Israel Adesanya Makes UFC Debut This Weekend

[Medulla Omoplata]

It's amazing that he has had 5 UFC fights in less than a year technically while competing amongst the best

That's unheard of in the UFC. You get a lot of guys that only fight once or twice a year now

Shit man I didn't realize he had 5 fights already, that's impressive.

 

[The Half Blood Prince]

Shit man I didn't realize he had 5 fights already, that's impressive.

yeah he comes from kickboxing where he has had more than one fight in the same night. In muay Thai it's common to see guys fighting every weekend as well thats why a lot of Muay Thai fighters have hundreds of pro fights.

Cowboy went 5 once and then 6 times in a year, which I believe is a UFC record. But that's Cowboy. Volkan made his UFC debut and fought DC for a title within 4 fights in 12 months, Cody Necktats went 4 in a year - from unranked to champ within 12 months. Smith is about to have his 4th LHW fight within a time span of a year vs Jones... Conor also averaged 4 a year in early UFC days - Aldo, Diaz 1, Diaz 2 and Alvarez being the most stacked run. But wait, sorry, why I am I mentioning all this like a nerd...

Your point was that fighters aren't as active and it's true. It's rare to see even 3 a year. Stats seem to show that activity leads to belt contention, though, so maybe it'd be wise to step it up.

Yeah i know, i thought about saying which is pretty much rare instead of unheard of but you get the point.

 

[UraharaTaicho]

Yeah, I'm sure if elite strikers like Joe Schilling or Dustin Jacoby came into MMA they'd be taking off heads.

Those guys are directly comparable to Adensaya in terms of accomplishments in kickboxing.

Kickboxing maybe, but as I've said so many times, Israel didnt jump into mma for a payday he has been training mma for a looong time. It is that difference that sets him apart from all other high level striking cross over fighters. Israel is the real deal

 

[Jean-MMA]

I'm waiting for Israël vs The Chris.
Exiting matchup

 

[MusterX]

Your point was that fighters aren't as active and it's true. It's rare to see even 3 a year. Stats seem to show that activity leads to belt contention, though, so maybe it'd be wise to step it up.

The reason fighters generally only fight once or twice a year is more complicated than "just stepping up." You have to be sanctioned and cleared to fight and often guys can't get cleared 5 times in a year. You have to really dominate and take very little damage to get 5 fights in a year, which is what Adesanya has done. In some cases you are right though and guys need to step up a little more often.

 

[Frode Falch]

Shit man I didn't realize he had 5 fights already, that's impressive.

He comes from modern kick boxing scene. Those guys are used to fighting often. So they aint spoiled like the pure mma guys who fights 2-3 times a year.

 

[MusterX]

Oh no, I understand that. Some injuries taking over a year to heal makes perfect sense. I wouldn't want this job, so I can't truly judge anyone. But out of the 300-400 fighters they have on the roster, only a few reach 3 fights a year. Odds of them all just being worn out and not slacking at all seem unlikely.

That's because the mandatory suspensions are longer than people think. You don't even have to get injured, just punched a lot and its a 3-6 month mandatory suspension from fighting. There are a lot of fans that still don't know that. Its one of the reasons why people were wondering how Bisping took an ass whoopin and then fought again a month later, he never should have been cleared but somehow he was.

 

[chinarice]

Yeah, I'm sure if elite strikers like Joe Schilling or Dustin Jacoby came into MMA they'd be taking off heads.

Those guys are directly comparable to Adensaya in terms of accomplishments in kickboxing.

He's already surpassed both of those bums in MMA.

 

[MusterX]

I wanna agree with you, but... all 4 of Gaethje's UFC fights took place within 13 months (July 2017 - August 2018). Have you seen a Justin Gaethje fight?

Dustin fought 3 times in 2017. Wrecked his foot vs Miller, took an illegal knee from Eddie and 6 months later beat Pettis. All that before getting into an eye poking car crash vs Gaethje and getting a wet willy from Eddie in their rematch in 2018.

Barboza got demolished by Khabib in December 2017, then his eye welded shut + wrestlefucked by Lee before beating Dan Hooker in December 2018. 3 fights in 12 months here as well.

I STILL AGREE WITH YOU! Injuries take time, suspensions are longer than people think... but are they really THAT long? How much can everyone really hide behind that excuse?

Yep, we've seen it more and more where the rules have been changed to accommodate certain fighters and certain times and I don't know why that's happening. Here are some examples of normal medical suspensions.

UFC 217, Aleksei Oleinik: 90-day medical suspension
UFC 219, Holly Holm: Suspended until 03/02, no contact until 02/15 (3 months)
UFC 219, Edson Barboza: Suspended until 03/02, no contact until 02/15 (3 months)
UFC 220, Burgos and Tibau, 60 days
UFC 221, Mark Hunt suspended 45 days for left ear laceration
UFC 223, Iaquinta and Bochniak, 60 days

These 60-90 days suspensions are very common and often they don't even involve an injury. Injuries immediately jack those numbers up to 6 months. With Gaetchje he had 4-5 months in between all his fights and no injuries so I can see that, even though he took two brutal K.O.'s.

 

[Mr hanky]

This guy will go very far in MW, gonna bump this thread one year from now...

And here we are...

 

[The Witcher]

@EndlessCritic what is your response now mang ?

 

[EndlessCritic]

@EndlessCritic what is your response now mang ?

What did I say that is untrue? There are elite prospects on every card.

The hype Adesanya had on here is completely disproportionate to the hype ACB champions Petr Yan and Zabit Magomedsharipov got for their debuts.

 

[The Witcher]

What did I say that is untrue? There are elite prospects on every card.

The hype Adesanya had on here is completely disproportionate to the hype ACB champions Petr Yan and Zabit Magomedsharipov got for their debuts.

there are prospects like this guy on every card. yet people still whine.

Ok you named 2.

Not being a dick though it just seemed like you didnt rate israel and now he is interim champ i wanted to see if your opinion had changed.

Zabit and Yan are still a couple fights away from title

 

[EndlessCritic]

Ok you named 2.

Not being a dick though it just seemed like you didnt rate israel and now he is interim champ i wanted to see if your opinion had changed.

Zabit and Yan are still a couple fights away from title

Yan and Zabit are both potentially one win away from a title.

Again, look at the card in a week from now. Look at all the elite guys making their debuts: Movsar Evloev, Tsurukyan, Fiziev, Shtrykov (lol). Any of those guys have the potential to be future champs.

 

[dmig]

Ok you named 2.

Not being a dick though it just seemed like you didnt rate israel and now he is interim champ i wanted to see if your opinion had changed.

Zabit and Yan are still a couple fights away from title

Israel is good, but he has flaws that good fighter can exploit. It's a shame MW is a dead division, that's why he looks like a world beater every time he steps in to fight. The fact that he hasn't fought good fighters also doesn't help the case. His opponents were cherry picked by UFC, just like they did with RDA when he moved to Welterweight. Marvin Vettori exploited his flaws and figured him out in the 3rd round, match makers didn't like that and stopped giving him guys that at least know something about wrestling after that. That's why I, and a lot of other people, rate Zabit and Yan higher than him, because they've been tested before and are a lot more well rounded as MMA fighters. They're also fighting in 2 out of 3 best divisions in the UFC, when Israel, like I said before, is fighting in a dead division.

 

[Mr hanky]

This guy will go very far in MW, gonna bump this thread one year from now...

promised bump