Izzy falls apart against leg checkers

[Fatback96]

Izzy did not look “off” of “having a bad night” as Dana put it. He looked like himself, the same as he always does against guys who check leg kicks.

All 3 of Izzy’s losses in the UFC have come to guys who know how to check leg kicks. He relies on the leg kicks as his main distance strike and a round winner when the hand striking is even.

When he doesn’t have leg kicks to rely on as his main volume weapon, you realize how limited his hand striking actually is. He still kicks to the body and head, but he still is forced to use his hands a lot more.

Jan B, Alex P, and now Sean Strickland have all shown that one of the main keys to beating Izzy is to know how to check leg kicks, so that Izzy can’t rely on them as a round winner when the rounds may be fairly close.

Wouldn’t be surprised if DDP has a lot of success against Izzy in the future, as he checks leg kicks very well.

 

[Marko Polo]

It’s a big part of his arsenal. I’ve watched him win fights for years off leg kicks alone, the Costa fight being the best example of that. With that said, I’m wondering whether he’s just lost a bit of speed and now his kicks are looking more telegraphed. I also think that after the Pereira fights it would be impossible to get up for any other opponent

 

[Lost_Cause]

Story checks out.

 

[backlight]

 

[mjfan23]

He was forced to throw the question mark kick over and over to get Sean off that leg kick checking run.


But with Sean’s upright style kicking leg kicks is actually easier that checking body shots. Against Izzy that’s all he needed

 

[KID Yamamoto]

Literally no one checked a single leg kick from Izzy until Periera. If you look at most of Izzy's feints they just lead into a low leg/calf kick 90% of the time. Sean standing up right while definitely not traditional thai style does make it far easier to lift and check. The Hall and Cannonier fights there were moments of him checking but he really worked on it for this fight.

 

[Cat Biscuits]

Sean had perfect timing, and saw all the shots coming in. Izzy could not land his best shots with his counter overhand, or counter hook that he catches everyone else with.

 

[BoD 2.0]

I hadn't thought of this, but very good point.

 

[Guy LeDouche]

Literally no one checked a single leg kick from Izzy until Periera. If you look at most of Izzy's feints they just lead into a low leg/calf kick 90% of the time. Sean standing up right while definitely not traditional thai style does make it far easier to lift and check. The Hall and Cannonier fights there were moments of him checking but he really worked on it for this fight.

Jan did great with checking kicks too which set him up for success in the standup in their fight.

 

[HaulParris]

Good analysis. Now I want to see Strickland vs Jan so that we can see how they match up - not for a belt necessarily, just from a sporting standpoint.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

It’s a big part of his arsenal. I’ve watched him win fights for years off leg kicks alone, the Costa fight being the best example of that. With that said, I’m wondering whether he’s just lost a bit of speed and now his kicks are looking more telegraphed. I also think that after the Pereira fights it would be impossible to get up for any other opponent

He looks fine - he just doesn't know how to set up strikes if his opponent's mobility is not compromised (or in the case of the last Alex fight they get over aggressive in punching range). If you watch his punches, in which he's trying to lead, he over extends and almost always relies on his footwork to try and land them and not jabs, feints.

How did he land the punches that stopped costa? By fucking up Costa's leg from the start. I think it was like 17 leg kicks landed in the first round. And most of them were hard kicks. You can clearly see costa struggling to start the 2nd round and he had zero explosivness by the end of 1st.

Sean had perfect timing, and saw all the shots coming in. Izzy could not land his best shots with his counter overhand, or counter hook that he catches everyone else with.

Because sean had his mobility and was able to move (react) since his leg was not fucked up.


And you clearly saw Izzy getting desperate and dumbfounded when he tried to bait sean, multiple times, with the same trap he baited alex with and sean was not falling for it.

 

[JonnyBonesPharmacist]

Good analysis. Now I want to see Strickland vs Jan so that we can see how they match up - not for a belt necessarily, just from a sporting standpoint.

Yeah, at 185 this time ( Jan)

 

[Poatan Power]

I'd say it's a little bit of both. I think it's worth mentioning that once Izzy got floored, he didn't seem to sit on his punches as much by my eye.

Sean def earned this, but sometimes it's hard to discern if someone is "off" that night vs just the general way someone looks when their timing is disrupted at every turn. Which is amazing.

 

[ArtardFiesta]

if alex doesn't get caught with izzy hail mary pucnh, izzy is on a 3 fight losing streak right now

 

[Goutfather]

whenever a fighter has a dramatically diminished performance relative to their previous outings, you gotta wonder if something’s up. in the past, when usada came around, lots of fighters fell off a cliff inexplicably. of course everyone sort of knew what was happening. im wondering (but not outright stating) if something similar is afoot with izzy. he has that titty which grew out of nowhere. It just makes me wonder if his crappy performance was due to him fucking up his cycle. all respect to sean of course. he would have won either way, but izzy looked way slower and tentative than usual.

 

[Marko Polo]

He looks fine - he just doesn't know how to set up strikes if his opponent's mobility is not compromised (or in the case of the last Alex fight they get over aggressive in punching range). If you watch his punches, in which he's trying to lead, he over extends and almost always relies on his footwork to try and land them and not jabs, feints.

How did he land the punches that stopped costa? By fucking up Costa's leg from the start. I think it was like 17 leg kicks landed in the first round. And most of them were hard kicks. You can clearly see costa struggling to start the 2nd round and he had zero explosivness by the end of 1st.


Because sean had his mobility and was able to move (react) since his leg was not fucked up.


And you clearly saw Izzy getting desperate and dumbfounded when he tried to bait sean, multiple times, with the same trap he baited alex with and sean was not falling for it.

I hear you man I just don’t think it’s that simple. There’s set ups and timing and what not, Sean did tremendously well to stay in there and not buy any of Izzy’s flashy stuff, but why was it not effective. Is Sean really that good defensively when he wants to be? Maybe. As with most things in life it’s probably a factor of a lot of things

 

[Marko Polo]

whenever a fighter has a dramatically diminished performance relative to their previous outings, you gotta wonder if something’s up. in the past, when usada came around, lots of fighters fell off a cliff inexplicably. of course everyone sort of knew what was happening. im wondering (but not outright stating) if something similar is afoot with izzy. he has that titty which grew out of nowhere. It just makes me wonder if his crappy performance was due to him fucking up his cycle. all respect to sean of course. he would have won either way, but izzy looked way slower and tentative than usual.

I’d be very surprised if Adesanya is or has been taking stuff. Just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy, he’s proud

 

[ExitLUPin]

Completely agreed. His boxing is not that great.

It's no surprise Alex and Jan both picked Sean to win. They saw it.

 

[WolverReem]

Shut down your opponents offense and you win the striking battle. Defense won Strickland this fight

 

[Goutfather]

I’d be very surprised if Adesanya is or has been taking stuff. Just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy, he’s proud

i never really bought his explanation for how his titty got there. smoking weed? ive heard of that happening to couch potatoes in their teens, but a grown professional athlete? it almost always means a bad post-cycle therapy. i doubt the ufc would allow it to be known if he were juicing tho, seeing how they’ve dealt with high-name value fighters in the past.

basically i just think it’s weird. his performance was so different from his previous outing, it’s hard to believe he’d age that much overnight.