MMA Fighting - UFC 254: Pros Predict Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje

Episode Date: October 21, 2020

MMA Fighting spoke to MMA stars from the UFC and Bellator to get their predictions for who's going to win Saturday's pivotal UFC 254 headliner between undisputed lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and interim champ Justin Gaethje. Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I think it's the toughest fight in the division for him. I think Justin Gache is an absolute stud. He is, I mean, they call him the human highlight and the most exciting guy in the game, and it is true, but not just a game in all of combat sports. There is no fighter in the world of sports that is more excited than Justin Gachie. Boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, you'll find nobody more exciting and better. And the Justin Gachi that fought Tony Ferguson in April, Armay, is more dangerous to Habib than anyone that he has.

ever stood across the octagon from. With that being said, I've seen Habibna Mega Medov trained for championship fights and fights since 2012. The only person that was more thorough in their preparation was Kane Velazquez when he became the champion back in 2010. No one

worked harder. No one was more committed. And I just don't know if anyone's going to beat him. I'm confident in believing that Habib will retire undefeated. Nobody will beat this guy. He is too committed to who he's supposed to be to get beat by anyone. So, um, Justin will fight a good fight.

And I'm calling the fight, right? So I'm going, I'm going to be as unbiased as I can possibly be in this fight. And I'm going to do my job to the best of my ability. But I just don't know if anybody can beat this guy right now. There's no, no 55 pounds should feel that strong when he grabs you. I think he is very strong. He's mentally very strong, you know, because everybody, Everybody knows his game.

Everybody know his game plan, and he goes there and do it. You know? I think that's making him different, the other guy. Everybody knows why he thinks about the fight, while he's doing the fight, and everybody knows there, and nobody can stop him.

I think definitely one of the best of all the time, and the light weight, and I'm very excited for this fight. I think Gitch is a great fighter, too. He definitely one of the best, have opportunity to fight, you know, two of the best guys in the world. I think that's a 50-fifth fight. It's open, very open. It's going to be a big war. Very exciting.

That wrestling, right? I think whoever is going to give Khabib the biggest challenge and really be able to maybe win has to have really solid wrestling. And I think if Justin wanted to, which we all know he's not going to do, if you want it to, if you wanted to wrestle back and maybe score his own takedowns, I think he could. And that's Chandler's defense, too, for if he had to step in there. He's like, look, I'm one of the few guys that I think I could take him down as well. And wouldn't that flip everything on its head if he came out and just blast doubled could be, but he's not going to.

He's not going to. I like Gaichi. Yeah, I like Gaichi. Just because he's, well, for one, he's so much more ruthless. he's he's been in deep dark waters before where kibib has it um and if i were trying to plan a camp to defeat one of them it would seem more daunting to be geichi than kibibib i would think you know but i think both have their exploitations big time but he's kibib i don't believe has he i mean but he is kavip so he might just do his game and fuck it were like jesus there's nothing

there's no one he can't do this on you know but if you were going to beat gaichi i would beat him as a boxer and uh if i was going to beat kibib i beat him with like a grain tools. And and Khabib can't box to beat Gaichi, but the Gaichi can range and out-wrestle, maybe Khabi. And so that's why I think, you know, you might have the advantage. Man, that's going to be an amazing fight, honestly. I hope for it to go all five rounds, just you know, from a fan's perspective to be able to see two masters

in there duking it out for five rounds. I do feel like it'll be very technical. You know, I think Khabibib really surprised me with his stand-up in his last fight. And I think Gaichi really surprised me in his last couple of fights, not giving in to his emotional impulse to stand and bang. So... So... Your mind can change. It's one of those fights where I feel like we're going to be teeter-tottering.

So on this day, what's your gut telling you? Gaichi. Man, I think the power of Justin Geichi problems for Habib. And God, you know, I think the question here is if Justin Gech can stop the wrestling of Habib, you know, always talk, you know, maybe this guy is the guy can be Habib, you know, talking about Dustin Portial, talking about Connor McGregor even

but I think just engages the first one he can, the necessary skills to stop all the weapons of Habib. You know, in the octagon, in the octagon, everything is different and everything can change.

I think the the fight is for Habib, but I go with my heart and I go for Justin Gage. Oh, man, it's funny. Like almost every fighter I've asked,

I'll think Gachi's just crazy enough to be the one to do it. Man, it's crazy. Not love Justin Gage. I know I think his attitude, his fighter style is amazing. I mean, to be honest, I'm his fan. He's amazing. Personally, I think Gage has it. Gagy's an A-Z.

He's from L. Arizona, so I, you know, I got to support my locals. No, but I do think Gigi has what it takes to give him that one loss. He's, I don't think, yeah, Kobe could take him down. His wrestling is amazing. They're both amazing wrestlers, so they're going to have to stand up and just, I don't know, go at it. It's going to be a good fight. I'm so excited for that fight. I really am. It's a good one. Oh, it's a really good fight. Yeah. Well, I think, I mean, I think that's the obvious is if Habib needs to get him down and Justin needs to keep it on the feet. I love them both.

I think they're great guys, but I really think that Habib is going to overwhelm him on the ground. But I could be one thing that I've learned is MMA is a different beast. Anything can happen in there. You can be expected to win and you get clipped with something crazy. so it's MMA, but if I had to pick, if I had a million dollars and I needed to pick a person, I would pick Habib. But I'm happy for both of them. You know, they're both legends, so it's going to be interesting fight.

I'm excited for it. If Justin Gakey shows up like he showed up against Tony Ferguson, he's putting himself in the best situation, the best scenario possible to beat Khabib Namauga-Madal. But if you're a betting man, you never bet against Kibib. I don't think Justin Gagey's a guy to do it in the lightweight division that can beat Khabi, and I've been saying it for a really long time. I think Justin, I think Justin is going to be, it's going to be a less dominant, unanimous decision than we're used to be seen, than we're used to seeing it from Kibib, but it'll be a unanimous decision nonetheless.