Izzy's title reign was pretty average in hindsight

Dudes personality is repulsive to me. But he fights more than most champions and displays a warriors mentality. If he rematches Sean S, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he finishes SS. Seems to me he just had a bad night and Sean had a great one. Let's see if we will ever find out.
 
Reapzz said:
Dudes personality is repulsive to me. But he fights more than most champions and displays a warriors mentality. If he rematches Sean S, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he finishes SS. Seems to me he just had a bad night and Sean had a great one. Let's see if we will ever find out.
Click to expand...
The outcome was the same that Pereira and Borrachinha - who have trained/fought both - predicted. So I dont think it was as much a matter of having a bad or good night

A win for Israel in a rematch is possible of course but I think Sean's style would always give Israel a world of trouble to pick his shots, which is what his game is about
 
Koro_11 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Wait....Izzy's wasn't impressive but Khabib's whopping 3 title defenses is?
 
Yellowcrab said:
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.
Click to expand...
I mean yeah he beat Alex 1 out of 4 times. Alex also beat a paper champion that’s no longer champion. One of the 5 times Izzy defended the belt was against the guy he won the paper belt from to start with. I think as far as dominant champions go Izzy is in a tier below guys like Khabib, Jon Jones, GSP, Aldo. His reign is more like a Tyron Woolley, Stipe, Kamaru Usman. Still very good just not one of the goats.
 
Numerically speaking, his title accomplishments have been better than average. 7 title wins (8 including interim) is more than most champions can attain. But I can see how many of the individual performances can be critiqued.
 
The story on Izzy hasn't been told yet. If he comes back, regains his belt and gets back on track, there's an argument he may still become the MW GOAT.
If he has a meandering record from this day forward, he's second fiddle to Silva
 
WallNStallToeStomper said:
Not gonna lie I honestly agree with you but I have another reason why to add into your argument.

Izzy is not a mixed martial artist in my humble opinion. He's a kickboxer who learned how to stuff takedowns. When he was having a lot of success with this approach he got too comfortable and lazy and began to drink his own koolaid. For a period of time this wasnt an issue but once he began to get into various difficult match ups and go to deep waters his ego would be his undoing.

Look at any of the various GOAT candidates for this sport who were able to defend their belt against a shark tank of killers. Jon Jones, GSP, DJ, and Fedor were well rounded multi faceted martial artists who were good anywhere the fight went and even in different positions in the ring/cage. They all had the fight IQ to make adjustments and strategize for each specific opponent by studying their tape and learning their tendencies.

Izzy is not on this level and allowed his lack of humility to be his downfall simply using the same limited toolset over and over until he inevitably got figured out and dethroned.
Click to expand...

He competes under mma rules so he is a mixed martial artist. He leans into striking over grappling, he’s a specialist, but he’s still an mma fighter, and honestly specialists should be celebrated.
 
kumitechamp said:
I mean yeah he beat Alex 1 out of 4 times. Alex also beat a paper champion that’s no longer champion. One of the 5 times Izzy defended the belt was against the guy he won the paper belt from to start with. I think as far as dominant champions go Izzy is in a tier below guys like Khabib, Jon Jones, GSP, Aldo. His reign is more like a Tyron Woolley, Stipe, Kamaru Usman. Still very good just not one of the goats.
Click to expand...

No he beat a guy that beat a champ in a higher weight class. Also, Kamaru faced better competition than GSP ever did.

Well you're just biased.
 
Marko Polo said:
He competes under mma rules so he is a mixed martial artist. He leans into striking over grappling, he’s a specialist, but he’s still an mma fighter, and honestly specialists should be celebrated.
Click to expand...
I agree and I'll celebrate Izzy when he retires. Cheers man. I just wish he had another trick up his sleeve for when he fins himself in a situation like his fight with Strickland.
 
WallNStallToeStomper said:
I agree and I'll celebrate Izzy when he retires. Cheers man. I just wish he had another trick up his sleeve for when he fins himself in a situation like his fight with Strickland.
Click to expand...

He should just be good enough to beat championship level fighters for the entirety of his career.
 
Koro_11 said:
Khabib was dominant in every fight, he had 3 title defenses cause he decided to retire, he didn’t get exposed by 3 different dudes in his prime like Izzy.
Click to expand...

Still......3 defenses. That's only 2 more than Murilo Bustamante and only 3 more than Dave Menne.
 
Koro_11 said:
-Goes life and death with Kelvin Gastelum to win the interim belt

-Has an impressive knockout of Whittaker to unify the title

-Has an absolute stinker against Romero that shouldn't even be counted as a win

-Runs through some weird timid version of Costa

-Gets beat by Jan Blahowich at 205

-Gets a forgettable decision over Marvin Vettori

-Wins a close decision over Whittaker

-Has another stinker for a decision against Cannonier

-Gets TKO'd by Poatan

-Pulls off a knockout over Poatan in a fight he was soundly losing

-Gets practically shut out by Sean Strickland


So in 11 fights, 3 are losses.

Of the 8 wins one is basically a draw, and 2 others are very close competitive decisions where he took no risk. 2 more are lame decisions where he also took virtually no risk.

He's got a few finishes in there that give the impression that he's more of a killer than he really is, but realistically and statistically most of his fights against the top guys are either close competitive fights, boring decisions, or him on the losing end.

People were already comparing him to Anderson after like 2 title defenses, but he's nowhere close to him or Jones, or GSP, or even Marty.

Looking back Izzy's title reign is most comparable to that of say Tyron Woodley, which is a very respectable accomplishment so no shame in that. Dude was still a very good fighter, just not that elite level type that could stand the test of time and many different types of opponents.

GSP, Anderson, Bones, Fedor.... those dudes were really special man.
Click to expand...
You seem to have a perfection or trash look at things. I don’t think he sucks. I think he is above average and his insane activity is what made him go from good to great. Losses are part of it but I don’t believe he is trash or sucks. He Probably stopped evolving and due to his massive success in and out of the octagon, he probably stopped being hungry.
 
Yellowcrab said:
No he beat a guy that beat a champ in a higher weight class. Also, Kamaru faced better competition than GSP ever did.

Well you're just biased.
Click to expand...
Kamaru was not as dominant is what I said. It’s a different era of course competition is stronger across the board. I mean if you think Izzy is the best fighter or best 5 or 6 to ever do it go ahead man power to you. I don’t see it that way. Hall of fame sure goat no.
 
Baal said:
I'm with you

I never bought into the Izzy hype

He's lucky that the era he was in had no good grapplers; he'd get destroyed by prime versions of Weidman, Luke, Jacare, Kennedy, Chael.

Heck, a 43 year old Yoel had a 50-50 fight against prime Izzy
Click to expand...
Don't forget about an over the hill Silva gave him all he could handle.
 
kumitechamp said:
Kamaru was not as dominant is what I said. It’s a different era of course competition is stronger across the board. I mean if you think Izzy is the best fighter or best 5 or 6 to ever do it go ahead man power to you. I don’t see it that way. Hall of fame sure goat no.
Click to expand...

Obviously not a GOAT, especially after his really embarrassing loss against Strickland. But in my opinion he's at least the second best MW ever.

I mean so far because if he continues to lose fights, his legacy will take a huge hit.
 
Yellowcrab said:
Obviously not a GOAT, especially after his really embarrassing loss against Strickland. But in my opinion he's at least the second best MW ever.

I mean so far because if he continues to lose fights, his legacy will take a huge hit.
Click to expand...
I agree with this take 100 percent. He gonna have to prove that Strickland fight was a fluke to overtake Anderson Silva at this point. His legacy as a great champion set in stone though . It is hard to stay on top that long I give him that.
 
Winning a UFC title is difficult (unless you have the promotions blessing), defending it multiple times is impressive. Clearing out the top 5, averaging 3 fights a calendar year as a defending champion, losing the title and winning it back via KO stoppage is damn near legendary. I'd say Adesanya is well above-average. No one in the post-WME era has a resume comparable to that.

I remember the days when people used to hate Anderson and GSP. It's funny how these new crop of fans come around on fighters. You'll appreciate Adesanya when he's gone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,170
Messages
58,263,044
Members
175,986
Latest member
BloodandBeer

Share this page

Back
Top