Which Was A Better Title Fight Win For The History Books? Dustin's or Jan's?

GoshiShun17

GoshiShun17

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Poirier over Holloway at 155
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OR

Blachowicz over Adesanya at 205
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Both guys were underdogs against smaller, younger, dominant champs coming up for the first time. Afterwards they both received major boosts and recognition for their dominant victories.

I made a thread comparing these two champions a year ago, https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...heir-divisions-poirier-or-blachowicz.4157914/

But fuck it let's do it again.

Also ironically they both loss their last championship fights by 2nd round submission against Brazilian underdog veterans who were once thought to be guys took too many beatings and who would realistically never capture gold but they've since revived their careers and went on finishing sprees to capture the belts.

Anyways IMO, Poirier vs. Holloway was the more entertaining fight. There definitely was more damage dealt and blood sacrificed to the JBGs. Ironically it could have been fight of the night if it wasn't for Israel and Gastelum being on that same card.

I feel Jan's victory was slightly more dominant and more important for his legacy as a fighter. I'm sure it was a bigger upset as well. To this day he's still the sole MMA fighter to hold a win over Adesanya.

Another similarity is that Holloway was coming off his destruction of then undefeated BrianOrtega and was considered next level and arguably the best boxer in the UFC.

Just as Adesanya was coming off his destruction of then undefeated Paulo Costa and was/is hailed as the best striker.
 
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Jans win felt way more like an upset to me. Izzy was undefeated. But the fight itself was not very good, while the Holloway v Poirier one was one of the best fights that year. I think history will remember the better fight more vividly, but the Jan one had more impact because it was an undefeated fighter he beat (and Adesanya came off the Costa fight looking great).
 
Jan already was the champion. Not sure if that tilts it in his favor at all, but I think it should. Maybe?
 
Poirier over Holloway at 155 was a great fight!

Enjoyed that much more than Jan vs Izzy.
 
Interesting comparison. It is a little uncanny how similar they both were.

I think Jan's victory was more impressive. Even though Holloway was favored over Poirier, I don't think anyone considered him a lock. However, NOBODY was giving Jan a chance against Izzy. All of the analysts, journalists, and whoever else in MMA media were picking Izzy to style on Jan. This forum was a little more reasonable, but most of us still favored Izzy.

Worst of all were the Rogan types, who were talking about Adesanya as this striking genius whereas Jan is just some big, dumb slugger who relies on solely on power and had no skill whatsoever. That was some of the worst promotion leading to a fight I had ever seen, and it was great watching Jan prove all of those doubters wrong.
 
Better comparison would be Poiriers interim title win vs Gaethjes interim title win

But yes these two are similar in their own ways. Jans felt more satisfying because the man was basically counted out before hand. The shitty commentary, and the way he figured out the Adesanya puzzle was mezmerising to watch.
 
Poirier/Holloway 2 was the more entertaining bout and both guys were on crazy win streaks. The interim belt is what kinda brings it down though, the winner in Dustin Poirier was not the undisputed champ and had to take on the real champ with Khabib afterwards, which he lost that fight pretty dominantly.

Jan/Izzy was a decent fight, but nowhere near as entertaining as Poirier/Holloway 2. It had a lot stakes on the line since Izzy was an undefeated middleweight who almost cleared the division by that point.
This was also for the undisputed belt and Jan was at his peak too. People also forget to mention that Poirier/Holloway 2 had a ten pound gap on the scales from 145 to 155 for Max, Jan/Izzy had a twenty pound gap on the scales from 185 to 205 for Izzy. So it was a bigger mountain to climb for Izzy.
This had more stakes on the line IMO.

Overall though, in terms of the win I might rank Dustin's over Holloway's higher since Max was on one of the craziest winstreaks(13 fights) in the UFC with wins over Ortega, Aldo 2x, Pettis, Lamas, Stephens, Oliveira, Swanson and Fili. I'd say 145/155 are more competitive than 185/205 IMO and that's why another reason I value the win Dustin has a bit more than Jan's.
 
One thing that crossed my mind as the fight was happening/getting hyped: There are HUGE negative repercussions for LHW if Jan loses to a smaller champ coming up (from a division Izzy has cleared out, into a division that everyone was/is saying was dying). So if Izzy lost (as he did), no big deal (as it hasn't been). But if Izzy won, Jan not only would Jan have been shamed, but the whole division. . . and then there's the inevitable hold-ups as Izzy defends two divisions simultaneously. The fight could have been more exciting, but I'm happy with the outcome.
 
Porier could fight at WW & if it weren't for his size difference compared to max I'd say Dustin.

But I'm going with Jan over Izzy. Many didn't give him a chance of winning & ppl were automatically thinking & talking about a Jon Jones vs Israel Adesanya match up. But Jan shocked most of the world & proved that Izzy got no business fighting with guys bigger than him.
 
KO Shotz said:
Porier could fight at WW & if it weren't for his size difference compared to max I'd say Dustin.

.
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Suffice it to say Holloway was meant to fight Khabib on a weeks notice at 155 but had to be pulled 3 days before because doctors were worried he’d kill himself making weight.....as he weighed 180.

Dumb to pretend Holloway was giving up much to Poirer.
 
LEWIS540 said:
Suffice it to say Holloway was meant to fight Khabib on a weeks notice at 155 but had to be pulled 3 days before because doctors were worried he’d kill himself making weight.....as he weighed 180.

Dumb to pretend Holloway was giving up much to Poirer.
Click to expand...
We all know porier is the bigger fighter compared to holloway
 
IMO Holloway was never the same after the damage he took from Dustin. It was a great fight.

I think Holloway wouldn't lose to Volk if he didn't take that kind of damage. At some point people wondered how Holloway was still standing. Though Holloway also did a lot of damage to Poirier too but the power behind Poirier's punches were stronger since he was bigger than Max, which made all the difference.

There wasn't much damage made in Jan vs Adesanya, he simply humbled Adesanya by showing Adesanya's wrestling weakness and send him back to his non-wrestler division.
 
The bigger fighters won? The hell you say?
 
KO Shotz said:
We all know porier is the bigger fighter compared to holloway
Click to expand...

Acting like it's a significant difference is the thoughts of a mong too.

Holloway walks around at 175+ and is known to be one of the biggest cutters.... durp.
 
LEWIS540 said:
Acting like it's a significant difference is the thoughts of a mong too.

Holloway walks around at 175+ and is known to be one of the biggest cutters.... durp.
Click to expand...
Nah max is skinny dustin is huge.
 
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