This is my "I thought Whittaker won" thread

[Pancake Sprawl]

Israel's fights will continue to be close as long as guys chess fight him. They will be slow, they will be boring, but Israel will most likely sneak out wins in chess match fights. The thing people underestimate are those leg kicks, under the new rules of MMA damage prevails, and Israel was eating him up with leg kicks, but he was missing alot on some punches. The takedowns more the most part were nothing.

he should've put more pressure on Rob when he had him tripping off those leg kicks. that's my only gripe about Adesanya in this fight

 

[Phisher]

can't argue with that actually. whittaker was equally trying to point fight and preserve himself

Costa really helped Izzy career by getting destroyed the way he did, Dana forgot about the Romero fight after that.

Maybe now the frustration with Izzy not finishing anyone will begin to brew again

Dana blamed Romero. That fight was why he got released.

Despite the fact that Izzy got trashed on this forum, the fact is that Romero was equally responsible for that fight sucking. Outside of the big counter in the first round, he did almost nothing, and refused to capitalize when he had Izzy's back.

I honestly think that Izzy is still shellshocked from the Pereira KO. He opened up and was super aggressive because he thought that he got robbed in the first fight, and he got brutally KO'd after tuning Pereira up for a round. Don't think that he wants to make that mistake again.

 

[YouCrazyIntheHeadMan]

I had it 49-46 or 48-47 for Rob. Goddammit.
It was close I guess.

You probably had too much drink and was rooting for whittaker. It's a clear victory for stylebender In my opinion.

 

[Red_Negan]

This wasn’t close, it was just Izzy controlled the fight and the same story happens every round. Izzy was in no danger, was comfortable, Rob had nothing for Izzy. A few jabs and a few takedowns with no offence? Not enough.

 

[Steve Fox]

I see a lot of emotional Sherdoggers not seeing things rationally.

Israel's fights will continue to be close as long as guys chess fight him. They will be slow, they will be boring, but Israel will most likely sneak out wins in chess match fights. The thing people underestimate are those leg kicks, under the new rules of MMA damage prevails, and Israel was eating him up with leg kicks, but he was missing alot on some punches. The takedowns more the most part were nothing.

This is a good assessment. Rob was playing Izzy's game.

This wasn’t close, it was just Izzy controlled the fight and the same story happens every round. Izzy was in no danger, was comfortable, Rob had nothing for Izzy. A few jabs and a few takedowns with no offence? Not enough.

Exactly!

 

[sjon22]

i felt like 2,3,4 were toss ups. I thought it was going to be a split decision.

Commentary was atrocious tho, most bias fight I can remember.

 

[RichardHarrow]

Rob fan here and can't stand Israel. Israel clearly won that fight 3 rounds to 2.

 

[FreedomCricket]

it was close and its one of those things, Dom vs jon, Shogun vs machida 1....you gotta beat the champ to be the champ....You cant eek it out, i felt whittaker won, id have to see the numbers tbh.....but im not mad or surprised izzy won. Wonder if whittaker goes back down

Unless your name is figueiredo. Then you can eek it out without actually winning the fight.

 

[Phisher]

Israel's fights will continue to be close as long as guys chess fight him. They will be slow, they will be boring, but Israel will most likely sneak out wins in chess match fights. The thing people underestimate are those leg kicks, under the new rules of MMA damage prevails, and Israel was eating him up with leg kicks, but he was missing alot on some punches. The takedowns more the most part were nothing.

Izzy's accuracy to the head has not been good since he fought Costa.

He was able to hit Vettori cleanly much easier in the first fight despite him struggling more in the last round.

That said. The only interesting fight for in the division is probably the trilogy against Pereira.

 

[The Witcher]

Adesanya was on the front foot the entire fight except when he was defending TDs. Neither guy was in there to take chances.

But yeah, his last three fights have felt like sparring sessions. Going to lose favor with Dana sooner or later unless there's a big finish.

Front foot dont mean shit. Rob landed the flusher punches besides round1 . Jabbed his face off

 

[STRAWBOSS]

Very close, but I thought Izzy got it. Maybe I need a rewatch.
IMO Rob was very hesitant to take risks and that's cost him here. What caught me was when Rob said: "I was surprised how well my gameplan worked"
This to me showed that he wasn't too confident in himself, which made him way more hesitant than he needed to be.

I wish he did more body work, threw more hooks and offense whilst Izzy was defending the takedowns.

Love Rob, but he should've taken more chances here.

this is the correct analysis. i say as a neutral observer because I really don’t have a special love or special hate for either fighter. But I am convinced of this interpretation of events.

 

[nately]

I had it 4-1 Rob no joke.

Not unreasonable. Whittaker had a takedown in four different rounds. In a round where little happens, those takedowns can be the deciding factor.

 

[Carsormyr]

I'm biased as all fuck for Rob, but I still only gave him rounds 2 and 5. The right guy got the DEC.

 

[YungSithLxrd]

2 fights, Costa was not a sparring session.

It was worse, Costa just stood there while izzy through leg kicks here and there until the finish came,which was basically the only exchange lol

 

[WingzOfRedemption]

Rob fought like fucking nick newell for god's sake. Dude threw the same jab and that's it

 

[JayTeeM]

Massive Whittaker fan here but I don't feel he did enough. I think he was content with just lasting the 5 rounds unfortunately. He seemed kind of delusional in his post fight interview tbh.


I don't think he ever truly believed. He was beaten before the opening bell.

 

[NattyBro]

I desperately wanted Rob to win and shut up Izzy but I thought he looked bad. I'm genuinely shocked people thought he won. I don't think he changed stances once the entire fight, threw maybe 4 different types of punches and got a few waste drags to the mat that he did nothing with. Oh and he jumped on Izzy's back once with again barely any result at all.

Izzy didn't do anything spectacular either but he at least knocked him down with a punch right down the middle, looked agile, confident and in control the entire time, and immediately popped out of any takedown like it barely happened. He's the champ and so the unfortunate truth is that's all he had to do to defend

 

[JustBleed69]

You probably had too much drink and was rooting for whittaker. It's a clear victory for stylebender In my opinion.

Oh yeah? Or what?

 

[sss133]

This was one of those ones where Izzy was more dangerous the whole fight and banked on that. He got bigger reactions from Rob and the fans but didn’t actually do a ton more damage.

One day he will probably come across some judges that don’t see the fight how he thinks it’s going and then the shit show after that will be wild.

Because he was so calm it gives the impression if he turned it up he could finish and with the first fight and the rd1 knock down every decent strike seems more dangerous

 

[23rd Century Sweetheart]

I had rob winking 4-1 or 3-2 .. he just doesn’t have the octagon IQ nor is he good enough at boxing nor submissions or take downs .. he’s a worse version of vittori .. if vittori had the octagon IQ of jone iones or gsp = he would destroy Izzy .. but he thinks he’s rock Marciano smh .. I’ve seen him training recently quite a few times and his boxing just isn’t there . Whitaker needs to go down to 170.. cannonier is too sloppy and will get finished by Izzy rather easily .

Rob will have no chin at 170 and he's on record saying the cut to welterweight is just too much for him. He gets stunned and dropped near every fight already. He's unfortunately just a hard #2 to Izzy.

 

[sss133]

How does Gastelum do more damage to Izzy than most of these contenders?

I’d say it’s a mind set thing. Didn’t believe the hype so didn’t have any hesitation. Plus has a better chin than most. I highly doubt if they fought again it’d be like that.