Sean beat Izzy with only boxing. Crazy.

[JudoJabs]

He checked / blocked the vast majority of Izzy's leg and body kicks, and I think one head kick partially got through and grazed Strickland a bit.

Sean landed his teep to the gut far more than Izzy landed any of his kicks.

Sean Strickland won the kicking game against Izzy

If you woulda told me Sean Strickland was gonna out-kick Adesanya in their fight I woulda told you you're a fucking lunatic.

those checks were textbook as well

 

[bambammccoy]

Some of you guys are still stuck in that UFC 1 mindset it's wild

 

[CPH]

His boxing would not have been enough if he had not been able to shut down Israel’s kicking game. Once he did that, it was Sean’s boxing vs Adesanya’s …which it turns out, is vastly superior.

 

[phenomphan2]

The checking was perfect. Izzy relies on low kicks a lot.

 

[Snoowpy]

Well Shaun beat Izzy with a Boxing based style. But make no mistake he knows the range of the MMA fight. Muay thai even has names for styles in Muay Thai wherr you have Boxing based Muay Thai fighters too. The difference is these fighters (just like Strickland) know how to defend kicks, knees and more of this and counter. I am the same way, I box different then I kickbox because my bladed shoulder roll based style gets my shit kicked in in kickboxing.

But when I catch a teep I almost always feint a straight/block vision with my straight and blast a liverhook. Doesn't make me a Boxer in that instance.

While MMA certainly favours hand strikes more then Muay Thai and Kickboxing(tinier gloves, more damage/protection). Pure Boxing is filled with loads of differences. Fundamentals work though. 1-2's are everywhere and so are front kicks and checks. The thing making him win wasn't the 1-2's( which did look good with sufficient power) but it was the defence displayed while staying calm and collected. He applied pressure and was in control, had enough gas which drained Izzy. Izzy needed to fight backwards and had to use a lot of brainpower and movement to reset again. For it to happen all over again.

The defence, cardio and pressure was what won him the fight.

 

[Bearknuckle]

I have been saying this for a while but all you need in MMA is a good one two, and striking defence, TD defence to be effective.

Wow, no ones figured that out but you!!!! You could be mma champ bro!

All u need in boxing is a jab and some head movement, shiet easy bruh

 

[Bearknuckle]

Also, u could say izzy’s boxing lost him the fight, he tried a boxing counter left hook and got hit with an mma striking overhand right that dropped him, followed by mma gnp and mma collar tie punches.

 

[JudoJabs]

His boxing would not have been enough if he had not been able to shut down Israel’s kicking game. Once he did that, it was Sean’s boxing vs Adesanya’s …which it turns out, is vastly superior.

yeah his checking was superb

 

[The XL]

Better than Palestines

Lmao

 

[tramendous]

Pretty wild. The narrative was that Sean has no footwork and his legs would get eaten alive before getting in range to work his boxing game.

Sean didn't even attempt one takedown or even try to initiate a clinch against the cage…barely threw any leg kicks.

i didnt think israel was dumb enough to overlook Sean, but the way he was talking about picking khamzat over dricus next looks really bad in retrospect.

Big fan of Sean, good for him. Hopefully he racks up a few defenses and beats Izzy 2x.

Im sure he used boxing to check and defend all those kicks.

 

[Kb7]

Wtf was that gameplan by Izzy's team? There's no reason Izzy should've been backing up 100% of the time. When Sean was approaching Alex like that he got slept.

Adesanya is afraid of fighting in the pocket & clearly he doesn’t react well to getting hit, Pereira does well in the pocket, is confident enough in his skills to fight in it. Adesanya’s coach is overrated, I’ve always thought that.l, they had no plan b and given Israel’s skill set, fighting style I can see why.

 

[RoyJonesJr]

Hands are faster than most kicks, add some pressure and suddenly izzy is scared to set stuff up in fear of the counter punching.




Izzy failed to adapt...poor coaching and fight iq on display for a would be goat candidate imo.





A true apex alpha world beater adapts mid fight, izzy's best bet would've been to try to lead the dance and out pressure Sean I guess

Ya I was shocked at how little Izzy adapted

His corner seemed a bit too calm

I still think fighting Alex back 2 back, with the last fight being 5 months ago had a huge effect

He underestimated Strickland and had a quick around without his body being able to recover

Sean winning is one thing, but Izzy literally whiffing on every punch when we know Izzy can do better was the weird part

 

[ryun253]

I have been saying this for a while but all you need in MMA is a good one two, and striking defence, TD defence to be effective.

Dazz it mayne. Imagine Mike Tyson in his prime with some defense & Godly TDD. It wouldn't be fair

 

[2004 account]

Ya I was shocked at how little Izzy adapted

His corner seemed a bit too calm

I still think fighting Alex back 2 back, with the last fight being 5 months ago had a huge effect

He underestimated Strickland and had a quick around without his body being able to recover

Sean winning is one thing, but Izzy literally whiffing on every punch when we know Izzy can do better was the weird part

Yea for sure that had to have factored in. Izzy's such coveted strength of schedule came back to bite him in the ass, and now some of that damage is irreversible, he is becoming worn out and losing some of his reflex speed perhaps, we shall see his next fight, hope he gets rest imo

 

[JudoJabs]

Im sure he used boxing to check and defend all those kicks.

For some reason when people use the b word (boxing) in here some people get offended. It’s weird, I don’t see it with anything else. It does indeed trigger though which is fascinating.

If a guy with tremendous wrestling is able to maintain ground control and dominate with takedowns and someone goes “his wrestling won him that fight”,

we don’t hear people reacting with.

“Well, his wrestling didn’t help with his kicks”

 

[WolverReem]

Pretty wild. The narrative was that Sean has no footwork and his legs would get eaten alive before getting in range to work his boxing game.

Sean didn't even attempt one takedown or even try to initiate a clinch against the cage…barely threw any leg kicks.

i didnt think israel was dumb enough to overlook Sean, but the way he was talking about picking khamzat over dricus next looks really bad in retrospect.

Big fan of Sean, good for him. Hopefully he racks up a few defenses and beats Izzy 2x.

Boxing doesn't teach you the kick defense he had to use to beat Izzy. Training with an elite kickboxer like Alex really helped Sean

 

[CagedStupidity]

What's crazier is we had a champ who couldn't mix it and try grappling with the guy beating him up.

It's almost like the premier MMA organization purposely filled its ranks with 1-dimensional strikers instead of actually finding the best fighters in the world.

 

[FlowchartRog]

Yeah, also Sherdog's headline of "Strickland outworks Adesanya" is misleading. Adesanya through more total strikes, Strickland outboxed him plain and simple.

 

[WolverReem]

It's almost like the premier MMA organization purposely filled its ranks with 1-dimensional strikers instead of actually finding the best fighters in the world.

Yeah this is proof Mousasi definitely would have beaten Izzy

 

[fandangler101]

The push kick was really effective though. He kept landing it throughout the fight, basically whenever their hands were tied up, and it bothered Izzy in the late rounds. You might even say Strickland won the kicking game too. I can barely believe I'm saying that.

Exactly this. TS isn’t talking about the push kicks enough. I thought it was obvious each Strickland kick that landed interrupted Izzy’s pace.