Izzy's title reign was pretty average in hindsight

[TankAbbott4Eva]

I bet you think Tank Abbott was a great champ too right?

 

[Thick_Strong_Tight]

Lmao people are wild. Considering what you just said, there are about 5 people in history who have impressive title reigns.

Kidding aside, you make a point. Very few champions have held UFC belts for any significant period of time. Most titles seem to change hands quickly; the Jon Jones/Anderson Silva/George St. Pierres are quite unusual.

 

[HoelHomero]

I think most fans would appreciate quality over quantity especially in Izzy’s case where the returns were less and less.

You want an MMA fighter, a champion in his weightclass, to fight less? And that would increase your respect for him?

I'm not sure I get it - sure his fans would appreciate if he fights less and therefore wins more often or more spectacularely. But that wasn't the point of discussion.
I said people fail to appreciate a fighter who takes every fight, looks for challenge, fights frequently. And that is why we have a bunch of rank squatting bullshit twitter warriors now.

 

[Greg House]

It can't be denied that he is the 2nd best middleweight of all time, but yeah, weak reign in hindsight

Andy>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Izzy>Whittaker>Others

 

[Bork Neslar]

You try to make it seem "average" but your own description shows that it's actually impressive.

 

[Humongo]

4-3 in his last 7 fights

 

[Yellowcrab]

There has only been like 3 champions that lasted more than 1 fight. Izzy never even beat a champion other than ancient Anderson never beat anybody that had beaten a champion. Won a paper belt and defended a few times. Got absolutely tooled by Sean Strickland. That was a horrible loss it’s like reality never sets in.

He beat Alex who beat Jan and Strickland, oh wait... also nobody cares about your fake criteria : defended the belt 5 times while going in the LHW division in the meantime, that's all what matters.

His loss against Strickland is embarrassing though.

 

[RonDante]

I think he’s extremely creepy. But I don’t think he got any gift decisions. I think he had a couple close calls. But I can’t say for sure that he lost vs Whittaker, and certainly not to Romero.

I also think he is basically a boring point fighter, with a few flashes of brilliance. Which would be fine if he wasn’t always predicting big finishes. I think that’s lame as fuck. I knew he could not beat Jan, and I said so. But he’s the rightful favourite in any other fight, imo.

But he did win the belt, and defended it several times. So I don’t think anybody can say his reign was “average”.

And remember.. I don’t like a single thing about Izzy, except for his activity. But his run was not average, imo.

If barely anything happens, you focus in on what did, and when you do that, you see romero constantly tagging adesanya in the 5th with head strikes while adesanya kicks him in the legs and fails to stop him moving forward

 

[AmbassadorFright]

He had a decent run. A lot of stinky, boring performances and he wasn't as dominant as some claim he was

 

[orca]

Weidman, the guy with the most possible awful record under USADA ?

People will never learn, Izzy is in a different game, like any current UFC fighter.

prime weidman would just move forward and pressure izzy
dude is strong af ,heavy hands the threat of takedowns

btw no one here believes izzy is natural

 

[Here's Johnny!]

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.

Oh sorry I wasn't hating on izzy. I'd say he is number 2 MW... I think he is more impressive than Usman or Woodley...

Usman only has title defenses against Colby and Masvidal and Burns...

Woodley beat Wonderboy(kinda) Maia and Till

All of these guys people said we're better than GSP or Silva lol

 

[Yellowcrab]

btw no one here believes izzy is natural

It doesn't matter : even if he's a cheater, under USADA he can't cheat as much as previous fighters.

It is really not hard to understand, so people have to stop with such a lame excuse... i mean it's insane to see so weak arguments.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

GSP, Anderson, Bones, Fedor.... those dudes were really special man.

He's in the 98%, not the 99%. That's your actual argument, isn't it? And I agree with it.

But because in your head you're arguing against uber-fans who put him into A Silva category, you forgot for half a second that reaching the 98% is a God. Damned. Impressive. Feat.

Funny thing is, I'm not and never was a big fan either.

 

[Jon's Drug Dealer]

Adesanya started fighting safe and boring after the Blachowicz loss.

 

[NovaJon93]

7 title wins (8 including interim) is impressive in its own right but doesn't stack up to the legendary title reigns some of the very greatest have had.

 

[Substance Abuse]

MMA is hard. Not everyone is going to look amazing in every fight, especially in title fights when your opposition is extremely talented, everyone has a ton of tape on you, the pressure has never been more intense and you incorporate other factors like weight cuts, four ounce gloves, injuries and whatnot.

The facts are that Adesanya is the second best Middleweight in UFC history based off of his title defenses and accomplishments with one of the most active schedules in the sport. Nit picking his wins don't invalidate that fact.

 

[Lee_]

I hate to say it, but Izzy didn't look like himself. He may beat Strickland in a rematch.

 

[Captain_Dammitt]

Nah, it was a really good one.

 

[mudrubble]

Lmao people are wild. Considering what you just said, there are about 5 people in history who have impressive title reigns.

And the rest were never our friends

 

[IloveTHIS]

you dont have to undermine the mans legit wins to prove a point.

The fight with Gastelum was one of the best fights of all time. Fighters would kill to have that on their resume, and he did win that GOAT war and dropped Gastelum like 4 times.

He starched Costa with out getting touched from what I remember. Absolutely iced him with ease. Im one of Costas biggest fans but lets call it like it is.

Beating Whittaker by stoppage AND decision is impressive AF and that was the best versions of Whittaker.

Do agree his "win" over Romero was shameful tho lol.