Man Whittaker is so good but yet still a heavy underdog..

He's got a puncher's chance. I thought he could win by mixing in wrestling, but Israel has really improved his defense.
 
Rockman14 said:
Do you think he could beat Isreal?
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Yes. He is a better striker than Vettori and would have made adjustements to body shots that vettori refused to.

Rob can also wrestle and catch those reactionary takedowns. I want to see Rob fight like GSP. Straight jabs and crosses before shooting the reactionary takedown. Rinse and repeat until Izzy starts to slow down.
 
maximus__ said:
Yes. He is a better striker than Vettori and would have made adjustements to body shots that vettori refused to.

Rob can also wrestle and catch those reactionary takedowns. I want to see Rob fight like GSP. Straight jabs and crosses before shooting the reactionary takedown. Rinse and repeat until Izzy starts to slow down.
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I really wanna see the rematch because Rob fought kinda crazy the first time, constantly moving forward throwing that big 1 2 combo which clearly wasnt gonna land, looked very impatient (nervous?) maybe this time he’ll fight more like his last 3.
 
If he's not going full on Khabib mode, just magnetizing himself to Izzy like Khabib did to Barboza before mushing him on the ground... it ain't happening. He lacks reach and lunges in all exposed to this day, his stand up just doesn't work that well against taller strikers.
 
The way he fought Kelvin, and took him down. Definitely has a good chance. He was reckless in their first fight and paid for it..
 
Whittaker’s biggest issue in their first fight was the pull counter. He was also wayyyy in or wayyy out, and he doesn’t have the reach to play the distance game with Adesanya. I don’t think Whittaker mixing in his wrestling is a good idea either considering Vettori is a much stronger guy and better wrestler and he struggled with Adesanya in that department.

One thing Vettori did really well was he knew when the pull counter was coming. Instead of exchanging with Izzy he would just crash forward and nullify it completely.
 
Portland8242 said:
The problem is is that Whittaker wins his fights by technically outclassing his opponents on the feet.

Israel is almost impossible to beat that way.
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Jan did it that way. Romero almost did it. Kelvin took some rounds but that was a war.

Point is Izzy gets so passive sometimes that his opponents can steal the rounds.
 
Axe720 said:
He's got a puncher's chance. I thought he could win by mixing in wrestling, but Israel has really improved his defense.
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I think Izzy wins but your criminally underestimating Rob , who's a dynamic striker with a well rounded ground game and overall high fight IQ . Saying he just " has a punchers chance" is almost offensive .
 
Rockman14 said:
I really wanna see the rematch because Rob fought kinda crazy the first time, constantly moving forward throwing that big 1 2 combo which clearly wasnt gonna land, looked very impatient (nervous?) maybe this time he’ll fight more like his last 3.
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Idk I kind of think he might do something at least similar in the rematch, his issue is that Israel has a crazy amount of length on him and the technical ability to utilize it.

This presents Whitaker with a serious dIleana; sit back and let Adesanya dominate the range, or try to pressure him and risk getting countered. Last time he chose to do the latter and went out on his shield.
 
Well his biggest strength is his striking. That is izzy fav game. Bad style matchup for him. Izzy is gunna light him up again. Rob is a good enough striker to beat most guys. But he isnt elite. He was whooping ass then wonderboy koed him. Then he went on another run until he met izzy.
 
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What Whittaker has going for him is that there's not much else Izzy can do differently whereas Whittaker could fight way more cautiously.
 
The DanaWhite said:
He does that then he is stuck on the outside playing izzys fav game
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Well he can be far less reckless thsts for sure. He exchanged punches on the inside and got wrecked. He can try and throw more kicks and time in takedowns.
 
He needs to use his wrestling to setup his striking. This time he needs to either in or out, not just hanging around in striking distance.
 
Weird how everyone is looking at Israel as some unbeatable monster now. Why does everyone forget he got completely dominated just one fight ago?
 
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