The perfect scenario for him would be to: -beat Romero in the next few months -beat Costa if he comes back healthy -beat Canon after that. These three can switch places according to circumstances. Romero is too old now, Costa is just a simple brawler with muscles and Canon is still green. He can take em all izzy. Thus the semi-dead MW division is cleaned up and he can move up to LHW for 2021.
There will be few rematches down the line (not every fight is going to be an easy win) and he'll probably need to handle Till and one more name to completely clean it up. LHW offers nothing for him, his best wins will still be at MW no matter who he beats at LHW.
He won't beat Costa. The Adesanya era is over and the Costa era is going to begin this year. Paulo can't be stopped and he's going to rule the mw division and go down as one of the greats
Cleaning up and leaving is the best case scenario. You don't want to be fighting bums your whole career and waste your prime, like Jones and GSP.
Good fighters at MW would pop up eventually I think. IMO, rematching someone like Whittaker or Romero would also mean more for his legacy than beating anyone at LHW. Maybe Reyes somewhere in 2022/23 would be a nice trophy win - but other than that - meh.
Are we all forgetting about bobby knuckles?? Dude didn't die after the fight... 2 more wins and hes right back facing Israel
Izzy is too small for LHW, so the challenge is huge. Even someone like Reyes will be a tough fight at the beginning.
Hang on what? What about if he murks Jones and gives him his first real loss? (Which is my prediction for 2021 btw)
