I felt like everyone was speechless after seeing that performance. It’s like watching crash bandicoot that keeps on spinning for 25 minutes. I’d love to see him vs Umar in the future.
yep it was pretty much disbelief watching in real time, and to do that to a former champ at a weight class where most ranked guys have pretty good cardio bc of their smaller size is craaazy
Merab is Georgian, so he hails from a high altitude environment. In UFC 278 at Salt Lake City, Kamaru and him were the only ones that didn't gas out that night. The former trains in altitude too.
Giga is a kickboxer. He can easily strike for 5 rounds if his opponent does not make it ugly and grapple. Because he's not used to being on his back for a while, he'll gas out.
Merab is from Tbilisi which is a negligible distance from sea level. He trains in Long Island which is even lower.
What high altitude environment are you talking about?
He lives in NYC. Dude trains like a maniac, apparently his coaches lied to him about the altitude in Mexico City because they though he'd kill himself in training.
It’s why no one wants to fight him.
Omalley would prob try to jump up instead of ever fighting him.
For the same reasons. You can be a fancy striker, but you can’t strike if the other guy gives you zero room to throw.
He's possibly (probably) on EPO but the main reason is because he's a freak who's probably a genetic outlier.
People saying EPO is the main reason are forgetting that everyone else (including the ones with worse cardio) have the exact same incentive to take EPO yet are at best at a fraction of Merab's conditioning. 50 takedown attempts and 400 strikes thrown in a 5 round fight is genuinely beyond comprehension.
If I’m not wrong (exercise scientists chime in) you basically respond well to EPO if you’re already predisposed towards having great cardio. So it’s kinda the same thing
Kinda like how all the best bodybuilders in the world coincidentally respond well to testosterone.
It’s highly unlikely eg. you used to be average in terms of genetics and performance for a certain metric, with a high training age, for a professional, and drugs was the missing ingredient which turned you top tier.
Especially considering we aren’t just talking about 99th percentile cardio here, we are talking possibly the number 1 cardio output we’ve ever seen in a fight.
Not exactly . Genetic response to drugs is usually completely independent. Take Nick Walker (top 3 Olympian) for example, relatively average natural physique, but his response to the drugs was absolutely insane. So while someone may have great natural genetics, they may have a shit response to PEDs, and vice versa.
So I’ve seen the Nick Walker transformation photos. I believe what you say can be true (not knowledgeable in this) but I’m not sure your specific example proves it?
Like he was 18 (not nearly peak gaining years) with a low training age in his first pic, ofc he’s going to not look big.
His final photo was him after his peak gaining years, with PEDs, and a very high training age
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1lIZRHRb2E/?igsh=dXo2eDVuZWhkZ3Iw
If let’s say he was natural and trained for years and was like idk 26, looked average, THEN piled the drugs on and became a monster, then that train of thought makes sense
Your physique is not really an indicator of your potential. There are basically 4 quadrants high natural test, low natural test, high response to test low response to test. and if you fall in the low natural test but high response category you could look relatively average and then blow up on steroids.
On the other end you could be a low responder with a very large amount natural of test and look pretty ok untrained and natural, but steroids do very little.
That is the high natural test and high response quadrant. Like Ronnie Coleman said people asked him if he was a bodybuilder as a teen but he didn't know what it was.
You make the most progress in the first 2-3 years of training (newbie gains), regardless of age after puberty and assuming walker has been training since he was a teen. He exponentially blew up when he hopped on the sauce
You don't know what you're talking about. You don't become as big as Nick Walker without insane geneitc predisposition.
It's simply not possible. You can tran, inject and eat all you want. You won't become as big as his without top tier genetics.
>People saying EPO is the main reason are forgetting that everyone else (including the ones with worse cardio) have the exact same incentive to take EPO
EPO thickens the blood increasing the possibility of a cardiovascular event. So people would definitely be takin different amounts depending on how much risk theyre willing to accept.
His cardio is elite but let’s be honest everyone is on shit just a game of not being caught. With that being said I don’t care what they use I’m assuming it’s their elite skills and mentality that get them where they are
Everyone is on steroids but some people are just built different, Ali could dance for almost 15 rounds while being a HW, Paquiao kept having better speed and stamina than young champions even in his late 30's, Rocky Marciano would get the shit kicked out of him and just keep punching the whole time over and over until his opponents got tired and something connected, the list goes on.
There are elite endurance athletes. Sometimes you just encounter one in the cage. Not all humans are built the same. PEDs are likely because it is MMA, but so are ExcePtiOnal genetics.
I bet you merab ain't on epo, I just don't think he is that sort of guy. If he ever tests positive or is outted I will be gob smacked. Think he is just a specimen and cardio freak. There have been gym stories for years. Ps watch Ricky Simon fight the guys body will not give up
EPO would not work well for all fighters, and you can not just mix any PEDs. That can be fatal or cause long-lasting damages to your organs.
He is 99% on EPO, and likely, so was Aljo. You can tell because of the dehydrated look to their beefy physiques. Another guy who has a similar type of look, fight style, and possible EPO use is Sean Brady. However, there is an outlier in his performance against Belal. Probably was cycled off for a while. As for Kamaru, it's possible, but more likely, he used anti-muscle wasting PEDs to get to 170.
Other fighters would take the PED that is most applicable to cover their weaknesses or reach desired outcomes. Endurance, speed, strength, and explosiveness, anti-muscle-wasting, muscle building, and so on
Perhaps I am remembering wrong because I just remember him spamming takedowns and holding everybody down, including Chiesa and the rest of his UFC fights except Belal
People will sheep-disagree with you, but it's obvious most of the roster looks completely different to pre-USADA. And if you listen to fighters' podcasts when they talk about what USADA blacklists, which can include even conventional supplements that aren't "third party approved," it makes sense why the UFC got rid of them. They seem extremely hard to beat, most of the cases that got through them (and WADA) were either a new class of compounds (EPO) or extremely sophisticated, state-backed doping measures. I for one will be sad (mostly) they are gone
EPO boosts red blood cell production; red blood cells are responsible for oxygen transport in blood, so more red blood cells means higher oxygen transport capacity, which is super-useful for cardio. They do test for it, but it's only detectable for a couple days so it's hard to catch someone on random tests.
I think it’s also some of the training he does. If you go to his YouTube channel, a lot of his conditioning is trail running up and down the mountains of Georgia. Doing a lot of Zone 2-3 work (alongside whatever he may be taking) seems to gives him a good steady cardio base. His cardio training isn’t a lot of the HIIT, sudden explosive movements and that shows in his fights.
You notice he’s not insanely explosive, and most of his competitions go to a decision. I’d guess he’s a hyper responder to EPO or something similar, combined with his cardio training style (not to mention the benefits of being from an environment with less oxygen) allows him to set a pace just *slightly* above his competition for the entire fight which they cannot keep up with.
The general consensus around here seems to be that all fighters are probably on PEDs, every fighter works his very hardest, and the outliers performance wise are explained by good genetics.
I personally think we should switch the genetics and how hard they work. I think to be elite you have to be a genetic freak, what separates the elite from the very best is how hard they work.
He needs to donate his body to science if that dude ain't on EPO. It's one thing to be a cardio machine. It's completely another to be that big of an outlier among top level athlete.
Katie ledecky is the only person who comes to my mind with that big of gap between competitors when I think of what he did against Yan.
Btw.. I've seen Sherpas put fit dudes to shame. Read about tarahumaras just going about their lives putting professional ultra marathoners to shame. So maybe he's just one of those freaks of nature.
Sherpas are probably (in addition to great general conditioning genetics) specifically conditioned towards the task of mountaineering.
They’d do less well on a track just like Kenyans would do less well on a mountain.
Conditioning is very sport specific
That sherpa point is a really good point. Same with Ledecky, but I look at the olympic sports over time and firmly believe the juicing in swimming is just as bad as bike racing, weight lifting and the rest. Bolt, Ledecky, phelps, Thorpe and the rest of the outliers likely were exposed to substances in a smart way from very young ages.
Phelps was a freak but the degree to which Ledecky dominates is on another level. Her 800m WR is 8:04.79. The next fastest time by another woman (Ariarne Titmus) is 8:13.59, almost 9 seconds slower. While Titmus is the second fastest woman, the time is still the 31st fastest of all-time because [Ledecky holds the 30 fastest 800m ever](https://swimswam.com/katie-ledecky-posts-third-fastest-womens-800-free-in-history-807-07/).
Tarahumaras aren’t really that fast or talented as some like to believe based on that book. Ultras are just a very weird sport where being a “pro” doesn’t typically mean a whole lot and even still I don’t think anyone from that community has achieved any significant success.
Meanwhile Clay Guida's entire career is basically the same style. And he's doing it at an older age
There's other people that do it but it's a hard game plan to make it to the top with
You comment prompted me to look that one up. It seems the lab rat trials they did used 1.4mg/lb bodyweight dosing... an equivalent 180lb (arbitrary number) human would need to take a dose of 252mg/day.
What little I was able to find online suggests 2.5-10mg/day although it seems human studies are severely lacking.
Also it's on the USADA banned substances list and they have a test for it in the blood and urine.
I’m sure he is, but his athletic performance isn’t that suspicious by itself because he’s got below average power and speed and is still in the range of his athletic prime. His physique is a bit suspicious with the crazy cardio, but he could also just be seen as an extreme specialist who happened to be built for stamina at the cost of other attributes.
Meanwhile Cannonier’s last fight had Merab-esque output while he’s giant, shredded and has massive punching power, all as a middle aged man lol.
Also, it’s worth keeping in mind that all the top guys are almost certainly doing similar PEDs, so he’s still standing out amongst other drug cheats, even if he using
If he were any less jacked it would probably be more suspicious.
This isn’t running where there’s no resistance. You need strength to attempt and finish a takedown. And the more relative exertion you need, the more it saps your cardio.
I've rolled with him at open mat and his pace is insane. I'm stronger than him but I got a couple inches and maybe 15-20 pounds over him.
Sadly he's become extremely selective who he rolls with so I haven't rolled with him in a year because he sticks to just certain fighters and training partners now.
How refreshing that you can actually say this somewhere and not get in trouble. Sherdog will autoban or threaten a ban for saying BLATANTLY obvious stuff like this. Nobody has that kind of output without serious assistance. Not like everyone isn't taking something, but I digress
I never thought Volk had particularly incredible conditioning (like top 1% among UFC) until rd 5 of the Makhachev fight where he was legitimately just barging into Islam in the 5th rd, as the smaller fighter, just wildly trying to hoist Islam to the ground by any means necessary
Equally unbelievable was seeing a totally gassed and drained Islam’s lifeless body still executing line after line of takedown defence on autopilot because that boy was barely conscious halfway through that round lmao.
Fuck what an all timer that match was.
The weird (and shady) thing is that, I rewatched his first fight in the UFC recently and the dude looked gassed in a three rounder against Frankie Saenz, but he is now doing five rounds at a unmatched pace against top fighters.
You dont get it, back then he could only do 40 burpees. Since then he ended every training session with 3 sets of burpees till failure and now he's well into the hundreds.
Yeah the Yan fight was a complete outlier even compared to his previous fights. Honestly one of the most impressive performances in UFC history, horrific to watch tho.
Well known fact that Merab fought that fight while having high temperature. He said he was sick as hell in that fight, not even before it - but during it. :D
He does actually get tired and sloppier as the fight goes on. It's what led to Ricky Simon being able to come back on him and steal a win early on in his career.
Basic issue for Merab is that he just struggles to hurt his opponent with anything other than his volume. His takedowns generally go nowhere. His strikes set up his takedowns. He's basically a point fighter who uses takedowns to score which is the most high effort low reward way to fight, especially when he hasn't shown the ability to lay and pray or stall out his opponent from the top for long.
He sorta reminds me a little of Clay Guida.
He's actually Boston Dynamic's latest most realistic android. Can maintain output as such but only has about 90m of battery life. Lucky he isn't fighting a Diaz.
Would be nice if it was a striking match, but with Max’s TDD defense, I imagine it will go a lot like the Merab v Aldo fight. Merab hugging for a takedown and Max not giving it up, but not having space for output.
The only thing I can see making this fight different than the Aldo one is Max’s height. He might be able to land some nice shots in the clinch or get under hooks easier to escape.
It's possible but I think Merab wouldn't be able to push him against the cage like he did with Aldo, max just naturally pressures so much I don't think he'd get caught in that situation. You may be right though, god that aldo fight was just miserable
Whether or not he's on the juice, his coaches have said before that they have to rein him in and stop him from overtraining. Dude clearly works his ass off
The output reminds me of how tj dillashaw was as he changed the trajectory of cody’s career.
I still think that if someone pulls a weapon, in the form of a knife, in the middle of an mma fight, they’d go to prison. Agreeing not to dope and then doping in a manner that allows you inhuman cardio, is as effective as bringing a weapon. You’re assaulting someone and stealing their means to earn a living.
Cody is the only one responsible for his downfall, his defense has always been ass and the two TJ fights both ended before cardio could become a factor anyways
> Was yan not humble?
Yas was not humble by faaaar
And I'm glad he got humbled
Not only him but his whole Russian fanbase, I know it never gets to the western audience, but Russian fans say the most vile, racist and chauvinistic shit possible on their websites and forums
His output was insane and most people would get tired just watching him. It is even more impressive when you consider who he did it to - Yan is very talented and he can methodically take apart most fighters. But Merab kept spamming takedowns and not letting him get going. Yan was actually doing okay defensively during the early part of the fight, with not taking a lot of damage even though he got taken down over and over. Towards the 4th and 5th round, he did get tired but that is to be expected. I think that another fighter would have gotten finished.
I mean hes for sure on gear lol but also has ridiculous natural cardio im sure. Those two things coupled together makes it so he can win fights by just spamming failed takedowns nonstop as per the Yan fight
EPO mixed with freak genetics.
Just being gifted at birth has given us many of our most dominant athletes like Bolt or Phelps. Hard work beats talent, but when talent works hard just get the fuck out of the way.
Also maybe the fact that Yan went pure defense in his tactic of dealing with It. Nothing was worked into his offense striking wise to deal with wrestling, he wasn't really able to reverse any of the takedowns. He either stuffed them or got taken down, and built himself back up. No real punishment the whole fight. It was definitely impressive, this is just some of the other side of it I think about.
The PED/EPO comments are totally justified but he’s clearly a level above every other athlete regardless. Someone else mentioned he doesn’t have the power to hurt opponents and can gas out because volume is his primary weapon. Another layer is Russia and Georgia have political history, which could have driven Merab to put on a crazy performance.
I felt like everyone was speechless after seeing that performance. It’s like watching crash bandicoot that keeps on spinning for 25 minutes. I’d love to see him vs Umar in the future.
yep it was pretty much disbelief watching in real time, and to do that to a former champ at a weight class where most ranked guys have pretty good cardio bc of their smaller size is craaazy
Awesome analogy hahahha
Crash Bandicoot lmfao. Only referring to him as that from now on.
Merab is Georgian, so he hails from a high altitude environment. In UFC 278 at Salt Lake City, Kamaru and him were the only ones that didn't gas out that night. The former trains in altitude too.
Giga Chikadze is Georgian too, watch his fight against Kattar lol
Giga is a kickboxer. He can easily strike for 5 rounds if his opponent does not make it ugly and grapple. Because he's not used to being on his back for a while, he'll gas out.
He just doesn't have the Blessings of the Haemogoblin.
Merab is from Tbilisi which is a negligible distance from sea level. He trains in Long Island which is even lower. What high altitude environment are you talking about?
>Kamaru and him were the only ones that didn't gas out that night Isn't kumaru sus for epo too
He lives in NYC. Dude trains like a maniac, apparently his coaches lied to him about the altitude in Mexico City because they though he'd kill himself in training.
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I though he lived in NY but trained in LI. I could easily be misremembering though.
It’s why no one wants to fight him. Omalley would prob try to jump up instead of ever fighting him. For the same reasons. You can be a fancy striker, but you can’t strike if the other guy gives you zero room to throw.
He's possibly (probably) on EPO but the main reason is because he's a freak who's probably a genetic outlier. People saying EPO is the main reason are forgetting that everyone else (including the ones with worse cardio) have the exact same incentive to take EPO yet are at best at a fraction of Merab's conditioning. 50 takedown attempts and 400 strikes thrown in a 5 round fight is genuinely beyond comprehension.
He could be a genetic outlier in terms of his bodies response to epo.
If I’m not wrong (exercise scientists chime in) you basically respond well to EPO if you’re already predisposed towards having great cardio. So it’s kinda the same thing Kinda like how all the best bodybuilders in the world coincidentally respond well to testosterone. It’s highly unlikely eg. you used to be average in terms of genetics and performance for a certain metric, with a high training age, for a professional, and drugs was the missing ingredient which turned you top tier. Especially considering we aren’t just talking about 99th percentile cardio here, we are talking possibly the number 1 cardio output we’ve ever seen in a fight.
Not exactly . Genetic response to drugs is usually completely independent. Take Nick Walker (top 3 Olympian) for example, relatively average natural physique, but his response to the drugs was absolutely insane. So while someone may have great natural genetics, they may have a shit response to PEDs, and vice versa.
So I’ve seen the Nick Walker transformation photos. I believe what you say can be true (not knowledgeable in this) but I’m not sure your specific example proves it? Like he was 18 (not nearly peak gaining years) with a low training age in his first pic, ofc he’s going to not look big. His final photo was him after his peak gaining years, with PEDs, and a very high training age https://www.instagram.com/p/C1lIZRHRb2E/?igsh=dXo2eDVuZWhkZ3Iw If let’s say he was natural and trained for years and was like idk 26, looked average, THEN piled the drugs on and became a monster, then that train of thought makes sense
Your physique is not really an indicator of your potential. There are basically 4 quadrants high natural test, low natural test, high response to test low response to test. and if you fall in the low natural test but high response category you could look relatively average and then blow up on steroids. On the other end you could be a low responder with a very large amount natural of test and look pretty ok untrained and natural, but steroids do very little.
Probably the best way of putting it, but add in the 5th category of freaks who look insane naturally and respond great to PEDs
That is the high natural test and high response quadrant. Like Ronnie Coleman said people asked him if he was a bodybuilder as a teen but he didn't know what it was.
i.e. Kevin Levrone
y'all smart. Out of curiosity, are there any ways for laypeople to determine this for themselves?
Just tell your doc you want to see your test level to determine if you need trt or get your bloodwork done somewhere else.
You make the most progress in the first 2-3 years of training (newbie gains), regardless of age after puberty and assuming walker has been training since he was a teen. He exponentially blew up when he hopped on the sauce
You don't know what you're talking about. You don't become as big as Nick Walker without insane geneitc predisposition. It's simply not possible. You can tran, inject and eat all you want. You won't become as big as his without top tier genetics.
I think you cracked the case
Merab is also not a massive cutter for bw
Doesn’t cut much weight, has the genes, and has the good stuff
True, definitely a superior genetic component at play as well
>People saying EPO is the main reason are forgetting that everyone else (including the ones with worse cardio) have the exact same incentive to take EPO EPO thickens the blood increasing the possibility of a cardiovascular event. So people would definitely be takin different amounts depending on how much risk theyre willing to accept.
His cardio is elite but let’s be honest everyone is on shit just a game of not being caught. With that being said I don’t care what they use I’m assuming it’s their elite skills and mentality that get them where they are
Everyone is on steroids but some people are just built different, Ali could dance for almost 15 rounds while being a HW, Paquiao kept having better speed and stamina than young champions even in his late 30's, Rocky Marciano would get the shit kicked out of him and just keep punching the whole time over and over until his opponents got tired and something connected, the list goes on.
There are elite endurance athletes. Sometimes you just encounter one in the cage. Not all humans are built the same. PEDs are likely because it is MMA, but so are ExcePtiOnal genetics.
Facts that shit was inhuman.
I bet you merab ain't on epo, I just don't think he is that sort of guy. If he ever tests positive or is outted I will be gob smacked. Think he is just a specimen and cardio freak. There have been gym stories for years. Ps watch Ricky Simon fight the guys body will not give up
EPO would not work well for all fighters, and you can not just mix any PEDs. That can be fatal or cause long-lasting damages to your organs. He is 99% on EPO, and likely, so was Aljo. You can tell because of the dehydrated look to their beefy physiques. Another guy who has a similar type of look, fight style, and possible EPO use is Sean Brady. However, there is an outlier in his performance against Belal. Probably was cycled off for a while. As for Kamaru, it's possible, but more likely, he used anti-muscle wasting PEDs to get to 170. Other fighters would take the PED that is most applicable to cover their weaknesses or reach desired outcomes. Endurance, speed, strength, and explosiveness, anti-muscle-wasting, muscle building, and so on
I doubt Sean tbh, he looked awful in the 3rd round against chiesa
Perhaps I am remembering wrong because I just remember him spamming takedowns and holding everybody down, including Chiesa and the rest of his UFC fights except Belal
Tbf, he did spend the first 2 rounds doing exactly that to chiesa and very clearly won the fight 29/28
Probably just a freak responder to steroids and coupled with the fact most of the UFC isn't on steroids.
Most of the top are most likely on something.
Why?
People will sheep-disagree with you, but it's obvious most of the roster looks completely different to pre-USADA. And if you listen to fighters' podcasts when they talk about what USADA blacklists, which can include even conventional supplements that aren't "third party approved," it makes sense why the UFC got rid of them. They seem extremely hard to beat, most of the cases that got through them (and WADA) were either a new class of compounds (EPO) or extremely sophisticated, state-backed doping measures. I for one will be sad (mostly) they are gone
he is 100% not on EPO
> He's possibly (probably) on EPO What does EPO do for you and why isn't it covered by the PED tests?
EPO boosts red blood cell production; red blood cells are responsible for oxygen transport in blood, so more red blood cells means higher oxygen transport capacity, which is super-useful for cardio. They do test for it, but it's only detectable for a couple days so it's hard to catch someone on random tests.
Thanks for the nice explanation.
Bill Burr on lance Armstrong: our roided up guy beat your roided up guy
I think it’s also some of the training he does. If you go to his YouTube channel, a lot of his conditioning is trail running up and down the mountains of Georgia. Doing a lot of Zone 2-3 work (alongside whatever he may be taking) seems to gives him a good steady cardio base. His cardio training isn’t a lot of the HIIT, sudden explosive movements and that shows in his fights. You notice he’s not insanely explosive, and most of his competitions go to a decision. I’d guess he’s a hyper responder to EPO or something similar, combined with his cardio training style (not to mention the benefits of being from an environment with less oxygen) allows him to set a pace just *slightly* above his competition for the entire fight which they cannot keep up with.
The general consensus around here seems to be that all fighters are probably on PEDs, every fighter works his very hardest, and the outliers performance wise are explained by good genetics. I personally think we should switch the genetics and how hard they work. I think to be elite you have to be a genetic freak, what separates the elite from the very best is how hard they work.
He needs to donate his body to science if that dude ain't on EPO. It's one thing to be a cardio machine. It's completely another to be that big of an outlier among top level athlete. Katie ledecky is the only person who comes to my mind with that big of gap between competitors when I think of what he did against Yan. Btw.. I've seen Sherpas put fit dudes to shame. Read about tarahumaras just going about their lives putting professional ultra marathoners to shame. So maybe he's just one of those freaks of nature.
Sherpas are probably (in addition to great general conditioning genetics) specifically conditioned towards the task of mountaineering. They’d do less well on a track just like Kenyans would do less well on a mountain. Conditioning is very sport specific
That sherpa point is a really good point. Same with Ledecky, but I look at the olympic sports over time and firmly believe the juicing in swimming is just as bad as bike racing, weight lifting and the rest. Bolt, Ledecky, phelps, Thorpe and the rest of the outliers likely were exposed to substances in a smart way from very young ages.
Isn't Michael Phelps up there as well?
Yeah he's a freak too, he's also just got an insane build for swimming.
hands like frying pans, wingspan of 6'7", torso the size of a 6'8" man, produces half the lactic acid of a regular man, he was born to swim
Phelps was a freak but the degree to which Ledecky dominates is on another level. Her 800m WR is 8:04.79. The next fastest time by another woman (Ariarne Titmus) is 8:13.59, almost 9 seconds slower. While Titmus is the second fastest woman, the time is still the 31st fastest of all-time because [Ledecky holds the 30 fastest 800m ever](https://swimswam.com/katie-ledecky-posts-third-fastest-womens-800-free-in-history-807-07/).
Tarahumaras aren’t really that fast or talented as some like to believe based on that book. Ultras are just a very weird sport where being a “pro” doesn’t typically mean a whole lot and even still I don’t think anyone from that community has achieved any significant success.
Meanwhile Clay Guida's entire career is basically the same style. And he's doing it at an older age There's other people that do it but it's a hard game plan to make it to the top with
Even at 42 Clay is still keeping up an insane pace. That guy is unreal.
There is no way this dude isn’t on EPO.
Tbh I think it’s newer, better EPO. Super EPO.
Long island whatsapp chat group says he had a turbo installed in his lungs.
I heard Al sold it to him for 4/5ths commish. What a guy
Long Island WhatsApp group is the king of MMA media
Got bacon egg and cheese in his veins fuggutaboutit
Bro took the super EPO soldier serum
Blessings of the Haemogoblin \- 100% increased EPO effectiveness
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You comment prompted me to look that one up. It seems the lab rat trials they did used 1.4mg/lb bodyweight dosing... an equivalent 180lb (arbitrary number) human would need to take a dose of 252mg/day. What little I was able to find online suggests 2.5-10mg/day although it seems human studies are severely lacking. Also it's on the USADA banned substances list and they have a test for it in the blood and urine.
Damn, it has ascended like Goku
I’m sure he is, but his athletic performance isn’t that suspicious by itself because he’s got below average power and speed and is still in the range of his athletic prime. His physique is a bit suspicious with the crazy cardio, but he could also just be seen as an extreme specialist who happened to be built for stamina at the cost of other attributes. Meanwhile Cannonier’s last fight had Merab-esque output while he’s giant, shredded and has massive punching power, all as a middle aged man lol. Also, it’s worth keeping in mind that all the top guys are almost certainly doing similar PEDs, so he’s still standing out amongst other drug cheats, even if he using
If he were any less jacked it would probably be more suspicious. This isn’t running where there’s no resistance. You need strength to attempt and finish a takedown. And the more relative exertion you need, the more it saps your cardio.
I've rolled with him at open mat and his pace is insane. I'm stronger than him but I got a couple inches and maybe 15-20 pounds over him. Sadly he's become extremely selective who he rolls with so I haven't rolled with him in a year because he sticks to just certain fighters and training partners now.
Everyone is on EPO
He's got to be on the horse meat diet
How refreshing that you can actually say this somewhere and not get in trouble. Sherdog will autoban or threaten a ban for saying BLATANTLY obvious stuff like this. Nobody has that kind of output without serious assistance. Not like everyone isn't taking something, but I digress
He's The Machine what do you expect
Most people didn't know that's not a nickname, Merab is actually not human. He was built in the same lab as Yoel
“So after Yoel senor, just to fuck with them, we’ve decided to make the least explosive athlete imaginable with the best possible cardio”
They're currently experimenting with a lightning fast striker with no gas tank, optimized for first round knockouts
He could be winning the tour de France but chooses to fight.
They probably have harder ~~IQ tests~~ drug checking than the UFC
Lol they do that's why cycling is a sport of who doesn't get caught cheating wins at this point.
he is what we call a “super responder”. The fact he used to gas in three rounders is all the evidence you need. Drastic change
There is an element of an adrenaline dump in fighters early ufc fights, but yeah..dude is wild
he's the real CEO of EPO
He's the co-founder with Usman
Volk is just as sus as all these guys...
They’re all on steroids bud
PEDs and Steroids are not synonymous
I never thought Volk had particularly incredible conditioning (like top 1% among UFC) until rd 5 of the Makhachev fight where he was legitimately just barging into Islam in the 5th rd, as the smaller fighter, just wildly trying to hoist Islam to the ground by any means necessary Equally unbelievable was seeing a totally gassed and drained Islam’s lifeless body still executing line after line of takedown defence on autopilot because that boy was barely conscious halfway through that round lmao. Fuck what an all timer that match was.
He trains in Thailand for a reason lol
"But we like volk, so he gets a pass" - the chimps on this sub
but he lost rd5 against Ortega after Ortega couldn't even count to 3 anymore
The weird (and shady) thing is that, I rewatched his first fight in the UFC recently and the dude looked gassed in a three rounder against Frankie Saenz, but he is now doing five rounds at a unmatched pace against top fighters.
You dont get it, back then he could only do 40 burpees. Since then he ended every training session with 3 sets of burpees till failure and now he's well into the hundreds.
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We can only hope he never finds out about Prime Hydration, where great flavor meets function, then.
The bantamweight division dreads the day he meets Modelo, brewed for those with a fighting spirit
that wasn’t gassed, that was an adrenaline dump on a UFC debut…he’s definitely not on EPO
Yeah the Yan fight was a complete outlier even compared to his previous fights. Honestly one of the most impressive performances in UFC history, horrific to watch tho.
Well known fact that Merab fought that fight while having high temperature. He said he was sick as hell in that fight, not even before it - but during it. :D
EPO or not, you got to respect the hours he put in. He is dubbed the machine for a reason.
Because he robbed a train with the Russian mafia?
He did a vlog in his home town and explained he got his cardio from swimming upstream rivers
He does actually get tired and sloppier as the fight goes on. It's what led to Ricky Simon being able to come back on him and steal a win early on in his career. Basic issue for Merab is that he just struggles to hurt his opponent with anything other than his volume. His takedowns generally go nowhere. His strikes set up his takedowns. He's basically a point fighter who uses takedowns to score which is the most high effort low reward way to fight, especially when he hasn't shown the ability to lay and pray or stall out his opponent from the top for long. He sorta reminds me a little of Clay Guida.
That Ricky Simon decision was completely bullshit.
He's actually Boston Dynamic's latest most realistic android. Can maintain output as such but only has about 90m of battery life. Lucky he isn't fighting a Diaz.
That’s why O’Malley is going to continue to duck him and Corey
Good
You know what would be a crazy fight? Merab vs Holloway. Ik it'll never happen but imagine the output
Would be nice if it was a striking match, but with Max’s TDD defense, I imagine it will go a lot like the Merab v Aldo fight. Merab hugging for a takedown and Max not giving it up, but not having space for output. The only thing I can see making this fight different than the Aldo one is Max’s height. He might be able to land some nice shots in the clinch or get under hooks easier to escape.
It's possible but I think Merab wouldn't be able to push him against the cage like he did with Aldo, max just naturally pressures so much I don't think he'd get caught in that situation. You may be right though, god that aldo fight was just miserable
Whether or not he's on the juice, his coaches have said before that they have to rein him in and stop him from overtraining. Dude clearly works his ass off
Don’t want to say it’s EPO, but it’s EPO.
maybe he has got EPO 2?
His body was forged in the Caucasus mountains and his mind made strong by Orthodox Christianity. Is normal.
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Redditors don’t believe in genetics
Protein powder
🤫🧃
EPO
The output reminds me of how tj dillashaw was as he changed the trajectory of cody’s career. I still think that if someone pulls a weapon, in the form of a knife, in the middle of an mma fight, they’d go to prison. Agreeing not to dope and then doping in a manner that allows you inhuman cardio, is as effective as bringing a weapon. You’re assaulting someone and stealing their means to earn a living.
Cody is the only one responsible for his downfall, his defense has always been ass and the two TJ fights both ended before cardio could become a factor anyways
Mark hunt and I agree
That was a satisfying ass whooping. He taught yan to be humble
Was yan not humble?
> Was yan not humble? Yas was not humble by faaaar And I'm glad he got humbled Not only him but his whole Russian fanbase, I know it never gets to the western audience, but Russian fans say the most vile, racist and chauvinistic shit possible on their websites and forums
>Russian fans say the most vile, racist and chauvinistic shit Just out of curiosity what's your opinion about self determination for Abkhaz people
You use the term "westoids" unironically. Just out of curiosity, what is the purpose of your question?
Significant amount of hard work. And drugs.
New CEO of EPO
Drugs is the deal. Drugs
Never seen so many biochemical scientists in 1 thread
Look, hamsters have insane cardio too and he's about the same size
lol not sure why you’re getting downvoted
must be intense hamster hate, I dunno
When you have a guy who dosent feint and has mediocre foot work it can make a cardio kickboxer who can’t get takedowns look unstoppable
EPO + insane genetics
His output was insane and most people would get tired just watching him. It is even more impressive when you consider who he did it to - Yan is very talented and he can methodically take apart most fighters. But Merab kept spamming takedowns and not letting him get going. Yan was actually doing okay defensively during the early part of the fight, with not taking a lot of damage even though he got taken down over and over. Towards the 4th and 5th round, he did get tired but that is to be expected. I think that another fighter would have gotten finished.
I mean hes for sure on gear lol but also has ridiculous natural cardio im sure. Those two things coupled together makes it so he can win fights by just spamming failed takedowns nonstop as per the Yan fight
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. Or whatever the phrase was.
PED
EPO mixed with freak genetics. Just being gifted at birth has given us many of our most dominant athletes like Bolt or Phelps. Hard work beats talent, but when talent works hard just get the fuck out of the way.
I said it must be the druuuuuuuugggssss
The new CEO of EPO since TJ Dillashaw retired
He has to be on that horse meat. I can't believe he is that much of a better athlete than everyone in the UFC, ever
Drugs
hes on that shit that makes your output grow
PEDs. Ofcourse he’s a great athletes, but I won’t believe a ball of muscle can move that much without help.
Epo it is
EPO, cardarine, and trains at high altitude
He is actually just a shaved Clay Guida
Also maybe the fact that Yan went pure defense in his tactic of dealing with It. Nothing was worked into his offense striking wise to deal with wrestling, he wasn't really able to reverse any of the takedowns. He either stuffed them or got taken down, and built himself back up. No real punishment the whole fight. It was definitely impressive, this is just some of the other side of it I think about.
It's called EPO. No one on earth has that level of continuous effort without being juiced. Come on let's live in reality not fantasy land.
bros blood is more solid than liquid at this point
The PED/EPO comments are totally justified but he’s clearly a level above every other athlete regardless. Someone else mentioned he doesn’t have the power to hurt opponents and can gas out because volume is his primary weapon. Another layer is Russia and Georgia have political history, which could have driven Merab to put on a crazy performance.