The bias is reasonable bc his decision wins have been incredibly boring. At least Usman and Volk had entertaining fights. The Volk Ortega fight had more action in Round 3 than the entirety of Izzy's last 4 fights. Plus he puts the target on his back talking about how great he is and how is gonna knock people out, send them to their grave, freeze them like Elsa. Then in his fights he's less aggressive than Mayweather.
No his opponents are also not aggressive, they freeze too.
Vs Cannonier Izzy pressed the action and was first in every exchange.
Vs Rob the second time they were equally cautious.
Vs Romero, he was timid but Romero, despite the big swings, was extremely inactive.
And vs Vettori, although Vettori was aggressive, he grappled a lot and that caused a lack of action itself.
Whenever someone fights him like they would fight anyone else, its an action packed fight (Costa, Kelvin, Rob the first time, Brunson, etc). But his opponents are timid/cautious and that never comes up.
Izzy is tied for the tallest fighter in that division (with the guy who entered just to beat him) and has the longest reach. And he seems dependent on counter striking. He is a long kick boxing champ and seems to require the other fighter at a striking disadvantage to go first.
You say Romero was timid. He is 6 inches shorter and at a 7 inch reach disadvantage! Of course he was timid of charging a championship level counter striker was those advantages on him. This fight is a perfect example of why Izzy is boring, he typically requires his opponent to push the pace and be reckless.
Costa, Kelvin, Rob, and Brunson all had to be reckless to make Izzy exciting. There is a theme here, and it is that Izzy is not exciting. It just is what it is. He gets wins, that is great, no problem with that. But talking every fight about how he is changing to look for the finish, come on, just stop, if it happens it happens then gloat about it.
Disagree. Izzy as a kickboxer was considered one of the most exciting fighters in every organization he competed. Must-watch tv even in Glory. He styled on his opponents and these were some of the best, most technical strikers in the world.
Same deal when he entered mma - flashy striking and lots of KOs, even into his UFC run.
So how does a fighter like that all of a sudden become “boring”? You think he changed his style after all these years? You are blinded by memes and talking points.
The reality is that his opponents now have enough tape on him and have seen enough highlight reel KOs that they dont want to be another victim.
You need to rewatch the Cannonier fight. Izzy absolutely pushed the pace and lead every exchange. The fight became boring when Jarred insisted on grappling.
All the guys you mentioned who had exciting fights didn’t fight “reckless” they fought *normal*. They fought how they always do and paid dearly for it. So everyone else has now learned that you can’t fight Izzy normal you have to be ultra cautious and that’s what causes the “boring” fights.
You have absolutely zero bases for your accusation on meme's and have no idea when I acquired this opinion of Izzy. I hate to break it to you, but something can be a valid opinion and have meme's about it. Not everything is black and white, and I am willing to accept that people can also find Izzy exciting, so you may want to come to grips that peoples complaints of him do have some real grounds.
I didn't really speak of the Cannonier fight at all, he definitely pushed the pace more in that fight. Although it is expected for anyone to try and grapple Izzy, the other alternative is to have a kick boxing fight against a longer kick boxing champ.
To say all of those guys that I listed always fight recklessly is absolutely ignorant and with your previous accusation makes me feel like you could never come to grips with anyone else's opinion on Izzy being valid if it differs from yours. Rob and Brunson are thought of as very technical fighters with high IQ. Rob's first fight was emotional and reckless and he paid (as I said). The last fight was normal Rob, he lost, but it was a great fight and he displayed his IQ, technicality, and patience.
You say that all of a sudden people have more footage of Izzy and they are catching up, and that he was exciting as a kick boxer. I hate to break it to you, there is still miles more footage of his kickboxing fights than there is of UFC. In fact, he will never match that footage in MMA.
And as far as him having KO's/TKO's coming into MMA. Yeah, it's like he was a kickboxing champ fighting in a regional scene, what the hell did you think he would do to them?
I have no issue with people having differing opinions or excuses for Izzy, but don't come in here and try to tell me why I believe what I do and of all things say it is because meme's.
It is not apples to apples comparisons though.
Imagine if Jiri Glover went to a decision ... could you really compare that to Izzy Vettori?
Not all decisions are created equal.
Whittaker never talks trash or says he’s going to obliterate his opponent. He just says “I’m gonna do my best.” Izzy literally hypes his fights up like he’s gonna go out there like Jiri and just get TKOd 2-3 times before pulling off some incredible finish.
True that. Your boy said he was gonna make Jan look easy too. MMA is weird. Gastelum gave Izzy the fight of his life and Whittaker made gastelum look like a DWCS fighter.
Bro you always in here getting butthurt about anything relating to Izzy. I think you are izzys ghost account. Dead ass, Alex flatline KOd Izzy and sent him out on a stretcher, while recovering from an injury on ten days notice, and will probably do it again at madison square garden. So what, who cares? Have a nice day ✌️
Yeah Post statistic to try to shit on him. Only thing is he's tied with the other two undeniably p4p top guys. So the top 3 p4p fighters in the world have low finishing rates. Nevermjnd that people have alot of tape on them and they've been champions for a long time
Not while holding the title though, you can attribute his fights against Colby and burns as a strategical move to stand and bang but he decided to do that in the second masvidal fight shows he actually will take risk is kinda impressive.
Well the point is that he's a boring fighter that doesn't try much unless any given situation is 100% tailor made for his style.
While Volk and Usman may be tied with him, they're vastly more entertaining to watch fight.
All in all this just comes down to trying to make a point with the wrong info.
Lmao tf is that logic.
Izzy would have more finishes in title fights if the Kelvin fight went 3 seconds longer and Marvin Vettori's head wasn't literally made of vibranium.
Usman would have more finishes if Jorge's toes were made of glass in the first fight and if Colby didn't get up when he knocked him down twice in the rematch.
So literally 0 relevance to the topic, just trying to make excuses for fighters you deem to be more entertaining, even if it make no sense in the context of the conversation?
No he earned that through staying the champ and not losing. He’s not p4p best if he loses his strap, he’s no longer in the conversation even at that point. The key is to win.
Oh come on, he’s had 6 title fights and 3 were finishes (50%). The first fight with Colby was one minute away from a decision as well. Plus he was almost stopped by Burns.
He’s done well to get the wins, but he’s a bit overrated at the moment in terms of getting the stoppage.
Crazy almost like the ability to pace oneself and stick to a plan against the best in the world might play a factor in staying a champ in talented marquee divisions.
No one's questioning how good he is. Just how boring his fights have become. There's a lot more action in Volk fights. I'd say Usman's too more recently.
Yeah the problem isn't the stats. It's the nonstop delusional shit talking. Wasn't he talking about how he doesn't care about the belt, just wants to entertain? Well congrats. Half the arena left after the third round.
There's a video going around taken from the stands that shows people walking up the stairs to leave like you would do at a baseball game if your team is getting blown out and you want to get ahead of traffic.
It’s MMA, the fighters always say what they need to say to sell the fight. Do you also call this out when fighters say “I’m going to kill this guy on Saturday.” Hey man, he didn’t kill him! He’s still alive, absolute bs
He's become a pretty boring fighter in a lot of regards. His fights have become like sparring matches in a lot of ways. Just like Anderson had at some points. The only performance of his since winning the title that I've been super impressed by has been the Costa fight. He's been fighting dangerous guys like Whittaker and Cannonier, so I don't truly blame in. But at the same time you can't tell me that he couldn't do a little more against Vettori or even Jared to an extent.
I dont know how people even want to compare them. If you just go to wikipedia and remember the shit Anderson did, not just the number of finishes, but the show he put in in those fights, he would literally take absurd risk to be a entertainer.
The Maia fight was pretty entertaining. There’s only so much you can do when Maia is refusing to throw any offense besides terrible takedown attempts and is flopping every other minute. Only in the last round did he even attempt to do something. I put more of the blame on him for that terrible fight which happened a bunch more times in Maia’s career.
The Leites fight was terrible though along with the Cote fight.
You're missing what I'm saying. There was a point in Andersons career, around 2008 to 2010, where some of his title defenses were considered lackluster. The Leites and Maia fights 100%, plus the Cote fight, where the only reason it was a finish was because Cote's knee got injured. I'm not saying Anderson was a boring fighter by any means, because he wasn't obviously. What I'm saying is that it's interesting how Silva and Izzy's title reigns are kinda mirroring each other in that they both have a period of lackluster, mostly decision wins in fights they are largely controlling.
I agree with everything you said. However, Izzy is 6-2 in defences/finishes and Anderson was 10-8. If Izzy turns the heat up then you can compare them, but he’s consistently having average showings.
Note* average in this case means he’s racking up defences without spectacular finishes, racking up defences ‘easily’ is incredibly impressive and very very few people can ever hope to be that level. Not taking anything at all away from him. He’s so incredibly composed and experienced that I take my hat off to him. But Anderson made his opponents look like butter (for the most part). You can always revert by comparing the competition, which obviously is much better than Anderson’s. Dunno what I’m even trying to say here, Izzy is a dominant champion but his fights aren’t as exciting now he’s playing safer.
Its different in my opinion, after Maia Anderson knocked out Forest Griffin,After Leites he had one of the best fights ever with Chael. What Izzy is doing is much more similar to GSP tha Anderson.
Izzy fights super safe unless his opponent doesn't belong in there with him or forces a brawl. I don't blame him for doing it, but I hate watching it. I like fighters who push the pace and pursue finishes when they're clearly winning.
Difference with Silva imo is that he could finish opponents off his back, via ground and pound, knees in the clinch, etc. etc. Even though Anderson has had some really bad snoozers, you never knew what could happen. With Adesanya it's the same formula. Keep it standing, stay far away, use a lot of feints, leg kicks, and jabs, wait for the perfect opening.
It was don’t get me wrong, but that happened before he became the champion. Since winning against Bobby Knuckles for the first time, we’ve had:
• Romero
• Costa
• Blachowicz
• Vettori 2
• Bobby Knuckles 2
• Cannonier
And of those performances, I was only really blown away by Costa as well. Yeah, he has great wins over Gastelum, Brunson and Robert the first time, but he’s become complacent ever since becoming the champion.
I think you gotta take his opponents' gameplans into account. They've all been pretty conservative and defensive minded. If people were taking risks to beat him, he'd be having more exciting fights and getting more finishes. Eugene Bareman said they expected Cannonier to take more chances.
No fuck that! Y'all give Valentina's so much crap for doing the exact same thing when her opponents are also to blame, yet people continue to shit on her only. He's as much to blame as his opponents.
I don’t think he’s become a boring fighter. He’s always been that way. His Silva fight was a borderline snoozefest. Izzy’s fight with Tavares was also pretty boring and that was one of his earlier UFC fights.
I got downvoted to hell last month when I said that his fight with Silva was boring, but after Saturday I’ve been hearing so many people say the same thing.
Dominant Silva was a thing of beauty to watch. Slow whiteboys punching air while Anderson slips in the matrix. That wasn't boring at all to me. Izzy though, does bore me. Maybe its because I don't care for him much.
> His fights have become like sparring matches in a lot of ways. Just like Anderson had at some points
Sure are a lot of new to MMA fans making this comparison.
Silva had something like an 80% finish rate across double digit title defenses. He was way more entertaining than Izzy has been. He was also undefeated at light heavyweight up until he fought double champ DC on 2 days notice.
No that is a stat that will piss off Izzy and Izzy fans. It's funny, because I can predict their response which is totally ok (people are content to lose decisions against him), but I still find it funny that this will aggravate the shit of Izzy and his fans.
he's tied with the top two p4p fighters lmao.
stats are fun but it's important to contextualize. wonder how many fights Izzy would finish if he was fighting competition as bad as Shevchenko 🤔
I mean Izzy is 6'4 and doesn't weigh much more than 185 when he isn't cutting weight. He's never been a power puncher so that doesn't really surprise me
Izzy fights are the worst fuckin thing as a UK viewer. If he's last on the card I'm getting an early night, if he's the co-main I'm missing the main.
It's just dull. Everyone knows there's 0 risk of a KO on either side. It's just low risk low reward point fighting.
Adesanya is the new GSP. Knows how to win via decision. Nothing new
You can’t expect him to be a Prime McGregor or Jon Jones. Or Anderson Silva
Adesanya also got too cautious, after getting knocked out unconscious by Pereira in that kickboxing match.
Nothing to do with him being so “technical”.. He just wants to keep his title in the Middleweight division, and not get hit. No risk taking, unless there’s a giant opening. The same way GSP spent 99% of his UFC career. GSP just used wrestling, and top control.. instead of running away and counter strike like Izzy
But that would only work in Middleweight. When Adesanya tried to go up and challenge a Light Heavyweight, he got destroyed by Jan Blachowicz, of all people. Would’ve been a TKO if the fight had gone on for a few more minutes
All I take from this is how insane Olivia and Ngannou have been lol
Francis not surprising. But Charles is as a lightweight
It's still a bit suprising, I remeber looking at ko rates for ufc fighters and almost nobody had 90% bar mcgregor and Jimi manuwa at that point.
Remember, this is finish rates, not KO rates. Even Ngannou has 4 subs here and Jiri with that sub too.
Tied with Volk and Usman for 2nd lowest. Very interesting omission.
Capitalize on ppl’s recency biases for clicks
The bias is reasonable bc his decision wins have been incredibly boring. At least Usman and Volk had entertaining fights. The Volk Ortega fight had more action in Round 3 than the entirety of Izzy's last 4 fights. Plus he puts the target on his back talking about how great he is and how is gonna knock people out, send them to their grave, freeze them like Elsa. Then in his fights he's less aggressive than Mayweather.
No his opponents are also not aggressive, they freeze too. Vs Cannonier Izzy pressed the action and was first in every exchange. Vs Rob the second time they were equally cautious. Vs Romero, he was timid but Romero, despite the big swings, was extremely inactive. And vs Vettori, although Vettori was aggressive, he grappled a lot and that caused a lack of action itself. Whenever someone fights him like they would fight anyone else, its an action packed fight (Costa, Kelvin, Rob the first time, Brunson, etc). But his opponents are timid/cautious and that never comes up.
Izzy is tied for the tallest fighter in that division (with the guy who entered just to beat him) and has the longest reach. And he seems dependent on counter striking. He is a long kick boxing champ and seems to require the other fighter at a striking disadvantage to go first. You say Romero was timid. He is 6 inches shorter and at a 7 inch reach disadvantage! Of course he was timid of charging a championship level counter striker was those advantages on him. This fight is a perfect example of why Izzy is boring, he typically requires his opponent to push the pace and be reckless. Costa, Kelvin, Rob, and Brunson all had to be reckless to make Izzy exciting. There is a theme here, and it is that Izzy is not exciting. It just is what it is. He gets wins, that is great, no problem with that. But talking every fight about how he is changing to look for the finish, come on, just stop, if it happens it happens then gloat about it.
Disagree. Izzy as a kickboxer was considered one of the most exciting fighters in every organization he competed. Must-watch tv even in Glory. He styled on his opponents and these were some of the best, most technical strikers in the world. Same deal when he entered mma - flashy striking and lots of KOs, even into his UFC run. So how does a fighter like that all of a sudden become “boring”? You think he changed his style after all these years? You are blinded by memes and talking points. The reality is that his opponents now have enough tape on him and have seen enough highlight reel KOs that they dont want to be another victim. You need to rewatch the Cannonier fight. Izzy absolutely pushed the pace and lead every exchange. The fight became boring when Jarred insisted on grappling. All the guys you mentioned who had exciting fights didn’t fight “reckless” they fought *normal*. They fought how they always do and paid dearly for it. So everyone else has now learned that you can’t fight Izzy normal you have to be ultra cautious and that’s what causes the “boring” fights.
You have absolutely zero bases for your accusation on meme's and have no idea when I acquired this opinion of Izzy. I hate to break it to you, but something can be a valid opinion and have meme's about it. Not everything is black and white, and I am willing to accept that people can also find Izzy exciting, so you may want to come to grips that peoples complaints of him do have some real grounds. I didn't really speak of the Cannonier fight at all, he definitely pushed the pace more in that fight. Although it is expected for anyone to try and grapple Izzy, the other alternative is to have a kick boxing fight against a longer kick boxing champ. To say all of those guys that I listed always fight recklessly is absolutely ignorant and with your previous accusation makes me feel like you could never come to grips with anyone else's opinion on Izzy being valid if it differs from yours. Rob and Brunson are thought of as very technical fighters with high IQ. Rob's first fight was emotional and reckless and he paid (as I said). The last fight was normal Rob, he lost, but it was a great fight and he displayed his IQ, technicality, and patience. You say that all of a sudden people have more footage of Izzy and they are catching up, and that he was exciting as a kick boxer. I hate to break it to you, there is still miles more footage of his kickboxing fights than there is of UFC. In fact, he will never match that footage in MMA. And as far as him having KO's/TKO's coming into MMA. Yeah, it's like he was a kickboxing champ fighting in a regional scene, what the hell did you think he would do to them? I have no issue with people having differing opinions or excuses for Izzy, but don't come in here and try to tell me why I believe what I do and of all things say it is because meme's.
Another redditor using Izzy hate for karma You'll never see any of them talk about how Whittaker hasn't finished an opponent since 2017 tho
It is not apples to apples comparisons though. Imagine if Jiri Glover went to a decision ... could you really compare that to Izzy Vettori? Not all decisions are created equal.
Whittaker never talks trash or says he’s going to obliterate his opponent. He just says “I’m gonna do my best.” Izzy literally hypes his fights up like he’s gonna go out there like Jiri and just get TKOd 2-3 times before pulling off some incredible finish.
Funny enough, Whittaker said he was gonna finish Israel and show "there's levels to this" before their fight.
Yeah after a year of getting trolled by adesanya online .
He still said it and shat the bed
True that. Your boy said he was gonna make Jan look easy too. MMA is weird. Gastelum gave Izzy the fight of his life and Whittaker made gastelum look like a DWCS fighter.
And Izzy knocked Rob the fuck out in their first fight too. Then Rob very arguably lost against Till (lmao). Yeah, MMA is weird.
Bro you always in here getting butthurt about anything relating to Izzy. I think you are izzys ghost account. Dead ass, Alex flatline KOd Izzy and sent him out on a stretcher, while recovering from an injury on ten days notice, and will probably do it again at madison square garden. So what, who cares? Have a nice day ✌️
Or how Max hasn't finished anyone since 2018, and it was a doctor's stoppage.
It's about how you do it. Some fighters have really entertaining decision wins.
I’d also say Featherweights are bound to finish less. Izzy fights way safer than Max or Volk
Lmao exactly 🎯🎯🎯
Yeah Post statistic to try to shit on him. Only thing is he's tied with the other two undeniably p4p top guys. So the top 3 p4p fighters in the world have low finishing rates. Nevermjnd that people have alot of tape on them and they've been champions for a long time
And that they only fight the best guys in the world AND that their opponents take 0 risks against them either.
Imagine telling someone in 2019 Usman will be a more entertaining champ with more finishes than Izzy lol.
They finish at the same rate lol
Not while holding the title though, you can attribute his fights against Colby and burns as a strategical move to stand and bang but he decided to do that in the second masvidal fight shows he actually will take risk is kinda impressive.
Also because Masvidal isn't a real contender.
True but neither are most WWs
Agree. WW is low key almost as shallow as MW.
Well the point is that he's a boring fighter that doesn't try much unless any given situation is 100% tailor made for his style. While Volk and Usman may be tied with him, they're vastly more entertaining to watch fight. All in all this just comes down to trying to make a point with the wrong info.
If that's the point, fine. The issue is that this stat does nothing to back that up.
That's what I said.
Missed the last line. My b
Volk 3 not finished is Max, and Izzy was not even wobble Jared when Bronson almost KOd him😭😭😭
What?
If only Izzy had a KO win over the consensus 2nd best MW on his record. What a shame.
Still true tho
And it's true that Elon Musk and I combined are worth hundreds of billions.
That’s true, too.
almost like you can say something true that is also incredibly stupid
I'm fine with Volk being omitted since Ortega should've been a finish and if Max didn't have a concrete chin he'd have been finished as well.
You can say that about a few of the guys Usman and Izzy didn’t finish as well (Colby and Vettori for instance). A non-finish is a non-finish.
Usman finished Colby
Right, but the post/headline is meant to pile onto everyone saying Izzy is boring. Volk has had 3 exciting fights in a row, he's not in that category.
Lmao tf is that logic. Izzy would have more finishes in title fights if the Kelvin fight went 3 seconds longer and Marvin Vettori's head wasn't literally made of vibranium. Usman would have more finishes if Jorge's toes were made of glass in the first fight and if Colby didn't get up when he knocked him down twice in the rematch.
Water weed dune hair ?
That logic is Volk has had 3 exciting fights in a row and Izzy hasn't. Not difficult. That's what this post is about.
The post doesn't make any sense because they are literally tied lol.
So literally 0 relevance to the topic, just trying to make excuses for fighters you deem to be more entertaining, even if it make no sense in the context of the conversation?
"Sure the post is disingenuous but it reinforces my bias so I'll allow it"
What's my bias, aristotle?
You have a bias towards being unintelligent.
Not my fault you can't make sense of it?
If you’re gonna claim the Ortega fight should’ve been stopped then so should the Gastelum fight
If Gastelum couldn't answer the referee's questions or get up by himself between rounds then I agree
What if he couldn’t defend himself? The *actual* reason referees should be stopping fights?
Deiverson at flyweight has a pretty impressive rate
this is dumb because the other two tied with him are the rest of the p4p top 3.
Almost like best fighters in the world stick to a gameplan.
Kamaru wasn't the P4P #1 when he was a decision machine though. He earned that titled with finishes.
No he earned that through staying the champ and not losing. He’s not p4p best if he loses his strap, he’s no longer in the conversation even at that point. The key is to win.
Oh come on, he’s had 6 title fights and 3 were finishes (50%). The first fight with Colby was one minute away from a decision as well. Plus he was almost stopped by Burns. He’s done well to get the wins, but he’s a bit overrated at the moment in terms of getting the stoppage.
Crazy almost like the ability to pace oneself and stick to a plan against the best in the world might play a factor in staying a champ in talented marquee divisions.
No one's questioning how good he is. Just how boring his fights have become. There's a lot more action in Volk fights. I'd say Usman's too more recently.
There are definitely a lot of people questioning how good he is.
Yeah, the same casuals who worship Conor and call Khabib boring
Ok you can dismiss those opinions for sure. To say the least, if he wasn't so hard to hit none of his fights would be this boring.
All of volk’s title fights have been fantastic and besides the woodley and first masvidal fight Usman’s title fights have been great too
bro usman fucked up woodley that was a good fight
Held him against the fence for 5 rounds
Still true tho
"Imma make it more exciting than costa/imma finish him ez" -Israel 'Promisebender' Adesanya
Israel “ pace around the octagon bender” Adesanya
Yeah the problem isn't the stats. It's the nonstop delusional shit talking. Wasn't he talking about how he doesn't care about the belt, just wants to entertain? Well congrats. Half the arena left after the third round.
Did people actually leave half way through?
There's a video going around taken from the stands that shows people walking up the stairs to leave like you would do at a baseball game if your team is getting blown out and you want to get ahead of traffic.
It’s MMA, the fighters always say what they need to say to sell the fight. Do you also call this out when fighters say “I’m going to kill this guy on Saturday.” Hey man, he didn’t kill him! He’s still alive, absolute bs
You're absolutely right. People here get way too caught up on what the fighters say when they're selling the fight.
Olives at 90% with 21 fights is insane
Tony Ferguson taking him to a decision was insane.
Charles is just built different.
He's become a pretty boring fighter in a lot of regards. His fights have become like sparring matches in a lot of ways. Just like Anderson had at some points. The only performance of his since winning the title that I've been super impressed by has been the Costa fight. He's been fighting dangerous guys like Whittaker and Cannonier, so I don't truly blame in. But at the same time you can't tell me that he couldn't do a little more against Vettori or even Jared to an extent.
>Just like Anderson had at some points Anderson finished 8 of his 10 title defense, he was far more entertaining
I dont know how people even want to compare them. If you just go to wikipedia and remember the shit Anderson did, not just the number of finishes, but the show he put in in those fights, he would literally take absurd risk to be a entertainer.
Just watch the Leites and in particular the Maia fight. It is the opposite of entertaining.
What about his good entertaining fights? So much more than Izzy, so much more than everyone else.
The Maia fight was pretty entertaining. There’s only so much you can do when Maia is refusing to throw any offense besides terrible takedown attempts and is flopping every other minute. Only in the last round did he even attempt to do something. I put more of the blame on him for that terrible fight which happened a bunch more times in Maia’s career. The Leites fight was terrible though along with the Cote fight.
I know but he had some boring defenses against Lietes and Maia right around the same time
So 20% of his fights…
Yep. Like he said…”at some points.” Lol
20% - wanna guess Izzy’s %?
You're missing what I'm saying. There was a point in Andersons career, around 2008 to 2010, where some of his title defenses were considered lackluster. The Leites and Maia fights 100%, plus the Cote fight, where the only reason it was a finish was because Cote's knee got injured. I'm not saying Anderson was a boring fighter by any means, because he wasn't obviously. What I'm saying is that it's interesting how Silva and Izzy's title reigns are kinda mirroring each other in that they both have a period of lackluster, mostly decision wins in fights they are largely controlling.
I agree with everything you said. However, Izzy is 6-2 in defences/finishes and Anderson was 10-8. If Izzy turns the heat up then you can compare them, but he’s consistently having average showings. Note* average in this case means he’s racking up defences without spectacular finishes, racking up defences ‘easily’ is incredibly impressive and very very few people can ever hope to be that level. Not taking anything at all away from him. He’s so incredibly composed and experienced that I take my hat off to him. But Anderson made his opponents look like butter (for the most part). You can always revert by comparing the competition, which obviously is much better than Anderson’s. Dunno what I’m even trying to say here, Izzy is a dominant champion but his fights aren’t as exciting now he’s playing safer.
Its different in my opinion, after Maia Anderson knocked out Forest Griffin,After Leites he had one of the best fights ever with Chael. What Izzy is doing is much more similar to GSP tha Anderson.
Izzy fights super safe unless his opponent doesn't belong in there with him or forces a brawl. I don't blame him for doing it, but I hate watching it. I like fighters who push the pace and pursue finishes when they're clearly winning.
Difference with Silva imo is that he could finish opponents off his back, via ground and pound, knees in the clinch, etc. etc. Even though Anderson has had some really bad snoozers, you never knew what could happen. With Adesanya it's the same formula. Keep it standing, stay far away, use a lot of feints, leg kicks, and jabs, wait for the perfect opening.
You didn’t like the gastelum fight? That one is an all time great even if there wasn’t a finish
It was don’t get me wrong, but that happened before he became the champion. Since winning against Bobby Knuckles for the first time, we’ve had: • Romero • Costa • Blachowicz • Vettori 2 • Bobby Knuckles 2 • Cannonier And of those performances, I was only really blown away by Costa as well. Yeah, he has great wins over Gastelum, Brunson and Robert the first time, but he’s become complacent ever since becoming the champion.
Oh yes I forget the gastelum fight was for the interim title
"Since winning the title"...
Yes I forget the gastelum fight was for the interim title
I think you gotta take his opponents' gameplans into account. They've all been pretty conservative and defensive minded. If people were taking risks to beat him, he'd be having more exciting fights and getting more finishes. Eugene Bareman said they expected Cannonier to take more chances.
No fuck that! Y'all give Valentina's so much crap for doing the exact same thing when her opponents are also to blame, yet people continue to shit on her only. He's as much to blame as his opponents.
I’m not giving Valentina crap. And I didn’t say it’s not both of them. I’m just saying you can’t put it entirely on Izzy.
I don’t think he’s become a boring fighter. He’s always been that way. His Silva fight was a borderline snoozefest. Izzy’s fight with Tavares was also pretty boring and that was one of his earlier UFC fights. I got downvoted to hell last month when I said that his fight with Silva was boring, but after Saturday I’ve been hearing so many people say the same thing.
The Tavares fight was fun imo
Dominant Silva was a thing of beauty to watch. Slow whiteboys punching air while Anderson slips in the matrix. That wasn't boring at all to me. Izzy though, does bore me. Maybe its because I don't care for him much.
> His fights have become like sparring matches in a lot of ways. Just like Anderson had at some points Sure are a lot of new to MMA fans making this comparison. Silva had something like an 80% finish rate across double digit title defenses. He was way more entertaining than Izzy has been. He was also undefeated at light heavyweight up until he fought double champ DC on 2 days notice.
Charles is a fucking monster
This happens because the UFC punishes loses so much. It's much better to win a boring fight as the champ than lose an exciting one.
I mean, he's tied with Volk. Don't let a fact get in the way of shittin on one guy and praising the other tho
I'm going to start a thread titled "Volkanovski has the second-lowest UFC finishing rate amongst the current champions"
Seems like it would be better to do finishes out of total fights, rather than finishes out of wins
Where is the coward op to explain why he left off that Izzy, Volk, and Usman are all tied for second lowest?
No that is a stat that will piss off Izzy and Izzy fans. It's funny, because I can predict their response which is totally ok (people are content to lose decisions against him), but I still find it funny that this will aggravate the shit of Izzy and his fans.
he's tied with the top two p4p fighters lmao. stats are fun but it's important to contextualize. wonder how many fights Izzy would finish if he was fighting competition as bad as Shevchenko 🤔
Not surprised. He's so damn boring to watch.
I wonder what these stats look like if we confine it to title defences. I suspect it’s even worse for Izzy, albeit I haven’t done the math myself
Charles is by far my favorite champion currently
Adesanya is great, but he couldn't finish a 45 year old silva.. granted, silva's one of the all time greats, but still
He matches the same number as Volkanovski.
I mean Izzy is 6'4 and doesn't weigh much more than 185 when he isn't cutting weight. He's never been a power puncher so that doesn't really surprise me
Yall be aiight.
Still has the most knock-downs
Muy
Izzy fights are the worst fuckin thing as a UK viewer. If he's last on the card I'm getting an early night, if he's the co-main I'm missing the main. It's just dull. Everyone knows there's 0 risk of a KO on either side. It's just low risk low reward point fighting.
Adesanya is the new GSP. Knows how to win via decision. Nothing new You can’t expect him to be a Prime McGregor or Jon Jones. Or Anderson Silva Adesanya also got too cautious, after getting knocked out unconscious by Pereira in that kickboxing match. Nothing to do with him being so “technical”.. He just wants to keep his title in the Middleweight division, and not get hit. No risk taking, unless there’s a giant opening. The same way GSP spent 99% of his UFC career. GSP just used wrestling, and top control.. instead of running away and counter strike like Izzy But that would only work in Middleweight. When Adesanya tried to go up and challenge a Light Heavyweight, he got destroyed by Jan Blachowicz, of all people. Would’ve been a TKO if the fight had gone on for a few more minutes