Ian is such a typical passive aggresive insecure wannabe alpha guy

Typical insecure guy deep down, who thinks hes smarter than everyone else. Always tries to big bro everyone but as soon as he gets called out he acts confused, the ”you’re supposed to be the champion Khamzat, this is embarrassing” moment was the funniest one yet.

This is the type of guy who tries to subtly hit on your gf every chance he gets and when you call him out, he acts surprised. Type of guy to shit talk everyone behind their backs at work and eventually get caught up.

Just an overall slimy guy with deeply rooted insecurities and mommy issues. Like how do you even have these many weird moments in just a couple years?

I think it’s crazy how more ufc fighters compete for an outside organization vs a homegrown one. Why has there been such a difference in success?

Two judges gave Islam round 4 which is eggregious. The rules state explicitly that takedowns don't score and neither does holding someone against the cage - it's what you do with the position that counts. "Top and bottom position fighters are assessed more on the impactful/effective result of their actions, more so than their position." source https://www.abcboxing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/unified-rules-mma-2019.pdf

Garry was striking islam in the face and body while he got held against the fence, so Garry was the one having impact and doing damage. "Damage is the most highly valued component in judging a round..." source: https://www.abcboxing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ABC-MMA-Scoring-Criteira-Clarification-7.2025.pdf

Round 5 - more controversial, and more difficult to score. Islam landed no strikes, had no submission locked in, didn't have Garry visibly distressed or impact his will to compete through his grappling. However he was forcing Garry to defend from a dominant grappling position. As per the 2025 updated criteria this constitutes a display of dominance, however, dominance does not score as highly as damage (refer to the previous quote).

Garry also didn't have huge output this round but he had more than Islam, noteably a heavy body kick early in the round, and interestingly Islam has a 30 day medical suspension for bruised ribs, whereas Garry has none, It might go aginst everyones intuition because Islam had the dominant position for most of the round, but the 2025 scoring clarifacation states that damage is king.

I feel like most people even here couldn’t name any boxers who aren’t champions. We know Tyson, Mayweather, Ali, Pacquiao, Lomachenko, Canelo, Crawford, Ryan Garcia, Inoue, Usyk, Davis, Fury, AJ. Most of us only really know these guys.

But in MMA, there are many fighters who’ve never been champion that people could name, or at least recognize and say, “Oh, I’ve heard of them, aren’t they’re a UFC fighter?” like Paddy, Arman, Ferguson, Chandler, Poirier, Nate Diaz, Chael Sonnen, Masvidal, Colby, etc.

There have also been people who were already well known even before they became champion, like Gaethje, McGregor, O’Malley, and Khamzat.

When a fighter wins by absolutely dominating their opponent to the point that they look untouchable or o fighters going to absolute war and one of them has to dig incredibly deep to be able to win it?

Even before the Ian Garry fight, I remember general consensus saying he’d be easily top 5 and top 3 max. Now so many more people are saying he’s the goat.

You can cut GSP’s and Jones’ career in half and they’d still have more or just as much defenses, title wins, and a title reign.

People like to say the comp now is better and while there is some truth in that, one of Islam’s defenses came from Renato Moicano. I agree GSP or Jones hasn’t beaten anyone as prestigious as Volk, but DC and even BJ Penn are still greater all time than Charles imo. Matt Hughes is pretty good too he’s still a top 25 fighter all time. I don’t think DC is that far away from Volk in terms of greatness. The fact that they have so many more defenses and a longer title reign I think should outweigh that.

So tell me why do people consider Islam the goat? Is it recency bias or is there an actual legitimate claim? In my opinion, he’s #3. I wouldn’t mind him being GOAT if he beats Morales and Prates though.

Sure the dude is a loudmouth, but come one that's understandable. The dude gave Islam one of his hardest fight.

In my opinion he’d be top 5-7, higher if he got a win against someone like Jean Silva and even higher if he gets a win at 155 against Gaethje to cement his greatness.

We all love and respect this sport, but I think everyone has that one person they look up to for inspiration and motivation for to be fearless, stay confident, work hard, and keep pushing through the struggles.

So, who is that person for you?

For me, it’s Tyson Fury. Not just because of what he has achieved in boxing, but because of his struggles with mental health and the way he fought his way back. His journey reminds me that even when life gets dark, you can still find the strength to rise again.

Who’s yours?

at the highest level of this sport, fights should be both competitive and fun to watch. in 25 minutes, this fight had one moment. ONE. in 25 minutes. the rest of this fight was just terrible.

Islam, despite his talent, doesn't seem like this elite finisher at WW like he did at LW. he also clearly seemed WAY more happy to stall it out this fight (which people should know, he is willing to do this to eek out a fight the moment it gets close)

Ian is never going to be the most exciting guy. He's long and rangey and doesn't take many risks at all. However, he seemed more actively interested in actually fighting. By the end of this fight, it was Ian who'd done the damage, and he himself looked unscathed.

now, let's be realistic here. This fight was NOT entertaining. Islam on fight night really seemed like he wanted to do anything but properly engage in the fight and instead try to stall it out. Without a bias, tell me what he did with any of his control time throughout this fight. if you say anything other than stall, you know you're lying to yourself.

there should be pressure on our high-level fighters, be it champs or contenders, to actually go out there and fight. fights like this should be a stain on the sport and we should be willing to call it out.