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How Strickland broke Adesanya (pics inside)

It took you one year to figure this out TS?
 
Hazuki Ryo said:
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He knew how to deal with the distance : his left leg not to forward in order to avoid the low kicks. He was good at parrying eventual middle kicks

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Checking low leg kicks was definitely one of the key of his success. Adesanya had to stop using them because Strickland was being so good at checking them from the inside AND outside. I also believe Sean has a great reaction time, which makes it easier for him to read his opponent's move

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His famous front kick was another great asset which allowed him to mess with Adesanya's momentum. It was great for stopping him, preventing him from reaching him, maintaining distance, breaking the rhythm

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This front kick also was an entry point for followed straight left and right. Kind of similar to what Machida used to do

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Strickland used his arms to parry Adesanya's jabs when he was getting in his zone.

All of these tools benefited him when he closed the distance, cause you have to close the distance with Adesanya in order to make it a dog fight like Gastelum did. Here, Strickland nullified Adesanya's usual tactics and establilshed his own
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Good break down.
 
Eh. Stickland was in the right place at the time right. IA is a head case IMO and kudos to SS for being able to take advantage of that and beat the guy up. If they were ever scheduled to fight again I'd pick IA in a second. No different than Serra - who I am probably the biggest fan of youll find - beating GSP. It took me a long time to admit that Serra really caught GSP at his weakest mentally and was able to get it done. Now, I still think he could have done better had he not fucked his back up, but GSP is, was, and always be a better fighter then Serra and should be picked to win in 100 matches against him. SS was lucky to be the short notice guy that could step in.
 
I wouldn’t say Adesanya was broken - he was throwing head kicks etc right at the last bell. There’s enough to crap on Izzy for that’s true, pretending he’s not a fighter or whatever is unnecessary. Sean definitely had a winning formula and approach to Izzy’s style, and perhaps these ultra cerebral reaction based fighters are a glimpse into the future.
 
I remember them saying they prepared Sean by leg-kicking non-stop at him in practice, worked well on fight-night

Once Izzy couldn’t land leg-kicks, which he obviously NEEDS to gauge and setup his opponents, he got flustered

Then Izzy got Wing-Chung’d in the boxing range LoL
 
Eh, Adesanya had off night.

You really think that guy who was successful in 3 differrent combat sports where striking is his bread and butter was outclassed because of pressure and had nothing on Sean?

He looked exactly like Hooker when he faced Chandler.
 
Marko Polo said:
I wouldn’t say Adesanya was broken - he was throwing head kicks etc right at the last bell. There’s enough to crap on Izzy for that’s true, pretending he’s not a fighter or whatever is unnecessary. Sean definitely had a winning formula and approach to Izzy’s style, and perhaps these ultra cerebral reaction based fighters are a glimpse into the future.
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MW is just a weak division. Adesanya fought below average contenders and was able to collect title defenses, even though he himself is a fighter with significant deficiencies. Strickland is another fighter that probably wouldn't be winning any belts in a stronger weight class. Now he has been beaten himself.
 
Nice breakdown.

Your mention of Gastelum got me thinking that Kelvin vs Sean would actually be a very good fight.

Would've been cool too a Sean v Anderson matchup because similar to Sean v Izzy it's a battle of spacing and foot work. Though Silva was faster, better reaction time than Izzy with more diversity all around. I think Silva by KO but it would be fun up until then
 
TheBulge said:
Good breakdown. As a side note, Strickland has more mental fortitude than he's given credit for. He's very relaxed in there probably from all the sparring he does. Being so relaxed allows him to think and avoid mistakes.
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his expressions in the fight says a lot. he doesn’t look angry or insane. he looks blank, like he’s focused on a game or something.
 
kingmob6 said:
MW is just a weak division. Adesanya fought below average contenders and was able to collect title defenses, even though he himself is a fighter with significant deficiencies. Strickland is another fighter that probably wouldn't be winning any belts in a stronger weight class. Now he has been beaten himself.
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What are Adesanya’s deficiencies in your eyes? I’m by no means a fan and don’t “care” about him so to speak but just interested. For me I saw a man who they said would be easily taken down, but as the years went on he learned to use to cage to his advantage greatly, which played into his gameplan of sticking on the outside. Normally they would tell a striker to not let themselves be backed up all the way, but Israel used it to his advantage and impressively so really for a guy with no wrestling experience.

His striking was also so far ahead that he was able to win while his opponents knew what he was going to do. They knew he was going to stay on the outside and throw low kick after low kick but hardly anyone had an answer. That speaks for how far ahead he was. Theres stuff that goes on in the cage that we as fans cannot begin to comprehend. But the low kick was effective because izzy was pin point accurate with his hands. If low kicks where all he had, they would be easily negated. This is all imo of course

He might not be the greatest person ever but he’s definitely not a full blown turd like a Jones for example. At least Israel actually came to fight, not poke eyes out and stomp on knees from a distance.
 
Fossor said:
He lost because Sean made fun of his relationship with his dog. Sean then lost because DDP made fun of his relationship with his father. To win the title Izzy should make fun of how white the current African champion is.
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<{Joewithit}>
 
Chayanne said:
the question is, can a fighter with such a big ego win back the title?
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I really think he can.

Jumping back in with Poatan seemed ludicrous, but he did it and won.

I'm not saying he will, but he sure could.

Will be interesting to see if he can mix things up, change and evolve his style. Weirdly, not many as accomplished as him can. I think he at least knows he has to, which is a start.
 
Israel underestimated him.
 
Marko Polo said:
What are Adesanya’s deficiencies in your eyes? I’m by no means a fan and don’t “care” about him so to speak but just interested. For me I saw a man who they said would be easily taken down, but as the years went on he learned to use to cage to his advantage greatly, which played into his gameplan of sticking on the outside. Normally they would tell a striker to not let themselves be backed up all the way, but Israel used it to his advantage and impressively so really for a guy with no wrestling experience.

His striking was also so far ahead that he was able to win while his opponents knew what he was going to do. They knew he was going to stay on the outside and throw low kick after low kick but hardly anyone had an answer. That speaks for how far ahead he was. Theres stuff that goes on in the cage that we as fans cannot begin to comprehend. But the low kick was effective because izzy was pin point accurate with his hands. If low kicks where all he had, they would be easily negated. This is all imo of course

He might not be the greatest person ever but he’s definitely not a full blown turd like a Jones for example. At least Israel actually came to fight, not poke eyes out and stomp on knees from a distance.
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Good post.

In my opinion, his striking is overrated. I always found his biggest strength to be his athletic ability and his physical advantages, and a good portion of his striking prowess is based on his ability to probe and counter you from a distance, relying on his reach and size advantage, to go with some fundamentals. Which is smart. However, for a supposed great kickboxer, he has rarely used his kicks (beyond lower leg kicks to score points), he rarely uses advanced combinations and lacks creativity, does not press inferior strikers, his boxing is just average. He has good instincts though, and combined with his agility and speed, serves him well in establishing a counter-offensive game plan. So on my scale, he is above average striker, but nothing special. (that's the reason why Strickland could easily read him, and beat him)

Now he has supposedly good takedown defense, but I think nobody really properly tested him on that either. His grappling is most likely below average. Out of last 10 opponents, 9 were strikers. The only fighter, who coincidentally is not a grappler, but took him down quite easily, is Jan. Vettorri is a grappler....but nothing to be impressed about.

I've been calling MW trash division for years. Adesanya had it easy there.
 
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