Is Israel Adesanya an overrated fighter?

[mmacrisis]

He is exactly where he should be. His striking is really good and he owns the division so what is over hyped.

 

[Rajon Rondo]

The talking point is that there isn't a Chael Sonnen type fighter in the division

 

[Striker Fox]

Overrated by whom?

If we're talking about hardcore MMA fans, then he's been grossly underrated for the duration of his UFC run.

People were claiming that he was a fraud and was going to get exposed every step of the way until he beat Whittaker for the title.

Nah, I think the early skepticism was warranted because his TDD and BJJ were a bit suspect early on, but he improved enough in those areas to get by the opponents he's fought so far.

 

[Dirge]

He's the king of a pretty weak division. At one point MW was awesome but not any longer. A couple of talented guys and that's it. Hence the reason its kind of hard to see Whittaker fight Israel again and yet there literally isn't anyone else worthy.

WW and MW and gone right into the toilet over the last few years. The smaller weight classes are where all the talent sits currently with a few exceptions.

 

[maximus__]

Defense, not fight. The Romero fight was a stinker too

Yeah I won't argue on the Romero fight, but Izzy was exchanging well and the only reason Vettori wasn't knocked out was because of his chin. I hate Izzy by the way after that Romero fight, but I will give credit where it's due. Izzy is a better striker than Silva. he can also tap into the matrix but that stuff doesn't work aswell these days.

 

[Vegesus44]

It's only people he triggers who hate him.
Is it hard living in the closet?

 

[Iron Nick]

He's not overrated at all.

If anything, he's underrated by some.

It's hard to compare him to Anderson, but i don't think a prime Anderson is much better or worse, they're overall most likely very equally good, (though they're different as fighters).
However Israel has definitely faced better competition than Anderson Silva did.

• Vettori x2 (southpaw, great pressure, well-rounded with really good grappling, extremely durable, huge for 185)
• Brunson (southpaw, fantastic wrestling, no great striking, but dangerous power)
  
• Gastelum (southpaw, well-rounded, insanely durable, very fast, very good hands)
• Romero (southpaw, great wrestling when he uses it, very fast, tons of power, insanely durable, great timing and underrated defense)
• Paulo Costa (orthodox, great pressure, very good boxing in the pocket, extremely durable, biggest 185er)
• Robert Whittaker (orthodox, most likely an all-time great 185er, fantastic athlete, very-well-rounded, very fast, very good striking)
• Jan Blachowicz (orthodox, well-rounded, very good striking, especially on the counter, great jiu-jitsu, almost impossible to consistently land kicks on, very good fight-IQ, champion @ 205)

Those are good to extremely good fighters and since most of them are southpaws, they're awkward for a naturally orthodox fighter like Israel to fight, plus Israel gave up size against all guys mentioned, with *maybe* Gastelum being the only guy his size, though even he might have been slightly heavier than Izzy.

 

[Phisher]

Outstrike doesn't mean you get knocked out into another dimension.... You can outstrike someone handily and not knock them out..

Again, define "handily." I think that Jan won two of the first three rounds when they were largely fighting on the feet, but they were all close and he only landed a handful more meaningful shots in the rounds that he won.

Jan won, but he didn't embarrass Adesanya in the stand up. He used Adesanya's tentativeness about big power shots to outwork him at distance.

 

[Phisher]

Nah, I think the early skepticism was warranted because his TDD and BJJ were a bit suspect early on, but he improved enough in those areas to get by the opponents he's fought so far.

Oh, I think that the skepticism was totally fair early on. Personally, I didn't think much of his chances to be champ after the Vettori and Wilkinson fights. However, it was clear that he'd drastically improved after his next two.

I'm just pointing out that the notion that Izzy is "grossly overrated" is pretty silly. He doesn't have that many fans among the hardcores, and he's rated appropriately by the people who don't hate him because of his personality.

 

[Jason Speed]

Love older fighters for what they did during their time but the game has evolved. Saying prime so and so would still be a top guy now is bullshit. Anyone currently in the top 10 would at worse be an even bet with the #1s of 10years ago.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Well lets see....

he's 10-0 at mw
he's 5-0 at titles fights at mw
Fight of the year level fight with gastelum
He won the undisputed title from a champion younger than him, taking no damage
he finished an undefeated younger, bigger stronger paulo costa, taking no damage
he's beaten another fighter younger than him and bigger in vettori, taking no damage
currently holds wins over 4 of the top 5 fighters at MW, (whittaker, vettori, brunson, costa)

I think he's adequately rated. he's beating everyone they put in front of him rather easily. he's pretty much not lost a round to anyone in his title reign other than yoel.

 

[RockyLockridge]

is prime silva more well rounded than him ? i think so

Izzy has WAY better take down defense than silva.

 

[tehMoose]

Very overrated

 

[ElLunico]

Lol when fools discrediting a fighter because he is not better than Anderson freaking Silva in striking you know he is that good in striking LMAO.

You dummies are hilarious. Yall are saying he sucks because is not better than the greatest striker ever and one of the GOATS. yall don't realize how stupid yall sound? Lol

 

[The DanaWhite]

Its hard to compare diff eras but to say over rated is just plain dumb. The guy has fought and beaten every1 in the division

 

[SherdogWasNeverMyFriend]

This is why Khabib, and Usman, etc. don't wanna go up in weight, if you lose you get all this shit. Jan had like 30 lbs. on Izzy, but people will still never see him as invincible again

And these are the same people who will shit on Usman and Khabib for not going up

It wasn't more than 17/18 lbs...

 

[Small Town Andrew]

Annoying personality but a great fighter

 

[Snolla]

He's so good that people try to discredit him by comparing him to prime Anderson.

You dummies trying to flack on Izzy realize that by comparing him to the MMA GOAT (even negatively), that this is actually a huge compliment to his skillset?

 

[BalloonFoot]

Have you not seen Adensanya’s breast? Andy took roids to recover later in his career too. Look how many people get popped, then look how many are doing matrix shit like Anderson. None. He was flabby and soft in his prime but still clowned people to the highest level.

Or course they say Silva was on PEDs during his prime, but GSP was never on them. Yeah ok.

 

[WHITE ANDERSON]

why are anderson comparisons being made?

if you ignore the fact that he's a PED cheat, most guys are going to be overrated compared to prime anderson

but it's a different era, and relative to the guys he has beat, adesanya is a great fighter in his weight class.