Israel Adesanya in the LHW division: How well does he do?

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

Well here goes my 1st Thread: So there has been all this talk about Israel Adesanya someday going up to fight Jon Jones for what assume to be a title shot. As far as that fight goes many agree that Israel is just to small to challenge Jones. And that's a debate for another thread.

What I'm curious is how well do you think The Stylebender would do against the rest of the LHW division. Top ten? Top five? Or go you think he wouldn't even get ranked. What fights do you think can or can't win? And why?

For reference, here are the current LHW rakings

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
JON JONES
CHAMPION

1
Thiago Santos
2
Daniel Cormier
3
Anthony Smith
4
Dominick Reyes
5
Corey Anderson
6
Jan Blachowicz
7
Alexander Gustafsson
8
Volkan Oezdemir
9
Glover Teixeira
10
Aleksandar Rakic
11
Johnny Walker
12
Ilir Latifi
13
Misha Cirkunov
14
Nikita Krylov
15
Ronaldo Souza

 

[ulysse]

We need to see more of him. Like dealing with a strong wrestler !
He needs to defend the title and show that he is well rounded.
There is murderers at 205 !

 

[Buff]

I reckon Bender could beat quite a few names on that list... But let's not get carried away and say he's clean out the division, because every one of those guys could pose a problem.

Bender is skinny.

 

[weed]

I'd want to see him fight Rumble, but that'll never happen.

 

[eddi]

His grappling is untested, lets wait for dana to stop bribing his opponents to stand and bang, he might be extremely 1 dimensional non champ material

 

[SKYNET]

Not sure. Would love to see him defend against Costa Romero Cannonier Shabazyan before I can make a sound judgement

 

[Stagliano]

What's wrong with that ranking ??? DC is number 2 although be moved up almost 2 years ago, Gus retired last year, Latifi moved up and the WORST, Jacare is top 15 with only one fight that he lost ??

 

[DLX]

I think GenderBender beats most of those guys, aside from DC, Gus, and Jones.

Tex gives him issues as well. He's too light for LHW for his skills to show through atm.

 

[Iron Nick]

I think he'd do quite well. He'd be the best striker in that division, but considering his size i reckon he could get problems with a few fighters, despite his great technique and fight-IQ.
DC and of course Jones look like very dangerous matchups for him, Oezdemir and Reyes are hard to beat as well in my opinion.

...i really hope he stays at middleweight and (hopefeully successfully) defends his title there as often as possible.

 

[ermac88]

Hard to say,
Im curious how he'll do against wrestlers even at MW

Izzy looks like a thin MW with a light center of gravity and no grappling credentials

 

[Dilan Cummingsworth]

Well here goes my 1st Thread: So there has been all this talk about Israel Adesanya someday going up to fight Jon Jones for what assume to be a title shot. As far as that fight goes many agree that Israel is just to small to challenge Jones. And that's a debate for another thread.

What I'm curious is how well do you think The Stylebender would do against the rest of the LHW division. Top ten? Top five? Or go you think he wouldn't even get ranked. What fights do you think can or can't win? And why?

For reference, here are the current LHW rakings

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
JON JONES
CHAMPION

1
Thiago Santos
2
Daniel Cormier
3
Anthony Smith
4
Dominick Reyes
5
Corey Anderson
6
Jan Blachowicz
7
Alexander Gustafsson
8
Volkan Oezdemir
9
Glover Teixeira
10
Aleksandar Rakic
11
Johnny Walker
12
Ilir Latifi
13
Misha Cirkunov
14
Nikita Krylov
15
Ronaldo Souza

Israel is unstoppable right now. He's the future of the MMA and when he clears out middleweight and destroys Jones he will easily go down as the greatest to ever do it

 

[Joe Black]

izzy would get grapple fucked

 

[mjfan23]

He may knock most of them out or he might be like MVP and not that successful against guys who will not just stand and bang with him

 

[Safton]

To preface this: it's always hard to tell in MMA until it actually happens and I am admittedly somewhat biased. However, that being said, Izzy did fight in the Cruiserweight (200 lbs) and 100+ kg (~220 lb) weight classes during his pro boxing/kickboxing days. That alongside the fact that he's 6'4" and seems to have the kind of frame that could easily pack on more muscle makes me suspect he could make the transition successfully.

The leap in competition, though... hard to say. I feel that he's the technical superior of many of the guys at 205, but that's a big leap in physicality all the same -- especially with a lot of dangerous grapplers in those waters. I could see him making Top 10 easily, possibly Top 5.

 

[Sensee]

I'd also be concerned that there is some more power in lhw. I won't say it's impossible but Israel would have his work cut out for him. Also the grappling would be against stronger guys as mentioned.

 

[Chok Sok Te]

I think top 3 at least if he times it right. Stay at mw for another couple of years. Clean the division. He has a couple of monsters at mw to deal with first

 

[The Fat Mexican]

He looks small and skinny, even for a MW. I think the bigger guys would be a problem for him at LHW. I can see many guys grapple/wrestle him and give him troubles. DC and Jones wreck him badly

But anyway, he still has a lot to prove in his own division. Costa and Black Jesus are intriguing fights

 

[sprucelees]

would definitely like to see him against a few wrestlers and BJJ guys before talking about moving up.

 

[Paulsp]

HES TOO SKINNY BRO

 

[Safton]

I think he'd do quite well. He'd be the best striker in that division, but considering his size i reckon he could get problems with a few fighters, despite his great technique and fight-IQ.
DC and of course Jones look like very dangerous matchups for him, Oezdemir and Reyes are hard to beat as well in my opinion.

...i really hope he stays at middleweight and (hopefeully successfully) defends his title there as often as possible.

Agreed on all counts, though I think the "he's so skinny!" angle is being overplayed by a few people on here. As neat as it would be to see him at 205 against some of those guys, I wouldn't want him to even consider it unless he manages to defend 185 against all the contenders/big names (Romero, Costa, Cannonier, Till, etc.) at least once.