Well, they mostly value the opinion of those who buy ppvs.
We're talking about the legacy they want to leave, the status of combat sports greatest. But if you think they mostly care about the people buying PPVs, then you admit you think they think money and fame is more inportant than the actual achievements. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, everybody fights for their own reasons, but it does matter when talking about greatness and what you are willing to do to achieve it.
But to answer the point of your question, I think in Alex’s case it was clear that he was fast tracked to the Izzy fight, but lets bear in mind Izzy was a long reigning champion who cleared the top 10.
Why keep that in mind? It's not relevant to the point of facing hard stylistic match-ups. We know Izzy was a great champ, that didn't make him any less of a favorable style for Alex.
So yes, maybe he didn’t test himself against proper wrestlers, but wins against Strickland and Izzy were impressive for a guy with so little mma experience.
Impressive, as impressive as they would have been in kickboxing, because they basically were kickboxing matches. Nobody is questioning Pereira is impressive as a kickboxer. He just reestablished he is a great kickboxer in those fights, but it's not inpressive from the other aspects of MMA. And the grappling displayed in the Izzy fight was also not impressive, especially not since he is supposed to be the best of the division, as a champ
When the Jan fight was announced, many (myself included) thought that he would get easily dominated to a decision. Yet he won.
Yeah, but he got handled in the first because he was easily outgrappled. Luckily for him, Jan wasn't properly prepared for altitude (very dumb move IMO) and Alex was well prepared for fighting at high altitude (very smart move)
But Jan's actual fighting skills weren't as much to blame. And he still couldn't get a completely gassed Jan out of there either. Not that that is an easy thing to do, but it's something to note when speaking of greatness in MMA context.
If he takes out Jiri (and I’m rooting a bit for Jiri tbh), the guy who actually submitted Glover, there is no way this guy does not cross into legendary status.
Already reached that status long ago, IMO.
But how impressive the fight is will really depend on how it plays out. If Jiri tries to really just stand up with him and then gets caught because he basically has his hands low all the damned time and gets caught quite often, I don't think it would be that impressive, as Jiri would conpletely play into Alex his game and Alex won't really have to prove himself as an MMA fighter, because he can take care of it as a kickboxer. But if Jiri actually tries to grapple him seriously, and he still manages to win, then mad respect for Alex improving his grappling enough to get the W.
Also, Ank made the situation very difficult for himself recently, but I have no doubt both Hill and Ank will get their shots considering Alex’s fight schedule, provided he takes out Jiri ofc.[/quite]
Yeah, Ank has pesky habit of not making it easy on himself. Lol.
You can't keep up a high schedule of fighting for too long it's very taxing on the body and mind and injuries are bound to happen.. So I hope Alex will be as active as he has been, but I'm just not as sure it will happen as you seem to be. Not to speak of whatever other reasons there are for fights to fall through. LHW belt has been like a hot potato too for a long time and for the weirdest reasons. Lol
[Quite]Now, if he takes out Ank, he will gain more respect from you and guys like you who want to see every aspect of combat tested properly. He, however, already gained mine as I am a kickboxing fan first and mma fan second.
I said I already consider him a combat sports great, bud. He already got my respect too. We aren't talking about whether I respect him or not, we are talking about greatness which means you need to do special things to achieve it. Being in mainly stand up fights isn't special for him, even though I still respect every single of those fights, win or lose.
What he did in kickboxing was really special. What he did in MMA much less special compared to guys who achieve greatness in MMA without the special treatment he got.