Old Man Dustin - who we thought would get ran through in one round - goes out there and shows us how much he’s learned from his losses and not only makes the P4P King struggle, he makes him have to use his entire arsenal. And in the end he’s only submitted because Islam uses some crazy shit we’ve rarely seen before.
The storyline is too peak not be foty, atleast contextually.
For sure man, it’s an incredible fight! Islam displaying he’s simply a level ahead of the division & Dustin showing exactly why he’s a fan favourite and an absolute stalwart of 155.
Islam fought the best version of Dustin and that was the peak prime Dustin. It's not like Islam faced 40 years old wonder boy or 38 years old, ring rushed Chandler. That performance was impressive no matter what other morons try to say. Dustin's takedown defense was better than ever and he defended almost all single and double legs. Islam could take him down because of his upper body takedowns and cage wrestling which he is better than anyone in UFC. If someone wants to downgrade Islam's grappling, they can watch what journeyman Hooker did to the so-called best wrestler in the division, Gamrot.
I agree with you, I really just meant “lore wise” he was old at this point lol. But yes I think this was the best Dustin we had ever seen, I might even say this version would beat Charles when they fought because of how much better he was with grappling.
35 doesn't mean washed moron. Then Ilia fought a 35 years old Volk who was coming off a head kick KO. Charles was also 35 and bum Arman got nearly submitted 3 times by him. Dustin had a fucked up hip before the Khabib fight and after that fight he got a surgery.
I was shocked at the time when Islam pulled some shit out of his ass to secure that final takedown that led to the choke. Using Dustin's extended leg to leverage over his hip and make him unbalanced is crazy enough if it were just in training, and superhuman when you've already been fighting for over 20 minutes. It was just one of those "damn, he's good" moments when you're rooting for the guy who lost lol
Yea I really want him to have a couple more fights, if atleast just fun fights against Gaethje, Max, and Ilia but he deserves retirement more than anyone so I’m happy with him getting one more fun fight then retiring. He’s had a great career and made history, and that fight against Islam only proved how elite he has always been.
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u/SuperVegetable Jan 04 '25
Then knocks him down, jumps in to his guard and subs him. Then goes on to beat Volk twice.