Izzy looked bad...

D

djason1988

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First off, most certainly not a hater. I've been swinging from Izzy's nuts since he got in the UFC, but I also know how to be objective.

He won the fight comfortably, but Vettori was about tailor made for a highlight reel win. A solid wrestler, but not able to really utilize it effectively against Izzy, which left us with a serviceable, but not great, striker with questionable fight IQ. He was running straight in, and yet Adesanya struggled to find solid connection with any of his shots. Sure, he landed a lot of leg kicks and several jabs, but struggled to put together effective combinations or land anything with real power to the head or body. I think Bobby or Costa would put away Vettori in short order.

I'm not sure if Vettori's defense is way better than I realize, or if izzy is starting to slow down a hair, or maybe he's just fighting down to his opponents level ala Jon Jones, but what I am sure about is that wasn't the same Adesanya that toasted Costa and Whittaker.
 
We saw this happen with Anderson periodically as well. On paper he could easily finish Maia and Leites but he just fucked around and played air guitar the whole time. He was also just casually outpointing Cote until Cote blew his knee out.
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Izzy started fighting dirty eye poke and nut shot. Bad fight
 
djason1988 said:
but Vettori was about tailor made for a highlight reel win.
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No, that would be Whittaker in their first fight overcommitting and swinging wildly just like Anderson Silva's victims. Vettori brings controlled pressure and leaves very little openings, and he happens to be good at seeing Izzy's headkicks coming unlike most other guys. He's tailor made to lose decisions to Adesanya.
 
Get To Da Choppa said:
We saw this happen with Anderson periodically as well. On paper he could easily finish Maia and Leites but he just fucked around and played air guitar the whole time. He was also just casually outpointing Cote until Cote blew his knee out.
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Anderson was also obviously goofing. Izzy looked serious, but just couldn't get the job done.
 
Substance Abuse said:
No he didn't. He won that fight soundly. Vettori has a good chin, is persistent with pressure and is ridiculously underrated around here.
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Somebody didn't read my actual post. One of the first things I said was "He won the fight comfortably", but there's zero doubt in my mind he should have finished Vettori. When others pressured Izzy, they got countered to pieces, yet he wasn't having much luck here. And Vettori is known for his wrestling and grind, not his technical striking
 
Reading into it too much imo. Maybe he wasn't as motivated for this fight or just didn't go for the kill for whatever reason. I don't fault him. You can't have an amazing performance every fight. Now if the next two or three fights look the same I might say he's lost something. For now though he took an easy win against a guy that should have been an easy win. Meh.
 
Huligani said:
No, that would be Whittaker in their first fight overcommitting and swinging wildly just like Anderson Silva's victims. Vettori brings controlled pressure and leaves very little openings, and he happens to be good at seeing Izzy's headkicks coming unlike most other guys. He's tailor made to lose decisions to Adesanya.
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Vettori literally ran face first into the cage at one moment. Not exactly my idea of "controlled pressure".
 
To be fair Adesanya eyepoked and kicked Vittori in the groin, so I thought he was giving him time to recover. That said Adesanya won all the exchanges both on the feet and the ground.

Although Vittori is a very dangerous and tough match up for anyone else at middleweight his attacks were neutralized by Adesanya.

Adesanya could have ended it by continuing to attack Vittori's lead leg but decided against it. He wanted the highlight reel question mark kick KO which didn't come.
 
djason1988 said:
Somebody didn't read my actual post. One of the first things I said was "He won the fight comfortably", but there's zero doubt in my mind he should have finished Vettori. When others pressured Izzy, they got countered to pieces, yet he wasn't having much luck here. And Vettori is known for his wrestling and grind, not his technical striking
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It's harder to finish better competition. I did read your post. I disagreed with it. Maybe you should give Vettori more credit to explain why Izzy wasn't able to meet your expectations.
 
Vettori is an MMA generalist who favors grappling. He doesn't have wrestling background (like college D1 or D2 in the U.S., Dagestanian, Iranian, etc.) and he's not even a highly-regarded BJJ or judoka. He's a good fighter but not the kind of "wrestler test" that a prime Weidman or Chael would be.
 
It could be the Jan affect, Izzy came in smart, dominate. Not all fights are going to look like the Costa fight. What I see is improvement. I hope he gives Rob the next shot
 
Both guys looked meh. Vettori is slow as molasses, doesn’t know what to do when guys stop his initial takedown against the cage, and bad top control. The division sucks tbh.
 
djason1988 said:
So does Costa. Hell, he ate bombs from Romero, yet Izzy put him out. He just struggled to land any big shots in this fight.
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Idk, styles make the fights. Vettori has heavy hands and threw a bunch of punches, Costa threw 1 punch just before getting slipped and KO'd.
 
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