Izzy's title reign was pretty average in hindsight

[RonDante]

Nah, the worst part of the Yoel fight was with Israel hand picking him for a title shot and then underperforming. Yoel was 43 and -2 L by that point. Isreal coasted pretty hard in that fight and was a foreshadow of things to come

I don’t give the romero fight to yoel becuase “dude, adesanya refused to engage against the mighty soldier of god, let’s deduct 10 points!” I give it cause yoel won 3 rounds, 1 2 and 5, simple as. It was a robbery and it’s one of the worst for the excuses
“He didn’t take it to the champion”
“You can’t make it close if you’re challenging”
“He didn’t do anything”
“He didn’t go forward”
“Izzy destroyed his legs with those foot kicks, yoel could barely walk!”
“It doesn’t matter if yoel almost dropped him in the 2nd, izzy controlled the fight by kicking at range and getting no reaction”

 

[Bret 'The Hitman' Hart]

You people sicken me

Facts are facts.

Compared to guys who outrageously dominated for years and years like St.Pierre or Silva, Jizzy's title reign is nothing special.

GSP had two tough fights in over 10 years, and he won both (prime Condit and juiced Hendricks)

 

[Sincere Guy]

TS is right on spot. Never bought the hype. Never fought a real good wrestler as Weidman, or even Sonnen. It would be the end way earlier. Imagine Khamzat lol...

And, yes, Adesanya was never my friend REALLY, that's for sure.

 

[WokeWarrior]

Outside of anderson silva who is the next Best UFC Middle weight of all time.....

NUFF SAID....

weidman luke tim kennedy DDP strickland Bisping robert paula, jared, marvin GSP, WHO?

it goes Anderson, Izzy >>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

lol, i dont know how to post a GIF, but this is the Shang Tsung "IT has Begun" gif 100%

 

[Flower2dPeople]

lol, i dont know how to post a GIF, but this is the Shang Tsung "IT has Begun" gif 100%

Nah. It began in the 4th rd of the Strickland fight in the pbp thread when the pro-izzy and the haters agreed he was underwhelming against a journeyman.

 

[kingmob6]

Middleweight division is trash, absolute dogshit. Put Izzy's skillset at LW, WW, LHW, he wouldn't sniff a title. He took advantage of what he has, and for that I salute him. But he is not some ground breaking, all time fighter.

 

[DecisionSplit]

If Adesanya gets the Strickland rematch from the UFC and wins everyone will sing his praises. If he loses his next fight and possibly more and slides into a streak though. Then his legacy will probably be "overrated" forever from most people.

His fights against Romero and Whittaker 2 should honestly have been losses. And him getting these rushed strikers thrown to him like Pereira and Strickland causing him to lose when UFC protected him from having to face wrestlers like Chimaev, DDP, or even Nickal, will never not be absolutely hilarious. The idiots at WME probably thought it was genius to toss Strickland at Adesanya instead of a wrestler and it blew up in their faces.

 

[xhaydenx]

He was always a can.

Canesanya.

 

[JosephTessaro]

People will always find ways to discredit title reigns and find ways to discredit other fighters for not fighting in the UFC during their primes.

I mean I am not a huge fan of his antics or persona...but Izzy had a good run, and could have another before he is done.

 

[Dim1]

The way Strickland beat him is still a shock. I never would have expected that. Still expecting a grappler to take him down and submit or ground and pound him - watch Melvin first 30 secs of round 1:

 

[Gamer007]

I argued at the time that Romero beat Adesanya, that fight was really damning. He can't create his own offense like most other great MMA strikers.

Izzy only out landed Romero by 8 strikes, while Romero landed the most devastating shot in the fight while being more efficient across 5 rounds.

Izzy landed 25 leg kicks but Romero landed 13 of his own.

43 year old Romero on his lasts legs in the UFC, was fighting at a historically low pace, 89 strikes thrown in 5 rounds is the lowest I've seen since Maia did 89 against Woodley. On paper the gap between Izzy and other historically great MW's seems decently big, but in reality, it isn't at all. If Izzy fought a 39-year-old Romero he'd be sent to the morgue with the quickness.

But honestly the Silva fight showed the most, 44-year-old Silva post leg break coming off a TWO-year layoff, was out boxing Prime Izzy and forcing him to literally sprint along the cage. People forget the Silva that fought Brunson wasn't even the dude who fought Izzy two years later. If you take away the leg kicks in the Anderson fight, the strikes landed comes out to 36-34 in Izzy's favor despite the fact that Izzy threw 57 more strikes! A near half-century year old got leg kicked to death, but outside of that more than held his own, it took Silva 6-7 minutes to figure out that outside of the leg kicks Izzy didn't present too much danger.

The MW GOAT debate was always stupid, I'm glad it won't be mentioned again anytime soon. Anderson wasn't just a far more complete martial artist; Silva was just a strait up better striker too by a very wide margin.

 

[Sincere Guy]

If Adesanya gets the Strickland rematch from the UFC and wins everyone will sing his praises. If he loses his next fight and possibly more and slides into a streak though. Then his legacy will probably be "overrated" forever from most people.

His fights against Romero and Whittaker 2 should honestly have been losses. And him getting these rushed strikers thrown to him like Pereira and Strickland causing him to lose when UFC protected him from having to face wrestlers like Chimaev, DDP, or even Nickal, will never not be absolutely hilarious. The idiots at WME probably thought it was genius to toss Strickland at Adesanya instead of a wrestler and it blew up in their faces.

Of course they will, but I would be like "Strickland, really!? The simpleton who Adesanya should win easily in the first place!?", I mean, at the end of the day Adesanya lost to fucking Strickland LOL. "Ah, Strickland is this and that, his defense and pressure blah blah", said no one ever because they started painting Strickland like that ONLY AFTER the fight LOL... Imagine Anderson Silva losing to a guy like that, what shame would be... Impossible even to think.

So, if he wins, nothing more than his own obligation. He can't surpass Anderson anymore, so at least beating that guy would be a little less worse. Because losing to a guy like Chimaev would be embarrassing for sure, but expected, and losing to Strickland is a shame unimaginable in many levels because they always painted Adesanya as a "God striker" he never was and Strickland beat him in... the striking lol. Go figure.

 

[Gamer007]

The way Strickland beat him is still a shock. I never would have expected that. Still expecting a grappler to take him down and submit or ground and pound him - watch Melvin first 30 secs of round 1:

Past prime out of shape Melvin who fought out of his weight class was setup as the sacrifice and almost pulled it off lol, imagine that.


Melvin never secured a Rear-Naked choke his entire 54 fight career either, someone more skilled could've ended that fight.

 

[Here's Johnny!]

How many other guys you think beat Gastelum, Whittaker, Romero, Costa, Whittaker again, Cannonier, and Pereira at the times he beat them? Not many, I’d wager.

Whittaker beat all those guys except himself obviously...

Of course they will, but I would be like "Strickland, really!? The simpleton who Adesanya should win easily in the first place!?", I mean, at the end of the day Adesanya lost to fucking Strickland LOL. "Ah, Strickland is this and that, his defense and pressure blah blah", said no one ever because they started painting Strickland like that ONLY AFTER the fight LOL... Imagine Anderson Silva losing to a guy like that, what shame would be... Impossible even to think.

So, if he wins, nothing more than his own obligation. He can't surpass Anderson anymore, so at least beating that guy would be a little less worse. Because losing to a guy like Chimaev would be embarrassing for sure, but expected, and losing to Strickland is a shame unimaginable in many levels because they always painted Adesanya as a "God striker" he never was and Strickland beat him in... the striking lol. Go figure.

Never thought about it... but Strickland vs Rich Franklin... I think Rich wins it.. Rich was such a fun fighter to watch.

 

[ExitLUPin]

Middleweight division is trash, absolute dogshit. Put Izzy's skillset at LW, WW, LHW, he wouldn't sniff a title. He took advantage of what he has, and for that I salute him. But he is not some ground breaking, all time fighter.

Didnt used to be this way....

 

[ExitLUPin]

He was exciting. Most of the fights were dope.

That said, I do think he lost both the Yoel and Bobby Knuckles II fights, though the Yoel one was pretty close.

Taking that into light, he's been trading wins and losses since 2019.

Most his fights as champ were actually shite

Izzy as a contender has been far more exciting than champ

As champ

Yoel, Marvin, Rob rematch, Cannonier, Jan all trash

Costa, Alex 1 good, 1st for his performance it was one sided other genuinely great MMA fight

As contender

Brunson, Andy, Kelvin, Rob 1, Alex rematch

Hes objectively been far more boring as champ.

Sean fight on a rewatch was kinda meh too after round 1. It was just shocking in real time seeing Izzy dropped and walked like a dog but another low activity fight from him. Even when he needed a finish w/ Sean yelling in his face.... he did nothing

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I’d say more than that.

Jones
Anderson
GSP
Aldo
Fedor
Mighty Mouse
BJ
Khabib
Usman
Hughes
Stipe
Max
Volk
Barao
Wanderlei
Chuck
Etc


Also if you wanna count the women:

Nunes
Cyborg
Shevchenko
Joanna


These were all what I would consider “dominant” champs, meaning for a long period of time no one looked like they could beat them.

Izzy was getting dropped by Gastelum and eking out decisions in his prime, all the above mentioned were dominating for years.

Barao? Jesus.

 

[Thy]

i should've been excited when izzy was champ cause i loved anderson and his fights had me on my feet everytime. but izzy just got boring and i didn't enjoy his attitude and character.. didn't seem humble i guess and didn't pull off amazing things that burned into my memory really.

 

[sdpdude9]

Whittaker beat all those guys except himself obviously...

He came the closest but didn’t beat Pereira (though he never fought him) and also lost to Izzy twice. So again, not a lot of guys have previously or are currently able to do any better.

I’m definitely not a fan of Izzy but calling his reign average is a bad take considering only 6/98 champions in history have more title fight wins.