On a recent episode of JRE MMA Show, a discussion about the upcoming Conor McGregor versus Max Holloway match took a sharp turn when Joe Rogan, joined by Matt Serra, Dean Thomas, and John Rallo, started talking about where Holloway stands on the ground.
The group gave full credit to Charles Oliveira for what he did to Holloway, with Rogan pointing out that nobody else had taken Holloway down and threatened him in the same way.
“Charles is a monster. He’s so good on the ground,” Rogan said. They agreed that Holloway had survived positions that most athletes at that level would not have escaped.
But Rogan was quick to put that performance in context. “Here’s what’s crazy,” he said. “Islam smooshed him.”
The point cut straight to the heart of how deep the levels go in that division. If Oliveira, arguably the most accomplished submission artist in lightweight history, pushed Holloway to the edge, what does it say about how quickly and completely Islam Makhachev handled Oliveira when they met?
“Made him look bad,” the group responded.
Rogan agreed, saying, “Smoosh. He was tapping like immediately. He was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I ain’t getting out of this.'”
Rogan pointed to Makhachev’s physical grip as something athletes consistently describe in identical terms.
He stated, “Everybody that he competes with, they all say, ‘I’ve never been grabbed like that. Never felt anybody that strong.'”
The control goes beyond raw strength. Rogan brought up the arm triangle Makhachev locked in from half guard against Drew Dober as a prime example of how total the pressure becomes once he settles into a position.
“There ain’t no half guard here. This is just smoosh,” he said. “The pressure is phenomenal. Incredible squeeze. Like he just cuts off the blood.”
When the conversation shifted to whether Ian Garry could compete with Makhachev at 170 lbs (77 kg), Rogan laid out the central problem plainly: “The bottom line about Islam is no one’s able to get away from him. He gets a hold of you. He’s very good standing up now, and he gets a hold of you, you’re f**ked.”
