UFC 281 On ESPN+ PPV [11/12 @ 10 pm ET] “The Big Payback…Revenge” (Israel Adesanya/Alex Pereira)

[Deafheaven]

I feel like Izzy style is somewhat gimmicky..he used a point system with great takedown defense but his striking skills ain’t elite. The UFC just has poor strikers all around, besides from the end of the 1st Izzy was clearly a step below Pereira..like soon as he didn’t have the reach advantage and or striking advantage it’s over.

Volk and Yan are real high level strikers they can get in there and let shots off against guys with longer reach. Izzy didn’t have nothing standing up for Pereira, except for the end of the 1st. Izzy was ineffective standing up at best. Commentators was dikkriding but I had it 2/2 coming into 5th. Izzy really wasn’t doing shyt on feet.

Jan was looking fine against Izzy on the feet too I believe they have similar reach.


Volk got hands for sure though. If you can give up height and reach and still get yours you legit

 

[Deafheaven]

If you train then I don't understand why this is hard to understand. Izzy isn't a wrestler so even if he spent the whole camp training to take Pereira down, actually doing that and then being able to take advantage of that in a 5 round fight is a lot. Pereira was the bigger man so Izzy trying to take him down and keep him there was going to take a lot out of him. I'll need to rewatch the fight but I don't think trying to wrestle Pereira was the right move

well, yeah I'm being half serious expecting him to khabib but the correct gameplan obviously wasn't hugging the cage he got rocked every time. It looks like he fell in love with his reflexes and paid for it. TBF he was a couple minutes from retaining the belt so this is all hindsight.

I still think Izzy is a great fighter/champ and did not diminish Pereira skill ever I don't know why were arguing brehther

 

[UpAndComing]

He has elite level takedown defense, and the fact that he’s such a sniper makes guys hesitant to want to close that distance on him for takedowns.

He had a simple gameplan. Box on the outside and get away from getting backed up in the cage

For some reason he didn't follow it. For a guy who beat you 2 times already before tonight, why be that complacent and overly cocky?

 

[hazardous]

Glad to see Adesanya get knocked after that cheap shot at the end of round 1

Congrats to Pereira!

 

[BigBrown21]

Jones getting Koed next when he fights Francis

No way Jones is going to systematically take apart no knees Ngannnou next year.

 

[Duke Wy Lin]

His fight IQ was really dogshyt tonight.


dude is such a skilled striker but he got used to point fighting. And like this would be like trying to point fight wilder (no alex aint got demonic power like him but you get what i'm saying). He only got to be perfect for 10 seconds if you going to fight how izzy fought tonight.



He's certainly not a gimmick. Kickboxer got beat by better kickboxer. He almost had it too, but went to the dumb dumb well too many times with the cage shyt.

I didn't hear the corner advise he was given by Eugene between rounds. It's crazy that they didn't make adjustments to get him circling off that cage. Alex was landing on him against the cage and was getting the better of him in the clinch. You'd expect them to make adjustments in between rounds.

 

[Doctor Doom]

If Izzy can handle Pereira the way he did in Round 3 with his poor grappling, then I think Costa and Vettori could give Pereira problems, probably Whittaker too. Izzy has good defensive grappling and that's helped him out in his previous fights, but his offensive grappling isn't all that great, we saw it in this fight, Izzy didn't know how to get his hooks in when he had Pereira's back and had a single leg at one point and didn't know what to do with it.

I'm not saying the middleweight division is full of Makhachev's, but I think there are fighters who could take advantage of Pereira's weak ground game/grappling in a way that Izzy simply couldn't.

Vettori gets starched
Costa gets starched

The problem is getting to Pereira's back. Alex respected Izzy's striking enough that the avenue opened up. The 1st time Vettori or Costa shoot, they're eating a knee and playing hide and seek with consciousness.

 

[Lurk Angle]

No way Jones is going to systematically take apart no knees Ngannnou next year

We will see

Jones has tough matchups at HW

 

[Northern Son]

Jones is a fakkit. At age 36 he’s not going to dominate anymore. Jan was right about this c00n, he’s scared to come back because he will lose.

 

[No Ma’am]

Another one of Conor's boys getting slapped up, get the dolly

 

[xXMASHERXx]

Vettori gets starched
Costa gets starched

The problem is getting to Pereira's back. Alex respected Izzy's striking enough that the avenue opened up. The 1st time Vettori or Costa shoot, they're eating a knee and playing hide and seek with consciousness.

So one who actually understands. Izzy is good enough to strike with Pereira to even get the chance to take him down. The only other person who might be able to take him down is Whittaker. Everyone else is going to sleep trying to do so.

 

[aceboon]

Bareman usually disguises what he says in the corner but I would love to know what he was telling Izzy in b/w rounds about him putting his back on the cage like that. Pereira couldn't even successfully trap him against the ropes in kickboxing, should have never happened in a bigger cage without Izzy being a dumbass. Bruh could have just leg kicked away the 5th and played it safe, let the crowd boo if they want.

 

[CW_1991]

?????

Khamzat would be spitting out his teeth lol

If he gets his hands on Alex it's going to be bad. His wrestling is weak.

If it's strictly standing up then yeah, Alex dominates. Pure wrestlers are a problem for pure strikers. Especially an elite wrestler.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

@CW_1991 trynna make Jon take the bait and he ain’t doing it y’all

 

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