Adesanya is #2 MW in the UFC history but has he faced a wrestler like Hendo or Chael ?

[Hazuki Ryo]

Silva proved he could beat Maia, Hendo, Sonnen, Marquadt.. Who has Adesanya beaten that are similar ?
Gastelum is supposed to be a wrestler but he is way more striking oriented and even though he was a bad match up for Adesanya, he barely used any grappling.
Romero is a olympian freestyle wrestler but as he was getting old, he barely used offensive wrestling. I guess bad knees and cardio concerns are what pushed him to think he's a boxer.
Do we need Khamzat to finally test Adesanya's legacy ?

EDIT : He beat Brunson, who is a good grappler, i'll give him that

 

[chinarice]

So the wrestlers Izzy beat don't count but Hendo does.

Hilarious.

 

[CaptHANDSUP]

So the wrestlers izzy beat don't count but Hendo does.

Hilarious.

who has adesanya faced that wrestled like shael? Ill let you do some research, i can wait

And romero doesnt count because he barely wrestled in mma

 

[pankrat]

Yep. Khamzat will be the most serious test to Israel's anti-grappling game

Romero's fused neck, knee injuries and being 43 years old didnt help at applying a wrestling heavy game plan.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

I actually think he's a better anti wrestler than Silva was, his natural game is more like Machida's looking for counters from range where as Silva really wanted to get stuck in more to be most effective with his striking.

 

[Tevfik1907]

That's the main reason people want to see him against Usman or Khamzat. For sure he will be in huge trouble against those 2.

 

[burningspear]

Khamzat 2 belts

 

[13Seconds]

Stuffed the shit out of Brunson, KG and Marv. Whittaker is a decent wrestler.

Im actually positive Whittaker would outwrestle Chael in MMA.

 

[d0g]

He isn't.
1.Weidman
2.Rockhold
3.Silva
4.Adesanya

 

[pankrat]

Im actually positive Whittaker would outwrestle Chael in MMA.

 

[Greyscale]

Hendo is a bad example. He was a wrestler only at early stages of his career and turned into brawler who got wrestlefucked numerous times himself.

 

[pankrat]

I actually think he's a better anti wrestler than Silva was, his natural game is more like Machida's looking for counters from range where as Silva really wanted to get stuck in more to be most effective with his striking.

Israel might be better preventing TDs but I think with the kind of positions he gave up on Whittaker or Vettori, guys as Maia and Sonnen could give him serious trouble

 

[youllneverwalkalone]

Silva proved he could beat Maia, Hendo, Sonnen, Marquadt.. Who has Adesanya beaten that are similar ?
Gastelum is supposed to be a wrestler but he is way more striking oriented and even though he was a bad match up for Adesanya, he barely used any grappling.
Romero is a olympian freestyle wrestler but as he was getting old, he barely used offensive wrestling. I guess bad knees and cardio concerns are what pushed him to think he's a boxer.
Do we need Khamzat to finally test Adesanya's legacy ?

EDIT : He beat Brunson, who is a good grappler, i'll give him that

If you are talking about guys whose style exclusively or primarily revolve around grappling, then Brunson and Vettori would say. Skillwise, Whittaker and Gastelum are high level wrestlers. I pretty much agree on what you say re Romero.

Overall I think his legacy has been tested plenty already. Of course styles make fight and defintiely Khamzat is going to be a hard fight for Adesanya like Chael was for AS.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Israel might be better preventing TDs but I think with the kind of positions he gave up on Whittaker or Vettori, guys as Maia and Sonnen could give him serious trouble

I would say though Whittaker was able to set up his takedowns much better than Maia could, I think in the same fight Irasel would probably pick away at range more easily than Anderson could.

Actually having a high level BJJ guy ontop of him though yeah I could potentially see Israel having more trouble than Anderson, someone like say a prime Jacare.

 

[13Seconds]

Chael has some of the worst TDD. Great power double but couldn't stop a takedown to save his own life.

MMA wrestling is MMA wrestling. Whittaker would obviously get treated like a child on the wrestling mat. Just like DC would own Jones if they just straight up wrestled.

Whittakers defensive wrestling vs Yoel both times was really something to behold, his offensive wrestling vs Gastelum was beautiful and the timing on his takedowns vs Izzy were impeccable. He never could control Izzy but at MW, no one had success like that against Izzy.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

He hasn't yet but Anderson was 4 years into his reign when he fought Chael.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I don't know if he'd take Chael down but I'm pretty confident Chael would find it very difficult to hold Rob down at the same time. Rob's cage get ups and defence are something else.

 

[pankrat]

I don't know if he'd take Chael down but I'm pretty confident Chael would find it very difficult to hold Rob down at the same time. Rob's cage get ups and defence are something else.

I would certainly favour Whittaker in that match up but Rob was not as good as Chael at applying wrestling offensively in MMA which is what the other guy said if I understood correctly.
I think Rob is arguably the best anti-grappler ever at MW

 

[pankrat]

Chael has some of the worst TDD. Great power double but couldn't stop a takedown to save his own life.

This is just not a serious argument

 

[13Seconds]

This is just not a serious argument

Serious enough to be the truth.

Way to ignore the rest of my post praising Whittakers grappling with facts too.