Media Costa had a cautious gameplan, froze because of Adesanya's feints, or both?

[JustBleed69]

Luke recently uploaded his breakdown of Adesanya vs Costa on MKs channel, and he gives essentially no weight to the idea that Costa was purposefully being more hesitant, cautious, and or conserving energy. Instead, he gives all the credit to Adesanya's feinting and footwork.

While I do believe part of what happened was due to Adesanya's trickery, I think a bigger part of the story was Costa's gameplan. Costa has never been one to be gun shy, he will typically take a few to give a few, which is why I believe what happened (his patient approach) was mostly on purpose.

What do you think?

 

[Naught2Sixty]

Regular logic: Probably frozen by a combination of the big moment of a title fight, Izzys ability to shutdown his one corralling technique and reacting to feints.

Sherdog logic: He's a bum and has always been a bum.

 

[ColbyCovChamp]

Adesanya diffused his pressure

This breakdown explains it perfectly

 

[No Skill Gap]

Adesanya diffused his pressure

This breakdown explains it perfectly

Yeah but that breakdown doesn't address the fact that Costa had him pressured and against the fence at 1:32 and 0:28 left in the round. Adesanya didn't do anything special there, Costa was just being a pussy or not pulling the trigger on anything.

 

[ColbyCovChamp]

Yeah but that breakdown doesn't address the fact that Costa had him pressured and against the fence at 1:32 and 0:28 left in the round. Adesanya didn't do anything special there, Costa was just being a pussy or not pulling the trigger on anything.

Costa said on Thursday that he wouldn't chase Adesanya because he didn't want to fall into the trap of running at a counterstriker the way Whittaker did

If he had been more aggressive he would've been KO'd faster

 

[Fatback96]

I thought Costa’s coach said the gameplan was to hang back for the first 2 rounds and then heavy pressure for the last 3 rounds.

 

[No Skill Gap]

Costa said on Thursday that he wouldn't chase Adesanya because he didn't want to fall into the trap of running at a counterstriker the way Whittaker did

If he had been more aggressive he would've been KO'd faster

In your own clip you just posted with ~30 seconds left in the 1st round, Costa has Izzy up against the cage and doesn't throw a single punch. Izzy has the weakest fucking underhook ive ever seen in, and didn't have it in right away.

Overall I agree I guess, but there were two moments where Costa could have continued to pressure and Izzy was against the cage + he had him against the cage and he didn't pull the trigger either time.

 

[ColbyCovChamp]

In your own clip you just posted with ~30 seconds left in the 1st round, Costa has Izzy up against the cage and doesn't throw a single punch. Izzy has the weakest fucking underhook ive ever seen in, and didn't have it in right away.

Overall I agree I guess, but there were two moments where Costa could have continued to pressure and Izzy was against the cage + he had him against the cage and he didn't pull the trigger either time.

Good strikers can use the fence to bait opponents into bad reactions

Not everyone is Woodley

 

[yookfarb]

Costa probably thought since Izzy couldn't hurt Romero, he thought he could do the same thing to conserve his gas tank.

but a championship fighter is supposed to be able to adjust... Izzy was cautious too at first but he called out Costa for ripping off Romero and then started to up the volume

 

[Stalingrad9]

Both.

He didn't want to go all in in the beginning rounds but he didn't have the arsenal to keep Izzy off him for that duration. It's quite simple.

 

[hfajardoe]

It must be hard to be Costa and talk so much and do nothing in the moment of true. He had a punchers' chance, but didn't punch... and quite frankly didn't do much. He wasn't able to at least check the leg kicks... So is another case of if you talk the talk walk the walk.

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

Adesanya diffused his pressure

This breakdown explains it perfectly

Thank for posting this

Sadly Sherbros will ignore evidence rather than face facts

 

[hfajardoe]

Costa said on Thursday that he wouldn't chase Adesanya because he didn't want to fall into the trap of running at a counterstriker the way Whittaker did

If he had been more aggressive he would've been KO'd faster

That's true. But at least he would have had a chance. By staring and becoming a human punching bag he had no chance, unless Izzy got a heart stroke and died

 

[Brendon Katz]

I thought Costa’s coach said the gameplan was to hang back for the first 2 rounds and then heavy pressure for the last 3 rounds.

that's what it looked like to me. He looked like he was waiting for the first 2 rounds to end to turn it on. Turned out to be a bad plan.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

I thought Costa’s coach said the gameplan was to hang back for the first 2 rounds and then heavy pressure for the last 3 rounds.

That is exactly right! They just forgot to add not getting KO'd in the first two rounds.
Otherwise a perfect game plan.

If that was really his gameplan it was absolutely horrible. Give Izzy two rounds to chop away at your legs and then try to attack? Why would Paul O' Costa be less likely to be countered in the last 3 rounds than the first two?

 

[ijngf]

Adesanya broke Costa's rhythm by punches and low kicks. When Adesanya was forced to move backwards to the fence, he read Costa's movement and broke his rhythm right before he wanted to throw a punch.

 

[kimocomplex]

Adesanya threw leg kicks that hobbled Paulo

Costa landed a few body kicks but it takes many of those to cause real damage

Paulo thought his body was indestructible

 

[HerpDerp]

A combination of the feints, the threat of getting countered, the incredibly dexterous lateral movement of Adesanya and the compromised movement and base of Costa due to the early calf kicks.

The way Israel is able to effortlessly switch directions laterally combined with his understanding of distance and angles makes it really really hard to land anything significant even if you do manage to pressure him up against the cage for a short period of time. Rush in on him and you're taking a massive risk of getting countered, and even if you manage to avoid it, the chances are Israel isn't going to be there anymore by the time you throw something.

Turns out the guy is an insanely good striker. Huh.

 

[MMAElite4]

hes a loser its just that simple. absolute pathetic performance. let me just stand at long distance range and let you wreck my leg in the same exact spot while I do absolutely nothing. should have just done exactly what romero did in the first two rounds keeping away at far distance where he can't be easily kicked then fought if he was scared of gassing early.

 

[ultramanhyata]

I thought Costa’s coach said the gameplan was to hang back for the first 2 rounds and then heavy pressure for the last 3 rounds.

Thuke Lomas knows better, bro. That's why so many of his colleagues can't stand him. He's just better than them.