Khabib Nurmagomedov (can anyone beat this guy?) SPOILERS

Warning: If you are one of those people that likes to watch the events after the fact then reading this will spoil the result. Actually, the title of this post has likely already accomplish that.... sorry

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Late last night we saw Khabib Nurmaberabluhblahbloo pretty much dominate the main event. The way that this fight was booked it looked like Dustin Poirier was going to put up a much better fight than he managed to do. In Dustin's last fight vs. Max Holloway (which he won by unanimous decision) he convinced much of the MMA world including myself that we had a real threat for the unified belt. However, and I hate to admit this, besides one barrage that Khabib quickly recovered from, this main-event was an extremely one-sided affair.

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So what makes Khabib so unstoppable? Well, at least in my opinion, it is because he can face any opponent in any sort of manor - he is extremely well-rounded and I suppose this isn't terribly surprising since he is the champ and also has never been defeated.

The major reason that Khabib is able to pick apart opponents regardless of their individual strengths is because he has a unique ability to succeed at almost all of his takedown attempts. Then, once he is in that position he doesn't immediately go for the kill, but rather leans on whoever he is facing, and wears them out.

This was very evident at UFC 242.

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Poirier narrowly avoided putting himself in submission situations multiple times before Khabib eventually locked in a strong rear naked choke in the 3rd round. To Poirier's credit, he also nearly had Khabib in a similar situation, but not for very long. Khabib simply excels on the ground. When he gets a takedown they are normally very fast and he forces his opponent to spend a lot of energy to try to get this deadly monkey off their back.

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Khabib seeks out ending up on the ground but that isn't to suggest that he has a weak stand-up game. He can hang with the best of them as far as boxing is concerned. I think that people could successfully argue that Poirier is likely the better boxer - i dunno - that didn't seem the case except for one instance in round 2 and like I mentioned before, Khabib backpedaled and quickly recovered when Poirier surprised him with a stiff left.

All-in-all there is nothing that Khabib doesn't excel at but i don't think that anyone is going to deny that his exceptional wrestling skills are what is going to make him very difficult to dethrone. Unfortunately, I am one of the guys that finds this tactic of victory quite boring to watch, but if it wins matches, I am sure the fighters don't care, especially if they are getting a $6 million purse.

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At the conclusion of the fight Nurmagomedov was extremely gracious in victory and a lot of respect was shown between the two champions as they exchanged shirts for the post-fight interviews. Khabib briefly mentioned McGregor but not by name - only referring to Conor as "that bulls**t guy."

I did find it bizarre that he said that he is going to sell his Poirier shirt and give all the money to Dustin. Huh? Dustin isn't poor dude, and although he did receive a significantly lower purse at around 300K I didn't feel there was any reason to say that. Oh well, English is not his first language.

Khabib pointed out that there was a great deal of respect between the two fighters and I don't think anyone can argue that. For me anyway, the trash-talking from fighters like McGregor are kind of a blemish on the sport and in some cases get MMA stars fights they don't necessarily deserve. Conor wasted no time and immediately tweeted that he wants a rematch - We'll see if that happens. I for one kind of enjoy seeing McGregor take a beating but also don't think he deserves a rematch. Let him fight his way back up like everyone else has to.

Unfortunately for Poirier, he likely won't get another shot at this any time soon if at all. He just didn't perform well enough to justify another shot at the belt.

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I suspect that Dustin realizes this also: He tried to maintain his composure during a tearful post-fight interview, but his emotions got the best of him where he expressed his disappointment in himself to the world.

Chin up dude.... there is no shame in going 3 rounds out of 5 with who I think has a really good chance of being classed as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.