News Israel Adesanya vs Nassourdine Imavov in the works to headline UFC Saudi Arabia on Feb. 1

[PharoahHeight]

Hope Izzy gets the win, sometimes you see champs after they lose their belt just be "missing" something, maybe its motivation or they've climbed the mountain. But you'll see ex-champs go on crazy L skids to guys they would've had no issues with in their prime.

Pettis comes to mind.....

 

[Ibm]

I hope Israel focuses. He does, he wins.

 

[chinarice]

Lol Izzy ducked Caio Borralho

Imagine believing Izzy of all people is ducking someone. lol it's like you didn't even follow his career

 

[Psychojoe86]

Good stuff. I think Izzy still wins this. He’s had recent struggles but only against the elite. Imavov is not.

 

[CatchtheseHands]

LOL Imamov/Allen was 3 rounds and ffs you're playing "illegitimate stoppage" & "visibly gassed"?

Soooo....
-you didn't know his last fight was 3 rounds
-you dinged him for what - you perceived - as a bad stoppage that he had no control over
-you dinged him for how tired - you perceived - he looked as he stopped a top 5 fighter
-you think he's 3-1 in 5 rounders (b/c you incorrectly think Allen was 5) and he sucks at them?

And you suggested I go rewatch fights while you didn't even know the correct number of rounds?

Forget it. Yeah Imavov sucks in 5 rounds. My favorite was how he gassed vs Allen and got 10-7'd in both rounds 4 and 5.


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Calm down buddy it's not that serious. I remembered Imavov vs Allen as a fight night headliner. My bad, but regarding Jared vs Imavov, literally EVERYONE thought that was a bad stoppage. The dude was still on his feet and defending. Not to mention in his fight with Caio he got rocked badly a couple of times and recovered quite quickly. Which even more so proves that was a BAD stoppage. Either way, Imavov is not getting past Izzy and if it was not for recency bias you wouldn't think so either. Izzy has only lost to DDP, Alex and Sean most recently. All guys that would kick Imavov's ass and Sean already has.

 

[legedema]

Imavov will win this one.
he is not an elite wrestler but he is by far better wrestler than Izzy.
Izzy is a quitter when it comes to the ground game.
I am expecting submission win by Imavov

 

[spinup]

I don't see Izzy losing this one at all. Especially because it's a 5 rounder. Imavov sucks in 5 rounders.

Weirdly Imavov has shown big cardio issues in some 3 rounders (Allen, Buckley, Hawes) but was better in 5 rounds fights (Cannonier, Dolidze, Strickland). Even thought Strickland beat him handily, Imavov won round 5 (granted, Strickland was coasting, and it was a short notice for him).

 

[Brigfa2]

Much respect to Izzy. Guy won't sit around for another title shot and is willing to defend his position.

He already got one undeserved title fight lol there is no chance of him getting another one so of course he will fight

 

[moreorless87]

Much respect to Izzy. Guy won't sit around for another title shot and is willing to defend his position.

He's already had one questionable title shot.

 

[fortheo]

Imavov will win this one.
he is not an elite wrestler but he is by far better wrestler than Izzy.
Izzy is a quitter when it comes to the ground game.
I am expecting submission win by Imavov

Imavov is not a submission threat, like at all, but he will have a wrestling advantage, even though I worry about his cardio if he goes that route.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Really like this, make it happen. I can see Imanov trying to wrestle him but failing.

 

[svmr_db]

Imavov will win this one.
he is not an elite wrestler but he is by far better wrestler than Izzy.
Izzy is a quitter when it comes to the ground game.
I am expecting submission win by Imavov

Izzy has been submitted once in nearly 30 MMA fights, but now it's happening again just because you saw it last lol. Brilliant.

 

[Tweak896]

Pettis comes to mind.....

Yep, plenty of champs after they lose the belt just keep losing to guys you know they would've beat a year or 2 ago.

 

[DudeBroMMA]

Izzy doesnt have the fire in him. Imanov by decision.

 

[FreedomCricket]

This is gonna be a boring Izzy fight. He'll win by decision after 5 rounds of pitter patter.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Much respect to Izzy. Guy won't sit around for another title shot and is willing to defend his position.

He did that after losing to Sean though, its just that he got his shot and lost so now he there's no way around fighting someone behind in the rankings.

 

[CobraCobretti]

This could be really boring actually. Same goes to him vs Caio tho so if they decided not go move to Shara Bullet route, I guess it's what ever.

 

[TerraRayzing]

He did that after losing to Sean though, its just that he got his shot and lost so now he there's no way around fighting someone behind in the rankings.

I was half asleep when I made the initial post. My main point was that he's willing to work his way back up and fight the new guys. Unlike say... Colby?
Colby ain't calling for an instant title shot either but before the Buckley fight, he was calling out Wonder boy and you know that if he had won, he would have called for a title shit.

 

[Islam Imamate]

I was half asleep when I made the initial post. My main point was that he's willing to work his way back up and fight the new guys. Unlike say... Colby?
Colby ain't calling for an instant title shot either but before the Buckley fight, he was calling out Wonder boy and you know that if he had won, he would have called for a title shit.

Oh yeah you can't compare Izzy to Colby. I wasn't a fan of Izzy sitting out for the shot against DDP but by that point he was a two time champion with five titles defenses under his belt and he had a strong storyline to work off of with DDP so it made way more sense than Colby's 2nd title shot.

 

[Xanzito]

3 pages and nobody pointed that Izzy still have that dog in him yet?