He’s excellent and well rounded but will likely lose to a truly elite grappler. He has grappling chops himself but not at the all time level he may be up against.
It’s no mystery why he won’t fight Arman. Ilia is the rightful favourite in that fight but it’s a pain in the ass fight for him. Just like Evloev was at FW.
He will either lose to Usman Nurmagomedov at LW or Islam if he tries to go for the WW title like he said he wanted to. I don’t actually favour any other potential opponent against him though.
I’m pretty excited to see him fight. He has great highlights.
But not sure if he’s anywhere near Islam or khabib level grappling. His brother had nothing for Merab. Although Javier Mendez talks like Usman is the much better of the two
That was a close fight against Umar with Merab 3-2 on two scorecards decided by Merab controlling the pace in the fifth frame. Umar is not as good as Usman but it’s inevitable he’ll hold UFC gold at some point.
Usman is more talented. Khabib said he has been putting most of his personal time sparring with Usman because he sees his potential. Usman is going to be a monster by the time he gets to the UFC. A monster with a lot of length on Ilia, kicks and better grappling.