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He didn't look mentally in the fight (i.e. that he actually wanted to be in there) at the start of round 2.
Something changed in him after the Izzy KO, which isn't surprising - fighters are rarely the same after bad KO's and that one is absolutely brutal (plus happened twice in the same fight basically).
Now as soon as he's hurt he looks like he's trying to survive, where before he'd almost immediately be throwing back with serious heat.
Yeah, I made a post prior to the fight about how I admired his durability and referred to all the wars and the brutal KO's he's had, all the 5 round camps, long career etc and he STILL has managed to keep up with the best. A fighter usually goes through 1/3 of the tough fights Whittaker has had and loses their step, loses a piece of them inside of the octagon. I think in this fight we finally got to see that piece show up missing.