Recently, BJJ legend Renzo Gracie said that no one could beat Khabib by using BJJ whilst in an MMA setting. As of right now, that statement is true as Khabib’s MMA record stands at a perfect 28-0 making him possibly the greatest ever.
However, BJJ veteran Ryan Hall was asked how you would go about beating Khabib in MMA. This question was posed by Lex Fridman when Hall was a guest on his podcast.
Hall responded by saying that fighting involved ‘trading energy’, which meant the fighter with the most energy would usually go on to win. The other factor in fighting was trading damage which was equally as important. He claimed, against Khabib, most people would have their energy drained by Khabib when taken down. This lead to drained energy by trying to defend his takedowns whilst getting damaged in the process.
His solution was to become comfortable on the bottom which would lose less energy. Although a tough task against Khabib, perhaps Hall’s point was that if you accept a takedown but try and get into a guard or defensive position early, you can limit the damage and energy drained by him. Perhaps with decent striking you could then try and win at stand up when the round is reset. He went on to say McGregor was relaxed in the first round and handled it quite well, until he didn’t.
Whether you agree or disagree with Hall, it’s interesting to see an insight into his mind. He is one of BJJ’s most interesting practitioners who has successfully applied unorthodox BJJ methods to the UFC with great success. His comments begin at 3 hours and 12 minutes into the podcast.
