I understand how susceptible sherdog is to recency bias and now that Max just had the biggest moment of UFC 300 everyone is ready to crown him p4p goat, but y'all must have forgot that the guy had no answer for Volk and failed in 3 attempts to defeat him.
Topuria is like a quicker younger Volk that will hit him much harder, I don't get this narrative that Max is just gonna go back to 145 and take the title.
Gaethje is definitely a solid win, but it's been done before, he's been finished by several dudes before, and he's good but he's simply not a championship level fighter.
I didn't understand all the people saying Max was gonna get dusted in that fight, I was picking Max all the way, one of the most dominant FW champions vs a fringe top 5 LW who never touched a title.
Now I couldn't predict the way Max would beat him of course, I had Max by cruise control decision and we were a second away from exactly that.
I definitely enjoyed the way it went down in the end as much as the next guy.
That said, if Max tries that with Ilia, it will be him that gets sent to the realm of shadows.
That performance does make the fight a bit more interesting because before that I wouldn't even give Max another shot at that title, but I still don't see him winning that fight. Ilia will put his lights out standing and Max is not outgrappling him, forget the final 5 seconds of Max/Justin and snap yourselves back to reality... Max had a great run, but Topuria is the present and the future in that division.