Is Izzy the next Tony or BJ Penn now?

[Elegant]

He is now 0-3 now and lost to 12-4 Imavov who lost to the likes of Phil Hawes

At this point you have to favor the entire top 10 over him

Man what a fall from grace, arguably karma though for how he treated his opponents during his wins (all the showboating, mocking family members etc)

 

[sjon22]

He seems to have some self awareness. Likely retires after another win.

 

[VAfan]

nowhere near that level. bj and tony went on epically long, epically one-sided slides where it looked like they'd forgotten how to fight. izzy is still competitive, just not at the highest level anymore. if they throw him a few softballs i could see him going on an AA-like sparring session kind of run.

 

[surgeyou1]

No. He's only lost to elite MW and looked competitive against DDP and Imavov. He's just lost that extra step which separated elite fighters from good fighters

 

[WildShrimper]

it's not like he's getting completely destroyed, only Strickland made him look unranked. I believe it'll look like that if Izzy stays for another 4 years though.

 

[10000yearsold]

The grotesque doom and gloom of these so predictably pitiful post-event threads. Go brush your teeth teeth you fucking mutant

 

[NextGen]

Izzy is still good and can beat most guys in the division. But the reflexes are getting slower and he'll be more susceptible to getting hit and knocked out against the upper echelon.

 

[JustOnce]

No cuz Phil Hawes who beat him back then didn't have a chin of a newly born infant. Phil Hawes was a blue-chip prospect before it all unraveled for him.

And no cuz Izzy is only losing to the best of the best.

 

[Koala]

Nope
He most likely beats anyone outside the top 5
And Phil Hawes is a good underachiever

 

[Tweak896]

To be fair Imavov has improved more than people give him credit for. Also Imavov probably trained his ass off for the fight because he knows with a loss he's going to have to climb up like Belal. While Izzy already accomplished everything in MMA basically, so he's collecting another check and doesn't have same motivation.