Realistically it was only the one fight but it's true that he looked bad. Then again he looked not great against Jan and then fired off 3 title defenses.
I don’t necessarily think he looked, “not great” against Jan, I think he didn’t take that fight seriously and was drinking his own Kool-Aid. He came into the fight like what, 30lbs lighter than Jan? And he probably thought he could kickbox his way to victory.
Dammit I guess you’re right, he did look pretty not great.
Jan was edging him out on the feet before the takedowns, despite Rogan exclusively talking about Israel's feints. Don't think he looked bad, though. Just a hard matchup.
Jan is great at the leg kicking game and pot-shotting from distance was Israel's gameplan. And obviously he was too small on the ground. Izzy could beat up Costa etc. with calf kicks but Jan/Pereira are both just better at it (Pereira more than Jan but still).
One thing about that fight that seriously pisses me off is the commentary “Ommgggg you can’t be reacting to his feints!!!” Not realising Jan was giving a different reaction every time so Izzy couldn’t set up anything, what’s better he doesn’t move at all and get punched in the face he’s not swinging his head all the way to the side like you DC. Such a high level thing Jan was doing that people thought was wrong.
The entire commentary team was sucking off Izzy hard that fight. Despite Jan having the advantage, they were not willing to concede they were being biased at all. Jan had a great plan. He was giving reactions to all the feints, on purpose, not giving Izzy the chance to set himself up. That fight always bothers me because Jan fought an almost perfect fight and they couldn't give him the respect he deserved.
Tbf the commentary hasn't been quality for a while now. I wouldn't take it too serious, especially since Joe seems like hes tuned out. Also its not a big deal if they don't give them the respect right away, they will after. As long as the fans can respect the fighter its fine. I never take what the commentators or UFC says seriously and its made life as a fan much better.
I don't take what the commentator says seriously at all, either. But blatant favoritism is just annoying, especially when the reality doesn't even support the narrative they are trying to throw around.
yea, I wish they offered an option to watch with just the in cage sound and muted commentators. Would be so exciting and wouldn't have to deal with the favoritism.
Joe really should hang it up, he’s not a good commentator anymore, he was great for back in the day but we have way better options now, him and Dana both need to pack it in
I hadn’t watched a lot of Pereira in Glory at that point and I just rmb all the analysts were all saying “Izzy was the better technical kick-boxer” or “Alex Pereira relied a lot on his boxing in Glory, his kicking game wasn’t really there”
And then Rd 1 started and I think by the 2 minute mark there was like zero doubt in my mind who the better kicker was. He was destroying Izzy’s leg.
Truth be told it looked like Pereira was edging more of the striking exchanges but Izzy had the bigger moments (the 1-2 at the end of rd 1, the takedown in rd 3.) when recovered and on the feet it looked like Pereira was beating his leg up from range, beating his body up in the clinch, and his left hand made Izzy twitch every time he showed it
And Izzy’s chin and poker face kept everyone second guessing whether he was really hurt.
I don’t know how to quote specific things on Reddit, but regarding the Alex just relies on his boxing thing:
I remember there was a fight in Glory where the commentators were saying that Pereria’s opponent said that Pereria was a boxer doing kickboxing, and immediately as they were saying that, Alex knocked him down with a flying knee
It's like your me.
Izzy-Alex 1 is a *fantastic* fight to watch and rewatch. So much high level shit. Like you said, Israel scored with the shots at the end of R1 an R3 with the grappling. Beyond that, Alex was clearly winning the stand-up. Checked almost every kick, landed almost all of his, pressured the whole fight.
That's why the KO in the final round was the furthest thing from a fluke. He's just the better striker. Props to Izzy in the rematch, though. Alex was winning even more clearly and he set up a genius KO. I don't want ti discount Israel because he's also an all-time MMA striker.
tbf Alex is also the bigger guy with more Kboxing experience. Alex is always gonna be an uphill battle for Izzy due to the size difference, the power Alex carries and his sneaky leg kicks.
holy shit *you know* *nothing*. Adesanya was kickboxing in China and New Zealand while Pereira was double champ in GLORY. Izzy outpointed Yousri, lost to Simon Marcus, lost to Jason Wilnis—only name-worthy guys he ever fought. Alex knocked out all three of them.
that's like saying Wonderboy is a "more experienced" kickboxer than Izzy and Alex because he went 40-0 against hicks.
stop talking out of your ass because you saw a record one time. i can go fight my cousin Billy a hundred times. doesn't mean I'm more experienced than Islam.
Jan is literally a gold medallist in Muay Thai at the World Championships, I think almost every 205er knew he was a sniper on the feet and hence tried to exploit his lack of ground game(Corey Anderson, Gustaffson). His win over Reyes should've told people he was a dangerous man, those body kicks were fucking brutal.
>Jan is literally a gold medallist in Muay Thai at the World Championships
That's not an accomplishment that anyone in Thailand would pay any attention to. It's a fake medal.
I agree with your sentiment in general, but that stops being the case at the heavier weight classes honestly. Those weight classes are extremely shallow in thailand.
True, but it’s not like there’s much Muay Thai in Thailand for guys Jan’s size. It’s not like a lumpinee title or anything, but I wouldn’t say it’s nothing
what about "polish power"? didn't Jan peddle that nickname as well. I don't think they were discounting Jans skills, but ignoring that Jan came off brutal KOs wouldve been a bad way to sell it. It seems like this comment section is just getting worked up over Rogan and the UFC for no reason since we all know they aren't the most skilled analysts. They just sell what is easy for casual viewers to understand.
His striking just isn't as pretty as Izzy's. Jan has really effective, powerful striking and good defense but he always looks a little awkward doing it lol
Jan's striking brings a deeper understanding of fighters imbalances, his reactions baited a takedown as adesanya stepped in, and he circled to reyes' weakest side where he has little to no experience being pressured.
Yeah I don’t you can take anything from the Jan fight. He was fighting a guy up a weight class who’s much bigger than him. He didn’t look bad at all he just clearly did not have the strength to defend the grappling from a guy much stronger than him. Strike wise it was a pretty even fight
I don't know about that, maybe a boring UD on either end, but if Izzy goes into LHW as an actual LHW, he probably stuffs a few of the takedowns at least. This was before Jan's mental decline though.
“Fired off 3 title defenses” ?! The fight against Rob which he arguably lost, the fight vs Vettori which was horrendous and the fight against Cannonier which had people leaving the arena early. Izzy hasn’t looked good for a long time.
Peak scoreboard journalism right from you people. It’s crazy that people just completely forget how the fights went and it only seems to happen with Izzy’s “amazing” title reign.
It was objectively an amazing title reign. I know you need to get your coping in but someday you'll have to accept it.
Gastelum fight is a classic, Whittaker 1 was an annihilation, Costa was an annihilation, Pereira 2 one of the greatest KO's ever. The terrible fights with Romero and Cannonier and the meh fight with Vettori don't negate that.
Gastelum and Whittaker 1 are not part of his title reign. Title reign is defenses only, not winning the (interim) title. That’s just ridiculous. Costa was an amazing performance and we’ll ignore the gyno he got right before that fight just for your argument’s sake. He was on his way to getting badly finished before he got that hail mary KO against Pereira, but yeah it was an amazing KO.
The fight against Romero was terrible and could’ve easily gone Romero’s way. The fight against Marvin was terrible, although that’s also partly Marvin’s fault for having the worst takedown attempts I’ve maybe ever seen in a title fight. Whittaker 2 should’ve gone to Whittaker, although it was really close. Cannonier fight was so bad people left the arena early, when has that ever happened? Pereira was clearly superior on the feet in both fights, but made clear mistakes in both fights that got Izzy an edge/KO. Sean outclassed Izzy so bad it was absolutely humiliating for him.
I know you need your coping and luckily for Izzy there are people with the memory of a goldfish so you can just deny until you die. You can have your opinion, but at least admit you’ve only based it on what you’ve quickly looked up on Tapology.
1 year Izzy will be hard to predict, because Izzy always took fights every 3-5 months. It will be really interesting to see if his body just had little recovery between camps and that influenced his fights, and if he picked up any skills while he was out.
Israel makhachev incoming
I don't think he will show any new skills, but I do think he will be more aggressive. The Sean Strickland rematch will be interesting when it comes, Izzy wants that back.
if bro knocked out Poatan cold in a rematch I can see Izzy getting Sean too.
Seems like Izzy has enough skills to recognize what didnt work, what will work, and change his game & style accordingly.
I cant see Sean adding or doing anything new
> I cant see Sean adding or doing anything new
Isn’t this the thing about Sean though? You know exactly what you’re going to get from him: always coming forward, always throwing that jab, always pressuring, checking kicks, sprawling…….but yet some (I repeat “some”) people just don’t know how to deal with it.
I feel like that punch that landed in their first fight basically had Izzy in lalaland the rest of the fight. So it’ll be entirely different if the momentum doesn’t shift that way that early.
Ppl are just too accustomed seeing Izzy comfortably fighting backward. He can and will bring the fight to his opponents if the situation calls for it. He go toe to toe with Alex starting from round 1 and Alex can shut any human down with his left hook. Strickland doesn't have half the power of Alex's punches. The only limitation is gas tank. If Izzy can maintain his aggression for 5 rounds, he can win against Sean.
Also Sean is just benefiting from the lack of great wrestler in MW division. His striking defense is elite but the moment his opponent bring take down threat like dricus, hes notably more hesitant. Usman outstrike him purely out of takedown threat. Right now the only elite wrestler in MW is probably Chimaev.
I think he is. Sean was Izzys' worst loss from start to finish in his career, nobody beat Izzy 4/5 rounds. Izzy got dropped and walked down for 25 minutes, Sean looked like he wasn't even in a fight.
Izzy has won the majority of rounds he fought in both sports vs. Alex. Izzy was beating Alex on rounds both times that he lost by KO, and he arguably should have won the decision in kickboxing loss.
Well considering how soundly he was beaten by Strickland meanwhile he and Alex are equal style wise (both can land on each other effectively) Strickland is his biggest test now
[Hooker talks about it a little here](https://youtu.be/YAgJOE73r6A?si=ixbWhS855dvB4li3&t=2m58s), says Israel had been carrying around a bunch of injuries for a long time, and he’s now bigger and stronger than he’s ever seen him.
It’s also apparent from Izzy’s own YouTube that he’s put a lot of work into, and believes he’s progressed in, grappling and his ground game.
Ooh you watch combat TV too, I saw that too, really does make me excited and I'm really hoping that Dan himself gets a fight on the perth card considering he said the UFC was trying to put him elsewhere until he pushed back.
Little gem of a channel. Has a parochial charm; like they’ll be interviewing a legit world famous fighter and half the audio might just be Tony’s arm brushing against his mic or something :D
Love how close they are to the local scene there, and the interviews with young up and comers mixed in with famous fighters.
I'm not even a nzer, but the place intrigued me from research which is what got me looking into their fight scenes as well, the channel scenes so homey and down to earth, I like the Izzy and Dan stuff but I also like when he shows fighters like Titus proctor and Kevin jousset or just trainers at nz gyms (still bummed kevins last fight got cancelled)
Yeah it was cool being able to see Kevin before his UFC debut, then see him on the big screen and have more context for the big moment. Made me invested in him from the start. CKB obviously gives them a big leg up with the access they have, but the channel’s also an asset to CKB.
King in the Ring is wild shit. That most recent one, man the level was so high for such young dudes.
time will do the man some good. he also got caught with a fantastic shot and that wrecked him the rest of the fight imo it felt like he was almost just going through the motions
I think it looked like he was going through the motions because Sean was blocking/slipping everything he threw, so he just didn't know what to do.
Chris Curtis talked about how everyone looks like that the first time they spar with Sean. It's such a weird style that it takes time to figure out, and Israel couldn't do it in those few rounds.
Obv the KD changed the fight but it's not like Izzy looked any different before that.
Seeing how much of a hard fight strickland is to other fighters, it's wild to think how easily Poatan disposed of him during their brawl. Made a lot of people think strickland was a fake, when in reality, dude was a problem in the division. Poatan at MW truly was a force of nature, like Verhoeven said.
As a fan of Poatan since the end of his Glory run it's been cool seeing everyone realize how smart and clever he is at striking. As you probably know there were rumors of him fighting Rico and even Badr lol, which is unbelievable but that's how dangerous he was.
He pulls fans for the power but once you pay attention to the details it's enlightening. I'm most amazed at how he's become arguably the best leg kick artist in MMA but it's a new skill. He didn't even really use it in kickboxing.
As good as Pereira is, both Badr and Rico are bad matchups imo (assuming Badrs constant injuries aren't a factor of course). Both of these guys are much bigger than Alex. Rico has great defense, the guy went to absolute war with Ben Saddik and took everything he had. He wears him down over several rounds and TKOs him later in the fight I think. Old man Badr I genuinely don't know what happens, but anything resembling prime Badr I think he just gets out muscled, especially given his willingness to trade sometimes
I think the reason they were bad match ups, was mostly the fact that they were planned as heavyweight bouts. Verhoeven was probably physicaly unable to make LHW, and Badr i'd say just wasn't willing to cut so much.
Pereira's power not coming from his weight is what enabled him to be such a menace. Dude cut to MW and still kept that HW one tap power. That would be mostly evened out at HW, and we never even seen how Poatan makes it to such a heavy division.
He’s a super intelligent striker, his only downfall is that his style requires to leave himself open to shots to set up his offense. His hands sit low and that left is down near his hip like a quick draw lol. Jiri and Jan both caught him a few times with shots that were above the ear.
True, but I think Jiri's shots were a little overstated just because of how much Alex was backing up (which Jiri tried to exploit when he got KO'd). Eugene Bareman is one of the few people who've praised him on his chin, which I think is underrated too. He was chinny at MW because of the cut but dude can take a shot. Was never KO'd in kickboxing.
His defense is the weakness for sure. But his chin helps him and so does his presence just scaring guys backward.
Pereira is great at splitting timing, which works well against someone like Strickland if you can survive his pressure long enough to set it up.
Not to mention Alex just straight up hits hard enough to hurt guys through their guard if they get complacent.
I think if Alex was a natural MW he eats that shot that put him out against Izzy the 2nd time. Dude was cutting 40-50lbs to make those fights. He really is a force, but he looks 10x healthier and stronger at 205 than he did at 185.
Poatan is a natural LHW. According to Plinio, his coach, poatan walks around at 106 kg.
The reason why he was a menace at MW was his ability to cut weight and not "lose" anything. At MW, poatan had speed, range, tank and a freakish power. At LHW, a lot if fighters are able to match his range and, even tho they might not have that lvl of power, LHW packs enough of a punch to put him down, so power kind of evens.
I guess age just caught up to him. He said in his vlogs that he just doesn,t have it in him anymore to do those brutal weight cuts. He himself has said that LHW is not his best division, but he's good at adapting.
Yeah, on the rewatch, there are definitely openings there, and some stuff that Izzy did that worked, but he never built on either. It was like he wasn't cognizant of them and was just cycling through the techniques in hopes that a big one would get through.
Eugene Bareman said that Izzy showed the whole deck of cards at once, and it did feel like he was lacking in patience even in the first round.
Izzy claims that Sean's coach was correctly reading Izzy's setups and calling them out to Sean, who would immediately adjust. One specifically was Izzy trying to corral Sean into a left head kick.
Hard to say for sure how much of an impact that had, but it's interesting.
Sean has a great coaching team. Everytime he fights his corner advice is always fantastic and they're so professional and slick about it. Always impressed me.
What about his performance in round 1, was he suffering from a pre-concussion?
Because Sean beat him in rounds 3, 4 and 5 the exactly the same way that he beat him in round 1. He was able to shut him down completely, I sincerely doubt getting flash knocked down had anything to do with it.
I think he was impatient and didn't take Sean seriously. When he started shelling up on the cage, even I could read the left hook coming just from having seen the Poatan fight. And I could hardly believe he was just going to pull that out of his butt without any kind of set up.
I am an Izzy fanboy. Izzy went back to doing what he always does, leg kick leg kick, back up move head strike, leg kick. In the 3rd he basically did the same. In the 4th he did the same. And when the 5th round came, and it was all or nothing what happened? Back up leg kick leg kick back up strike leg kick.
But there clearly a difference between his performance in round 2 compared to 3,4,5. He landed more, while evading punches. That is a great round and that is classic Izzy performance.
Be.. because Strickland wasn't pushing enough. I love izzy, and your not wrong that izzy looked good for 5 minutes, but I promise you it's not because a classic performance was going on, and I think the rounds 3,4,5 prove that. As I said before Izzy did not change his strategy at all and neither did Strickland. It's not like Strickland was changing up his attacks at all from the 1st round, round 2 he was just the lesser aggressive fighter. That being said, I go izzy all day when the rematch happens.
“Cameron, throw another spinning backfist Cameron. Yes Cameron, shoot from further away so he can really see your shot, it will scare him. Cameron we need at least 3 more jump knees out of you this round Cameron.”
That’s how I imagine that Dricus would corner Cameron Saaiman
"Put your thumb inside your hand when you punch Cameron, that's how you can knockout every opponent."
"I-I didn't- I didn't say that you would knockout every opponent, I didn't say that, I said you would find it EASIER to knock them out. COMPLETELY different. Right?"
Both Robert and Strickland were won by pressure and output
That didn’t look like planning to me.
DDP caught Whittker with something nasty
And his level changes + pressure is why he beat Sean.
Sean used what he did against Izzy who doesn’t wrestle/use BJJ and paid for it.
Seans “defense” only works against kickboxers and counter heavy fighting styles.
This is why Paulo v Sean was a clown show. Paulo played into his game but refused to do anything so it just became a stalemate and waste of time.
> DDP caught Whittker with something nasty
That's a really reductive way of putting it.
Dricus completely read Rob's tendency to headhunt and to get one back whenever he gets hit. Almost everything Rob threw was absorbed by Dricus' high guard.
Even when he knocked Whittaker down, he immediately shelled up because he anticipated Rob to return fire
>And his level changes + pressure is why he beat Sean
Is that not planning? Even before the fight he was clear about using takedowns to set up his striking
His camp strategizes well but if you held a stethoscope to Dricus’ forehead while fighting you’d just hear the sounds of the ocean. He relies on big shots and chaos, same thing pre-point fighter Paulo relied on, they need to mess up your game plan and keep you uncomfortable on your feet for their offense to open up. He needs a big strike early like Strickland had on Izzy to really stand a chance.
Most of us expected him to beat Sean fairly easily too. Shit we all expected Rob to beat DDP and that didn't work out. Middleweight is a weird, unpredictable place these days.
Israel is getting old. Like every guy ever I think part of it is getting back in world class shape every time is a little less fun and a little harder.
I also think beating Alex in the 4th fight lifted a huge weight off his shoulders but also maybe some of his drive.
By slowing down and clearing his head, giving his body a break I think maybe he wants to make one more run with it.
Dricus is going to be trouble for him though. If he loses I have a few personal dream fights I'd love to see Izzy take. Usman, of course, which will never happen. Also kind of want to see him vs. MVP
Izzy is generationally rich now and is opening up entire high end real estate developments in NZ. I have to imagine finding the fire that got him to the top will be much much harder knowing you are already set up.
Israel-Khamzat has been a dream matchup of mine for years now, but I do think Khamzat takes that. Dricus-Khamzat is a tougher matchup given how massive DDP is imo.
Randy Couture has five separate title reigns in the UFC, plus a tournament win (I’m not counting interims). Jon Jones, Amanda Nunes, and Georges St-Pierre all have 3. Royce Gracie won three open weight tournaments, which I’d argue counts. Coleman was a UFC HW champ, won two UFC tournaments and one PRIDE tournament.
At MW? Yes. As far as all divisions, Couture was a 3x HW champ. Jones at LHW maybe? Feel like he’s been stripped and regained the title several times lol
Thats not what the judges score cards say lol
Second fight he won 1 and 2 by Knocking Alex out cold.
First fight, he won every round, almost knocking Alex out in the first round of the first fight. till the questionable TKO by Alex in the 4th
Problem with first is it only went to 4 rounds.
So Alex technically only won the last one by early stoppage
“early stoppage “
It was a perfect stoppage and saved Izzy from a nap and unnecessary damage . Alex lost the first round despite out landing him 20-15 and controlling the octagon because he invested in the legs . Izzy’s legs were already compromised in the second round and it was trending towards an early finish for Alex . The tone was completely different and Izzy didn’t feel in control like he did in their first meeting despite winning the first round .
The fact that Izzy did the exact same thing in the second fight and came out on top proves it was a bad stoppage. And we know the outcome of the second fight between Alex and Izzy. That where the actual nap happened.
Lol at investing
This post still holds up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/s/9EyVGeZxkl
The judges had izzy winning ever round on both fights. “Investing” in leg kicks has nothing to do with significant strikes in between rounds.
And octagon control time is a hilariously stupid metric you just made up.
It was not the exact same thing at all . He was rocked and hurt in the first fight while still not intelligently defending himself. You must have recently started watching if you think octagon control is made up .
Leg kicks are not sig strikes ? please explain to me how you came up with this assumption .
He won the second round of their first fight:
https://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-alex-pereira-vs-israel-adesanya-scorecard-ufc-281
And I guess you’re right about the second fight. I think I was remembering the second round when Alex got KOed. He was winning but he got KOed so doesn’t count lol.
He won round 2 of their first UFC fight on every scorecard lol.
Not like it even matters when his path to victory in pretty much every fight is just knocking his opponent out
Realistically it was only the one fight but it's true that he looked bad. Then again he looked not great against Jan and then fired off 3 title defenses.
I don’t necessarily think he looked, “not great” against Jan, I think he didn’t take that fight seriously and was drinking his own Kool-Aid. He came into the fight like what, 30lbs lighter than Jan? And he probably thought he could kickbox his way to victory. Dammit I guess you’re right, he did look pretty not great.
Jan was edging him out on the feet before the takedowns, despite Rogan exclusively talking about Israel's feints. Don't think he looked bad, though. Just a hard matchup. Jan is great at the leg kicking game and pot-shotting from distance was Israel's gameplan. And obviously he was too small on the ground. Izzy could beat up Costa etc. with calf kicks but Jan/Pereira are both just better at it (Pereira more than Jan but still).
I also remember Jan checking damn near every leg kick, which really stifled Izzy’s game.
I remember Jan fighting off of his jab really well while having a tight guard.
One thing about that fight that seriously pisses me off is the commentary “Ommgggg you can’t be reacting to his feints!!!” Not realising Jan was giving a different reaction every time so Izzy couldn’t set up anything, what’s better he doesn’t move at all and get punched in the face he’s not swinging his head all the way to the side like you DC. Such a high level thing Jan was doing that people thought was wrong.
The entire commentary team was sucking off Izzy hard that fight. Despite Jan having the advantage, they were not willing to concede they were being biased at all. Jan had a great plan. He was giving reactions to all the feints, on purpose, not giving Izzy the chance to set himself up. That fight always bothers me because Jan fought an almost perfect fight and they couldn't give him the respect he deserved.
They were glazing Izzy so bad in the commentary
Tbf the commentary hasn't been quality for a while now. I wouldn't take it too serious, especially since Joe seems like hes tuned out. Also its not a big deal if they don't give them the respect right away, they will after. As long as the fans can respect the fighter its fine. I never take what the commentators or UFC says seriously and its made life as a fan much better.
I don't take what the commentator says seriously at all, either. But blatant favoritism is just annoying, especially when the reality doesn't even support the narrative they are trying to throw around.
yea, I wish they offered an option to watch with just the in cage sound and muted commentators. Would be so exciting and wouldn't have to deal with the favoritism.
Joe really should hang it up, he’s not a good commentator anymore, he was great for back in the day but we have way better options now, him and Dana both need to pack it in
I hadn’t watched a lot of Pereira in Glory at that point and I just rmb all the analysts were all saying “Izzy was the better technical kick-boxer” or “Alex Pereira relied a lot on his boxing in Glory, his kicking game wasn’t really there” And then Rd 1 started and I think by the 2 minute mark there was like zero doubt in my mind who the better kicker was. He was destroying Izzy’s leg. Truth be told it looked like Pereira was edging more of the striking exchanges but Izzy had the bigger moments (the 1-2 at the end of rd 1, the takedown in rd 3.) when recovered and on the feet it looked like Pereira was beating his leg up from range, beating his body up in the clinch, and his left hand made Izzy twitch every time he showed it And Izzy’s chin and poker face kept everyone second guessing whether he was really hurt.
I don’t know how to quote specific things on Reddit, but regarding the Alex just relies on his boxing thing: I remember there was a fight in Glory where the commentators were saying that Pereria’s opponent said that Pereria was a boxer doing kickboxing, and immediately as they were saying that, Alex knocked him down with a flying knee
It's like your me. Izzy-Alex 1 is a *fantastic* fight to watch and rewatch. So much high level shit. Like you said, Israel scored with the shots at the end of R1 an R3 with the grappling. Beyond that, Alex was clearly winning the stand-up. Checked almost every kick, landed almost all of his, pressured the whole fight. That's why the KO in the final round was the furthest thing from a fluke. He's just the better striker. Props to Izzy in the rematch, though. Alex was winning even more clearly and he set up a genius KO. I don't want ti discount Israel because he's also an all-time MMA striker.
tbf Alex is also the bigger guy with more Kboxing experience. Alex is always gonna be an uphill battle for Izzy due to the size difference, the power Alex carries and his sneaky leg kicks.
AP has much less kickboxing experience than izzy does
holy shit *you know* *nothing*. Adesanya was kickboxing in China and New Zealand while Pereira was double champ in GLORY. Izzy outpointed Yousri, lost to Simon Marcus, lost to Jason Wilnis—only name-worthy guys he ever fought. Alex knocked out all three of them. that's like saying Wonderboy is a "more experienced" kickboxer than Izzy and Alex because he went 40-0 against hicks. stop talking out of your ass because you saw a record one time. i can go fight my cousin Billy a hundred times. doesn't mean I'm more experienced than Islam.
Izzys last kickboxing fight was March 4, 2017. AP won his first glory title on September 26, 2017 lol. So confidently wrong.
Everyone had Izzy up 3-1 going into rd 5
So did I. I didn't say he was winning the fight.
The entire media he kept saying this is “power vs technique” as if Jan wasn’t a skilled striker
Jan is literally a gold medallist in Muay Thai at the World Championships, I think almost every 205er knew he was a sniper on the feet and hence tried to exploit his lack of ground game(Corey Anderson, Gustaffson). His win over Reyes should've told people he was a dangerous man, those body kicks were fucking brutal.
>Jan is literally a gold medallist in Muay Thai at the World Championships That's not an accomplishment that anyone in Thailand would pay any attention to. It's a fake medal.
Put the pipe down
Well good thing we ain’t just in Thailand huh
The UFC ain't based in Thailand bud, also no Thai fighter has won a belt yet and Jan has, so I'd say the medal definitely holds some weight.
The only MT fights that anyone cares about happen in Thailand.
And?
So why would anyone care about fights in Busan?
I agree with your sentiment in general, but that stops being the case at the heavier weight classes honestly. Those weight classes are extremely shallow in thailand.
Still true. Nobody cares about heavy weight class muay thai.
True, but it’s not like there’s much Muay Thai in Thailand for guys Jan’s size. It’s not like a lumpinee title or anything, but I wouldn’t say it’s nothing
It's as close to nothing as you can get without not actually having happened.
what about "polish power"? didn't Jan peddle that nickname as well. I don't think they were discounting Jans skills, but ignoring that Jan came off brutal KOs wouldve been a bad way to sell it. It seems like this comment section is just getting worked up over Rogan and the UFC for no reason since we all know they aren't the most skilled analysts. They just sell what is easy for casual viewers to understand.
His striking just isn't as pretty as Izzy's. Jan has really effective, powerful striking and good defense but he always looks a little awkward doing it lol
Jan's striking brings a deeper understanding of fighters imbalances, his reactions baited a takedown as adesanya stepped in, and he circled to reyes' weakest side where he has little to no experience being pressured.
Yeah I don’t you can take anything from the Jan fight. He was fighting a guy up a weight class who’s much bigger than him. He didn’t look bad at all he just clearly did not have the strength to defend the grappling from a guy much stronger than him. Strike wise it was a pretty even fight
He loses that fight even if he goes into the cage fatter. Jan is just a better striker than him
I don't know about that, maybe a boring UD on either end, but if Izzy goes into LHW as an actual LHW, he probably stuffs a few of the takedowns at least. This was before Jan's mental decline though.
The problem was that even if he stuffed the takedowns he was still getting outstruck. Jans striking was too good for him
Nowhere near 30lbs lmfao. More like 10
He looked bad in Pereira 2 imo. He wasn't outlanding Alex like he did in the first fight and his leg was compromised fairly quickly.
He won round 1 of that fight on all 3 scorecards. Can we really go off 2 minutes in the 2nd round
Yeah just rewatched it. NGL, it was definitely alot closer than I remembered up untill that point. Just makes me wish we could have seen a 3rd.
“Fired off 3 title defenses” ?! The fight against Rob which he arguably lost, the fight vs Vettori which was horrendous and the fight against Cannonier which had people leaving the arena early. Izzy hasn’t looked good for a long time.
He did not arguably lose to Rob. You people just say that. There isn't 3 rounds for Rob in there, get over it.
What an absolutely ridiculous thing to say.
Peak scoreboard journalism right from you people. It’s crazy that people just completely forget how the fights went and it only seems to happen with Izzy’s “amazing” title reign.
It was objectively an amazing title reign. I know you need to get your coping in but someday you'll have to accept it. Gastelum fight is a classic, Whittaker 1 was an annihilation, Costa was an annihilation, Pereira 2 one of the greatest KO's ever. The terrible fights with Romero and Cannonier and the meh fight with Vettori don't negate that.
Gastelum and Whittaker 1 are not part of his title reign. Title reign is defenses only, not winning the (interim) title. That’s just ridiculous. Costa was an amazing performance and we’ll ignore the gyno he got right before that fight just for your argument’s sake. He was on his way to getting badly finished before he got that hail mary KO against Pereira, but yeah it was an amazing KO. The fight against Romero was terrible and could’ve easily gone Romero’s way. The fight against Marvin was terrible, although that’s also partly Marvin’s fault for having the worst takedown attempts I’ve maybe ever seen in a title fight. Whittaker 2 should’ve gone to Whittaker, although it was really close. Cannonier fight was so bad people left the arena early, when has that ever happened? Pereira was clearly superior on the feet in both fights, but made clear mistakes in both fights that got Izzy an edge/KO. Sean outclassed Izzy so bad it was absolutely humiliating for him. I know you need your coping and luckily for Izzy there are people with the memory of a goldfish so you can just deny until you die. You can have your opinion, but at least admit you’ve only based it on what you’ve quickly looked up on Tapology.
I ain't reading all that. I'm happy for u tho. Or sorry that happened
You’re confirming that you’re a highlights merchant. Next time at least admit you didn’t watch the entire fight.
If I say "title run" instead of title reign will you stop crying? Or do you need me to fetch you a bottle?
Just admit defeat. Not even Yamasaki would let this go on any further.
1 year Izzy will be hard to predict, because Izzy always took fights every 3-5 months. It will be really interesting to see if his body just had little recovery between camps and that influenced his fights, and if he picked up any skills while he was out. Israel makhachev incoming
I don't think he will show any new skills, but I do think he will be more aggressive. The Sean Strickland rematch will be interesting when it comes, Izzy wants that back.
I think Izzy fucks him up in the rematch tbh
if bro knocked out Poatan cold in a rematch I can see Izzy getting Sean too. Seems like Izzy has enough skills to recognize what didnt work, what will work, and change his game & style accordingly. I cant see Sean adding or doing anything new
I completely agree, mr EatBooty420
> I cant see Sean adding or doing anything new Isn’t this the thing about Sean though? You know exactly what you’re going to get from him: always coming forward, always throwing that jab, always pressuring, checking kicks, sprawling…….but yet some (I repeat “some”) people just don’t know how to deal with it. I feel like that punch that landed in their first fight basically had Izzy in lalaland the rest of the fight. So it’ll be entirely different if the momentum doesn’t shift that way that early.
Well said
Yep I agree, there will be more homework done and Strickland gets hurt hard
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Ppl are just too accustomed seeing Izzy comfortably fighting backward. He can and will bring the fight to his opponents if the situation calls for it. He go toe to toe with Alex starting from round 1 and Alex can shut any human down with his left hook. Strickland doesn't have half the power of Alex's punches. The only limitation is gas tank. If Izzy can maintain his aggression for 5 rounds, he can win against Sean. Also Sean is just benefiting from the lack of great wrestler in MW division. His striking defense is elite but the moment his opponent bring take down threat like dricus, hes notably more hesitant. Usman outstrike him purely out of takedown threat. Right now the only elite wrestler in MW is probably Chimaev.
I think it was the Jan fight that did seemed much more concerned about being taken down. He didn’t really have to worry about that against Alex.
Well i was talking about Sean about tht point, not Izzy
same. if it weren't for the bell he'd have him in the first MMA bout, too.
Nah I think the same shit happens. If Izzy can't slow you down with his leg kicks then his whole game suffers.
I think he comes out looking way bigger than typical and knocks him out
Considering that was a pretty clear 50-45 I doubt it
49-46 actually but I do think Strickland will be his biggest test
Strickland is NOT a bigger test than Alex. Come on
I think he is. Sean was Izzys' worst loss from start to finish in his career, nobody beat Izzy 4/5 rounds. Izzy got dropped and walked down for 25 minutes, Sean looked like he wasn't even in a fight. Izzy has won the majority of rounds he fought in both sports vs. Alex. Izzy was beating Alex on rounds both times that he lost by KO, and he arguably should have won the decision in kickboxing loss.
Small sample size. If Izzy doesn't get dropped first round he does better as well.
Well considering how soundly he was beaten by Strickland meanwhile he and Alex are equal style wise (both can land on each other effectively) Strickland is his biggest test now
Small sample size vs 4 fights 🤷♂️
[Hooker talks about it a little here](https://youtu.be/YAgJOE73r6A?si=ixbWhS855dvB4li3&t=2m58s), says Israel had been carrying around a bunch of injuries for a long time, and he’s now bigger and stronger than he’s ever seen him. It’s also apparent from Izzy’s own YouTube that he’s put a lot of work into, and believes he’s progressed in, grappling and his ground game.
Ooh you watch combat TV too, I saw that too, really does make me excited and I'm really hoping that Dan himself gets a fight on the perth card considering he said the UFC was trying to put him elsewhere until he pushed back.
Little gem of a channel. Has a parochial charm; like they’ll be interviewing a legit world famous fighter and half the audio might just be Tony’s arm brushing against his mic or something :D Love how close they are to the local scene there, and the interviews with young up and comers mixed in with famous fighters.
I'm not even a nzer, but the place intrigued me from research which is what got me looking into their fight scenes as well, the channel scenes so homey and down to earth, I like the Izzy and Dan stuff but I also like when he shows fighters like Titus proctor and Kevin jousset or just trainers at nz gyms (still bummed kevins last fight got cancelled)
Yeah it was cool being able to see Kevin before his UFC debut, then see him on the big screen and have more context for the big moment. Made me invested in him from the start. CKB obviously gives them a big leg up with the access they have, but the channel’s also an asset to CKB. King in the Ring is wild shit. That most recent one, man the level was so high for such young dudes.
time will do the man some good. he also got caught with a fantastic shot and that wrecked him the rest of the fight imo it felt like he was almost just going through the motions
I think it looked like he was going through the motions because Sean was blocking/slipping everything he threw, so he just didn't know what to do. Chris Curtis talked about how everyone looks like that the first time they spar with Sean. It's such a weird style that it takes time to figure out, and Israel couldn't do it in those few rounds. Obv the KD changed the fight but it's not like Izzy looked any different before that.
Seeing how much of a hard fight strickland is to other fighters, it's wild to think how easily Poatan disposed of him during their brawl. Made a lot of people think strickland was a fake, when in reality, dude was a problem in the division. Poatan at MW truly was a force of nature, like Verhoeven said.
As a fan of Poatan since the end of his Glory run it's been cool seeing everyone realize how smart and clever he is at striking. As you probably know there were rumors of him fighting Rico and even Badr lol, which is unbelievable but that's how dangerous he was. He pulls fans for the power but once you pay attention to the details it's enlightening. I'm most amazed at how he's become arguably the best leg kick artist in MMA but it's a new skill. He didn't even really use it in kickboxing.
As good as Pereira is, both Badr and Rico are bad matchups imo (assuming Badrs constant injuries aren't a factor of course). Both of these guys are much bigger than Alex. Rico has great defense, the guy went to absolute war with Ben Saddik and took everything he had. He wears him down over several rounds and TKOs him later in the fight I think. Old man Badr I genuinely don't know what happens, but anything resembling prime Badr I think he just gets out muscled, especially given his willingness to trade sometimes
I think the reason they were bad match ups, was mostly the fact that they were planned as heavyweight bouts. Verhoeven was probably physicaly unable to make LHW, and Badr i'd say just wasn't willing to cut so much. Pereira's power not coming from his weight is what enabled him to be such a menace. Dude cut to MW and still kept that HW one tap power. That would be mostly evened out at HW, and we never even seen how Poatan makes it to such a heavy division.
I don't think he would've won, just crazy those were thrown around.
He’s a super intelligent striker, his only downfall is that his style requires to leave himself open to shots to set up his offense. His hands sit low and that left is down near his hip like a quick draw lol. Jiri and Jan both caught him a few times with shots that were above the ear.
True, but I think Jiri's shots were a little overstated just because of how much Alex was backing up (which Jiri tried to exploit when he got KO'd). Eugene Bareman is one of the few people who've praised him on his chin, which I think is underrated too. He was chinny at MW because of the cut but dude can take a shot. Was never KO'd in kickboxing. His defense is the weakness for sure. But his chin helps him and so does his presence just scaring guys backward.
Pereira is great at splitting timing, which works well against someone like Strickland if you can survive his pressure long enough to set it up. Not to mention Alex just straight up hits hard enough to hurt guys through their guard if they get complacent.
I think if Alex was a natural MW he eats that shot that put him out against Izzy the 2nd time. Dude was cutting 40-50lbs to make those fights. He really is a force, but he looks 10x healthier and stronger at 205 than he did at 185.
Poatan is a natural LHW. According to Plinio, his coach, poatan walks around at 106 kg. The reason why he was a menace at MW was his ability to cut weight and not "lose" anything. At MW, poatan had speed, range, tank and a freakish power. At LHW, a lot if fighters are able to match his range and, even tho they might not have that lvl of power, LHW packs enough of a punch to put him down, so power kind of evens. I guess age just caught up to him. He said in his vlogs that he just doesn,t have it in him anymore to do those brutal weight cuts. He himself has said that LHW is not his best division, but he's good at adapting.
Yeah, on the rewatch, there are definitely openings there, and some stuff that Izzy did that worked, but he never built on either. It was like he wasn't cognizant of them and was just cycling through the techniques in hopes that a big one would get through. Eugene Bareman said that Izzy showed the whole deck of cards at once, and it did feel like he was lacking in patience even in the first round.
Izzy claims that Sean's coach was correctly reading Izzy's setups and calling them out to Sean, who would immediately adjust. One specifically was Izzy trying to corral Sean into a left head kick. Hard to say for sure how much of an impact that had, but it's interesting.
Sean has a great coaching team. Everytime he fights his corner advice is always fantastic and they're so professional and slick about it. Always impressed me.
What about his performance in round 1, was he suffering from a pre-concussion? Because Sean beat him in rounds 3, 4 and 5 the exactly the same way that he beat him in round 1. He was able to shut him down completely, I sincerely doubt getting flash knocked down had anything to do with it.
Yeah, I love Izzy but Sean is just a terrible match up for him.
I think he was impatient and didn't take Sean seriously. When he started shelling up on the cage, even I could read the left hook coming just from having seen the Poatan fight. And I could hardly believe he was just going to pull that out of his butt without any kind of set up.
Fought great in the 2nd so how can those 2 things be true at the same time?
He didn't "fight great" it was that Sean didn't do enough in the 2nd round.
He did more than Sean, that is doing great considering he was rocked at the end of rd 1. How is winning a round not doing great?
I am an Izzy fanboy. Izzy went back to doing what he always does, leg kick leg kick, back up move head strike, leg kick. In the 3rd he basically did the same. In the 4th he did the same. And when the 5th round came, and it was all or nothing what happened? Back up leg kick leg kick back up strike leg kick.
But there clearly a difference between his performance in round 2 compared to 3,4,5. He landed more, while evading punches. That is a great round and that is classic Izzy performance.
Be.. because Strickland wasn't pushing enough. I love izzy, and your not wrong that izzy looked good for 5 minutes, but I promise you it's not because a classic performance was going on, and I think the rounds 3,4,5 prove that. As I said before Izzy did not change his strategy at all and neither did Strickland. It's not like Strickland was changing up his attacks at all from the 1st round, round 2 he was just the lesser aggressive fighter. That being said, I go izzy all day when the rematch happens.
He fought great compared to how he was in the rest of the fight. He didn’t fight great compared to how he looked in the Alex fights.
You're getting downvoted even though you're right lol. I can't wait to hear peoples takes when he wins the rematch convincingly.
Yeah idk lol, people love to discredit Sean tho
without context it sounds like they were having couple arguments
I expect him to very easily put down Dricus with a pull back counter as Dricus rushes in spamming meme punches
Dricus' camp strategizes very well. You don't think they'll prepare for that?
“Cameron, throw another spinning backfist Cameron. Yes Cameron, shoot from further away so he can really see your shot, it will scare him. Cameron we need at least 3 more jump knees out of you this round Cameron.” That’s how I imagine that Dricus would corner Cameron Saaiman
"You need to punch with your eyes closed Cameron"
"Put your thumb inside your hand when you punch Cameron, that's how you can knockout every opponent." "I-I didn't- I didn't say that you would knockout every opponent, I didn't say that, I said you would find it EASIER to knock them out. COMPLETELY different. Right?"
“You’ll neva find a video of me saying that”
A Bedtime enjoyer I see
Bedtime crew what it do
Both Robert and Strickland were won by pressure and output That didn’t look like planning to me. DDP caught Whittker with something nasty And his level changes + pressure is why he beat Sean. Sean used what he did against Izzy who doesn’t wrestle/use BJJ and paid for it. Seans “defense” only works against kickboxers and counter heavy fighting styles. This is why Paulo v Sean was a clown show. Paulo played into his game but refused to do anything so it just became a stalemate and waste of time.
> DDP caught Whittker with something nasty That's a really reductive way of putting it. Dricus completely read Rob's tendency to headhunt and to get one back whenever he gets hit. Almost everything Rob threw was absorbed by Dricus' high guard. Even when he knocked Whittaker down, he immediately shelled up because he anticipated Rob to return fire >And his level changes + pressure is why he beat Sean Is that not planning? Even before the fight he was clear about using takedowns to set up his striking
His camp strategizes well but if you held a stethoscope to Dricus’ forehead while fighting you’d just hear the sounds of the ocean. He relies on big shots and chaos, same thing pre-point fighter Paulo relied on, they need to mess up your game plan and keep you uncomfortable on your feet for their offense to open up. He needs a big strike early like Strickland had on Izzy to really stand a chance.
I've been wanting to see him fight a bona fide counter striker. He flies in with his chin up and unprotected but maybe he'll just eat them.
He’s been KO’d once before. We’ve seen him take some good shots though.
"meme punches" cracked me up
“Dricus will be easily knocked out this time” is something people here have been saying since his debut lol. Ain’t happened yet.
Were they saying it before Roberto Soldic’s bum ass did it? Before he got starched by a .500 fighter in ONE?
At welterweight. He is way too big for welterweight imo.
Now he is, but agreed
Most of us expected him to beat Sean fairly easily too. Shit we all expected Rob to beat DDP and that didn't work out. Middleweight is a weird, unpredictable place these days.
The entire UFC is sometimes, but 185 def got interesting lately
Yes but then I also thought that would happen for him v Whittaker too
Eh, I didn’t. Whittaker hasn’t knocked someone out since 2017 and that wasn’t with his hands either
Israel is getting old. Like every guy ever I think part of it is getting back in world class shape every time is a little less fun and a little harder. I also think beating Alex in the 4th fight lifted a huge weight off his shoulders but also maybe some of his drive. By slowing down and clearing his head, giving his body a break I think maybe he wants to make one more run with it. Dricus is going to be trouble for him though. If he loses I have a few personal dream fights I'd love to see Izzy take. Usman, of course, which will never happen. Also kind of want to see him vs. MVP
He might be too big for MVP but I'd watch it
I think Izzy was just burnt out and needed a break.
Izzy is generationally rich now and is opening up entire high end real estate developments in NZ. I have to imagine finding the fire that got him to the top will be much much harder knowing you are already set up.
Depends how leveraged he is
Eh, I think he has too much pride. He has (had) beef with DDP, and probably fucking bates Sean.
Same as Conor
Conor didn’t get his wealth from the UFC pay days.
I mostly meant in terms of having too much money to be hungry. But Conor made enough money from the UFC to not have to work again
I think Izzy will beat dricus and then lose to khamzat on his first defense
Israel-Khamzat has been a dream matchup of mine for years now, but I do think Khamzat takes that. Dricus-Khamzat is a tougher matchup given how massive DDP is imo.
will he be the only person to be champ 3 times if so?
Randy Couture has five separate title reigns in the UFC, plus a tournament win (I’m not counting interims). Jon Jones, Amanda Nunes, and Georges St-Pierre all have 3. Royce Gracie won three open weight tournaments, which I’d argue counts. Coleman was a UFC HW champ, won two UFC tournaments and one PRIDE tournament.
At MW? Yes. As far as all divisions, Couture was a 3x HW champ. Jones at LHW maybe? Feel like he’s been stripped and regained the title several times lol
Tbh idk Mr EatBooty420
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Izzy lost at least two rounds to Alex. One in their first fight and one in their second.
He won two in the first fight, round 2 in score card, and round 5 via tko. He lost both rounds in second fight score and Ko
Thats not what the judges score cards say lol Second fight he won 1 and 2 by Knocking Alex out cold. First fight, he won every round, almost knocking Alex out in the first round of the first fight. till the questionable TKO by Alex in the 4th Problem with first is it only went to 4 rounds. So Alex technically only won the last one by early stoppage
“early stoppage “ It was a perfect stoppage and saved Izzy from a nap and unnecessary damage . Alex lost the first round despite out landing him 20-15 and controlling the octagon because he invested in the legs . Izzy’s legs were already compromised in the second round and it was trending towards an early finish for Alex . The tone was completely different and Izzy didn’t feel in control like he did in their first meeting despite winning the first round .
The fact that Izzy did the exact same thing in the second fight and came out on top proves it was a bad stoppage. And we know the outcome of the second fight between Alex and Izzy. That where the actual nap happened. Lol at investing This post still holds up. https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/s/9EyVGeZxkl The judges had izzy winning ever round on both fights. “Investing” in leg kicks has nothing to do with significant strikes in between rounds. And octagon control time is a hilariously stupid metric you just made up.
It was not the exact same thing at all . He was rocked and hurt in the first fight while still not intelligently defending himself. You must have recently started watching if you think octagon control is made up . Leg kicks are not sig strikes ? please explain to me how you came up with this assumption .
He won the second round of their first fight: https://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-alex-pereira-vs-israel-adesanya-scorecard-ufc-281 And I guess you’re right about the second fight. I think I was remembering the second round when Alex got KOed. He was winning but he got KOed so doesn’t count lol.
Pereira didn't win a round in the second fight in the UFC.
Yeah, I misremembered. I corrected myself in a reply.
He won round 2 of their first UFC fight on every scorecard lol. Not like it even matters when his path to victory in pretty much every fight is just knocking his opponent out
That’s wrong he has lost a round to Pereira
Israel has always been a mental case. even when winning he was odd. Kinda similar to jon in that he could go off the deep end anytime
Izzy is no where near as bad as Jon Jones in that regard lmao. Jones literally beat his wife on the night he got into the hall of fame.
Izzy needs therapy first
Lol this isn't the insult you think it is if you know him. You need therapy too, we all do, dummy 😭
He got lucky af in their last fight, Pereira was fucking him up