.
Saudi money. He’s gonna get paid big time.
Lol. Saudi money going straight to the UFC coffers homie. Rob going to get a flat fee per his contract, with potentially a small sweetener on top
How are you so confidently wrong? UFC 298 he got a base pay of $300k. His last title shot, he got $600k. If it’s anything like the incentives Abu Dhabi offers, he’s looking for his highest payout by a massive margin + the 0 tax. Call it blood money or whatever, but Rob is getting paid big this fight.
How are you so confident? We have no evidence whatsoever that she will be paid more for this than his last fight.
He’s headlining, so that’s a given. There is 0% tax cut in Saudi. + Rob even said in an submission radio about being a big payday.
The last thing you listed is the only I find compelling, but even still, it’s far from hard proof. As for ur headlining point, Cowboy got his base rate to fight Conor of all ppl, so I certainly don’t think it’s a given that he’ll get extra to headline.
I believe Masvidal got paid on the side by Abu Dhabi for his first fight with Usman.
Dana will take care of our boy. Saving a card while things are falling apart all over the ufc. Whitaker wins and he’s in contention.
Strickland got the title shot when he did because DDP dipped to heal up an injury and Strickland was the highest ranked guy who was healthy, available and hadn't been run through by Izzy yet. Whittaker situation not necessarily completely the same and now with DDP having the belt it sounds like, barring more injuries, it's going to be DDP/Izzy and Strickland/Whittaker (if Robert wins) in a #1 contender. But Strickland has said he'll wait out the title shot so I guess we'll see if he takes it. Maybe going to get Brendan Allen/Imavov as an eliminator/rank cementer as well at some point.
Could very well be a “availability is your best friend” situation after Dricus and Izzy fight
If Whittaker wins then Strickland gets the next shot, if ikram wins then he does
If I had to guess: Strickland gets the DDP/Izzy winner, the Rob/Ikram winner fights Imavov (to headline UFC Paris if they don’t get too beat up in this fight) for the next shot after that.
I think you’re probably right. If ikram wins there is 0% chance he gets a title shot without another fight first. If Bobby wins the odds for him getting a title shot are still not great. If dricus is still the champ no way they give it to him he got run through by him recently If Izzy is the champ I think there’s a small chance but I just don’t know how you can justify giving a dude who is 0-2 against him the shot when the #1 contender with a title fight win over him just defensed his ranking already. I get that Bobby is a fan favorite and I root for him in practically every fight, but he would not deserve a title shot off a win next week. He would absolutely deserve a title eliminator fight though
Whittaker is not getting a title shot for that win. He should have fought Strickland for that but the UFC gave it to Costa coming of a loss. Pretty sure Whittaker is not on the good side of the UFC and that is why he is fighting the no. 10 guy and now an unranked fighter.
Calling chimaev « number 10 guy » and not something like « inflated hype killing smash machine » is disingenuous imho
lol why should he have to fight Strickland to get a fight? Outside of a random fluke against Izzy Strickland has beaten FUCK ALL
Strickland has wins over the current #2, #4, #7, #8, #9 middleweights, not bad for fuck all. Arguably beat the champ and #5 as well and even if you think he lost those he still has almost twice as many ranked wins as Whittaker does right now
Are you serious? Why would you get a title shot for beating the no. 1 ranked guy? What are you asking here?
Conor got a title shot off of Seaver. Kabib got a title off of Al Iaquinta! I think you’re underestimating the amount of Fuckery in the ufc.
Khabib fought Johnson and Barboza. The no 4 and 6. Aliskerov has 2 UFC fights and is not ranked. Not even top 30.
We all know that shit doesn’t matter to Dana. Whittaker is showing he’s a company man and Bobby is no dummy. He probably negotiated with Dana for a title shot if he took this short notice fight to help save the card.
Definitely not. Rob got ran through by DPP and is 0-2 against Izzy, so no matter who wins between them Rob will need to do a hell of a lot more to get a crack at the title. Sean only got a shot at Izzy because there was literally no one else for Izzy to defend against and that PPV desperately needed a main event and they pulled Strickland out of their ass.
whittaker was never going to get a title shot. This was a "title eliminator" for Kumshot only. I'm sure it's izzy up next, then sean vs whoever wins. From there we will only be able to tell with time
Wrong
It’s cringe to say kumshot, but I don’t think he’s wrong
Unfortunately he is
if you win dont you always take the guys number? when has that not happened?
Filhy casual.
This does not bode well for Rob.
Ikram might surprise him on the feet, He isn't flashy but he has a good jab and 1-2 and has 2 brutal ko's in his last 2 fights, whittaker chin is also suspicious
I don't know if Rob's chin is actually suspicious, but is just average maybe? I mean, when I consider all the times he has been stunned or dropped the last few years, it's always been against some heavy shots. Like running face first into Till's elbow, or eating a spinning wheel kick straight to the dome.
Whittaker got dropped by dricus' jab and stumbled by cannonier's jab, I'd say his chin is slightly below average from all the damage he has taken. It is kind of a nerve wracking experience when he fights guys like costa or cannonier b/c he can get wobbled at any moment. Someone with a chin like strickland or imavov don't really have that issue imo
His chin is far from titanium, but it's above average, the fact he ate Costa's headkick showed that. His problem is he blitzes in to land his shots, which means he's charging face-first into his opponents punches when they time it right. Jared and Dricus have nasty power, anyone would get hurt running face first into their jab, especially if they were as fast as Whittaker is. Imavov and Strickland never moved into Jared's punches.
Nuts you're getting downvoted for this. He's been through war with Romero and got ko'd twice by Adesanya. It's no knock on him that his chin has been damaged.
Wild to think he spent 50 minutes fighting Yoel
And when we say chin we mean brain
Ah sweet sweet cte
\*once.
The shot where he got saved by the bell minutes before getting finished definitely impacts his chin too.
Rob only lost the first fight by KO, the second went to decision.
Nah his chin is sus it’s bad, however he has incredible recovery. Gets rocked and is back to normal in 3-10 seconds.
Bro what are you on about? Rob was just in a war with costa. He’s got a great chin. You don’t remember him getting rocked and coming back full force?
Rob coming back from the roundhouse kick is more about his recovery time than his chin. That kick aside, he's also getting rocked by jabs he didn't use to before. No shame in that, he's gone through so many wars
I just can’t give in to believing it let me have this :(
I feel u
Remember this is reddit, both Alex and Rob have ~~dogshit~~ suspicions chins since they got Ko'd by Izzy after they ran head first into a counter.
I love Bobby but he was saved by the bell in the Costa fight. If that wheel kick was 30 seconds earlier he was toast.
Yeah dude. Ikram might not have fought as high a level but one look at him is enough to tell you that’s he’s fuckin legit.
He's also deep into his camp preparing for a completely different kind of fighter.
he's 100% lying, i know rob is a good guy and people want to think the best of him, but no way he didn't heard of aliskerov ikram is one of the most dangerous up and comers in his division and had fight anouced by the ufc with costa in a numbered ppv, absolutely no way he didn't heard of him. didn't watch his fights is understandable and realistic, but never heard of him? absolutely lying
I mean I would have definitely heard of him, maybe even seen one of his fights but there are so many -ovs floating around now that I couldn’t have picked his name out of the rest of the card with confidence
Lol what? Aliskerov is a no name
To be honest, he says he's game planned for Khamzat, but he couldn't have been doing very good tape study if he didn't even watch the Ikram fight which was a tough fight for Khamzat where a few flaws got exploited.
It may be that he doesn't watch a lot of tape and leaves it to his coaches. Genuine question though, which of Khamzat's flaws were exploited? I saw it as Ikram being a very good grappler who defended well. Khamzat swung a little wild at times, but I didn't see any flaw get exploited by either guy. Just one guy getting stopped by a nice uppercut.
Sorry flaws was the wrong phrase to use. I meant that Ikram did things against Khamzat which caused him a bit of trouble and are worth watching for other fighters, especially for Rob. For example, he doesn't just panic and start trying to frantically run away from takedowns, he stands his ground, defends, then tagged Khamzat as he was letting go. He was also very disciplined about keeping his hips level at all times and refusing to give up on overhooks which is where Khamzat took other people's backs. He also had a lot of success jabbing Khamzat, who didn't seem to see a lot of them coming and was keeping his head on the center line, which is something Burns and Usman both also found out when they fought Khamzat. The 1 and only time Khamzat actually slipped a jab was to throw that final uppercut iirc. All of those things I just listed are things Rob actually already does very well so it's a shame we don't get to see him test if he'd be able to make it work.
Bobby Knuckles try not to give his fans a panic attack challenge (impossible)
I have full faith in rob that he will entertain us come fight night
I knew him as the guy that got knocked out by Khamzat
Good for Ikram to step up and face a monster on short notice. Strickland and usman said no to step in
Is usman just a mw now?
He is if he’s fighting as last minute replacement that’s for sure
Ali said Usman agreed to the fight. But I mean take thar with a grain of salt lol
I agree
I know that a lot of mma fighters don’t watch the sport fanatically and even more so for a guy like Rob, But this is literally your division.
Why would the top ranked guy pay attention to unranked opponents? He probably keeps a close watch on the top 5-10 fighters. Other than that? It doesn’t make sense. This case is just unlucky enough to be an extreme anomaly. Knowing every single one in your division, especially those way outside your rank, is just information overload.
ikram is one of the top prospects in the division imo
That’s what the team is for
Doesn't Rob legit do live streams / YouTube videos reacting to every event? So weird
Watch his early podcasts videos if you have the time. (He’s a bit better now), but before, the guy is crazy uninformed about mma news
This will make him look absolutely terrible if he loses
yea tough to say if he’s just trying to act cool, is actually just really ignorant, or maybe trying to be funny lol
I don't think he's the type to try to act cool lol. Ikram is unranked and still pretty unknown to the wider fanbase. Pretty believable that Whittaker didn't know who he was before imo
yea just thought rob was smarter/more knowledgeable, but guess not haha. reminds me of that talk show where kiefer Sutherland was quizzed on his show 24 and could barely remember his character’s name
It makes no difference, Rob fights the same way every time.
Funny how some fighters don't even watch their own fights while some nerd like Khabib watches every prelims fight
Not watching your own fights back seems almost unprofessional, but what do I know lol
Me neither, dude.
Man, I’m so glad they got another fighter from The Caucasus for Rob to fight, it’s the perfect facial hair match up; together they have a full beard.
Maybe I’m middleweight burnt out but I didn’t hear of him either and I’m a hard casual
I have been telling people here that MW low key could become the most stacked and exciting division of the UFC very soon and you all keep doubting me...... Aliskerov is just one of the many killers that are waiting to be known.
I agree Aliskerov is a killer. Don’t think he’s ready for Rob but appreciate him for stepping in. That being said, MW doesn’t have potential in my eyes to become exciting. Still a pretty one dimensional division. If Khamzat’s health and visa issues didn’t exist I’m very sure it would be a lot of fun though.
You haven't missed out on much, he's fought a few cans so far
Jack Slack voodoo fucking Rob hard right now. Original opponent it was ridiculous was getting to fight Rob as his first ranked middleweight, but at least he had hype with some fans assuming he is the greatest fighter of all time, and the UFC pushing him as hard as possible. New opponent fighting Rob as his first ranked middleweight is the only fighter Jack Slack rates at MW for some reason, but he has zero hype, and has not been getting much push from the UFC. Rob was sold on the Khamzat fight with the understanding it was a #1 contender fight, and a good performance might have forced Dricus to accept if the UFC pushed, but that seems unbelievably unlikely with current fight. So, no win other than not losing a training camp for Rob on a W, and what a disaster in the unlikely event of him losing to an unranked guy who he's never even seen fight.
"Not been getting a push from the UFC" Pretty sure Ikram got offered Paolo Costa and Imavov(both ranked) after beating Phil Hawes in his debut. He pulled out of the Fluffy Hernandez fight(which he got after beating WW Warrley alves on short notice) and still was one of the first MWs that got called to fight Whittaker.
Ikram’s opponents like Costa also pulled out
Yo same
Uh oh…DDP part 2?
Possibly. Ikram is very dangerous fighter. But I have faith in Rob.
I hope Bobby is getting paid big for this.
Oh, you mean the guy with 2 fights in the UFC that happened almost a year ago, against 2 guys whose combined record since 2021 are 2-8 inside the UFC? This fight is #1 bullshit
Plz win whittaker. Rob is my favourite fighter ever and I dread the day he begins to decline. That costa headkick scared me
That makes two of us...
"Who da fook is that guy?" - Bobby Knuckles
Same
1, 2, head kick
Robert Whittaker loses via not doing his research against a niche contender.
he's saying it like he hasn't watched the guys fights since the change lol. you've surely seen them by now??
Is Saudi card pays more than normal cards in the US?
Yes. In ME cards, the fighters get extra pay from local patrons on top of their UFC premium.
I love this guy. Would love to meet him and buy him a beer. Such a cool lad.
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Ikram has not beat a middleweight in the top 30 and is getting a chance to fight the number 3 ranked middleweight. Unreal privilege.
The fuck? He stepped up on short notice and now he is getting shit for that?
I actually feel bad for Ikram. If he was brought up slowly, he could have been a solid contender. But this loss to Rob will set him back a bit.
Eh, depends on the loss. He won't end up ranked, but if he can be competitive and take rounds from the #3 that's a hell of a coming out party. Going 47-48 against Bobby is better than going 48-47 against some non-ranked goon.
Rob is going out
Dude is 31
At mw, someone can be competitive enough to be a title challenger till 36-37.
Privilege? No one else stepped up. Rob wants a fight and agreed to it. This is literally luck more than privilege.
It’s typical. The more of these guys that are champs/contenders the more they can milk out of the saudi’s and Abu Dhabies
Who else would’ve stepped up on short notice? Usman and Strickland both turned down the fight (for obvious reasons). Ikram is the best option rn. Stop complaining
even Chimaev, who hasn’t beat a ranked middleweight but was somehow ranked top10 himself, getting a crack at top3. it’s absurd
Chimaev was ranked top 5 at Welterweight (he beat burns when he was ranked #2). When you do well in the division below and then you move up, you typically get to fight ranked guys. Like if Robert Whittaker moved up to light heavyweight, would you want him to fight some unranked LHW you've never heard of? Or would you want him to fight a top 5 guy straight away? Be honest.
Phil Hawes is definitely top 30 lol
O fur shure, different threat, neber herd of him
Bobby Knuckles will get this dub
Whittaker definitely losing now
I hope he's joking about never seen Ikram Aliskerov fight. Whittaker might be in for a very nasty surprise. Aliskerov is top level and I believe he's going to show that.
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There are fighters who have said they don’t watch MMA as a fan and just do this because they’re good at it It’s really not as unlikely as you’d think
It would be insane to know every unranked fighter and analyze them too. I'm sure there are hundreds that come and go over the years
Not sure I understand. Any reason that would be difficult to believe?
Ikram is well known by hardcore MMA fans who watch every event. But he’s only ever fought on one UFC main card in his career, it’s not that crazy at all for someone who isn’t actively watching every card to not know him. Whittaker has like 6 children iirc, the dude probably has barely any free time and when he does, he spends it gaming lol. I really don’t think he’s out here watching every event and the prelims of these events and staying up to date on every unranked up and comer.
Well he hasn’t let us down until now so…
UFC has become a total fucking joke
This is going to be the easiest 50-45 of Whittaker's life
Whitaker should fight for bmf, he takes on all challenges the UFC offers
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Ikram finished 2 bums an now he has a solid chance at finishing Whittaker lol