GDT: UFC 281: Adesanya vs. Pereira

[CDJ]

Missed weight vs Gaethje

Ah yes, fair

THE CHAMP HAD A NAME

 

[Moncherry]

I respectfully disagree.

Izzy had one job in that 5th round and that was to manage distance and not let Pereira get any opportunities to get off that power. He did not actively try to evade the striking exchanges and put himself up against the cage. He could have definitely tried to grapple a bit more in the 5th and he would’ve handily won a decision here. Even if he wasn’t dominating Alex in grappling, he wasn’t going to get knocked out in a grappling exchange.

Izzy puts himself up against the cage and fights like that in every fight. The difference is this time he was fighting someone where his size and reach were nullified, and a high-level striker whose power and technical ability are a fair deal better than his usual opponents.

He also engaged the clinch against Pereira and tried to take him to the floor or put him up against the fence multiple times in the last round. At one point it did look like he was going coast in the fifth through grappling but Pereira managed to break off and hunt him down.

Couldn't disagree with you more, also my comments are opinions, so you can't really say opinions are off base. I also congratulated Pereira in my post so saying I take credit from him is kind of silly. For the finish, it started when Pereira landed the left hook he was looking for all fight and was always just an inch or two away. It's the same punch he KOd Izzy with before, same one he got Strickland with, etc. Thats his punch, and when it landed it was the beginning of the end. Everyone knew that was the strike that he needed to land, and he landed it in the 5th. I don't feel he did any significant, substantial, or cumulative damage that would contribute to the ending sequence, it was just that strike that started it. I think Izzy had him doubled up on significant head strikes going into the 5th, so that says where they were at as far as his success up to that point.

I give Pereira a lot of credit because he knew what he needed to do and he did it. I'm not an Izzy fan in the slightest, I had money on Pereira and I'm glad he won. However, I do think Izzy proved in the 3rd round that he had an easy course to victory if he pursued the ground game. He didn't. He tried some half hearted trips in the clinch, but didnt commit to shots or anything of that nature. Maybe he doesn't have it in his arsenal but when you see how big of a mismatch there is on the ground, the high IQ play is to commit to getting the fight there. I think he went into this with something to prove regarding the striking matchup, the comments he made leading up to the fight suggest that the previous fights were in his head, and I think his desire to stand with Alex was his eventual downfall. That's my take, you can have your own but you can't say my opinion is wrong or off base.

As I said initially, congrats Pereira, fun fight fun ending. Hope he gets someone different for his first defense.

No, saying Izzy only engaged with Pereira in the stand-up because of his ego is off-base whether it's your opinion or not. The guy is a kickboxer who has won every fight with his striking, don't get why so many expected him to turn into some Olympian wrestler for this fight.

All he managed to do with the grappling was stay on top of him for a while during the third round, it's not as if he totally dominated him with wrestling and nearly subbed him or anything like that. And I stress once more, that was off a takedown attempt by Pereira that resulted in them both ending up on the ground.

Pereira landed a lot of knees and kicks which would have sapped Izzy's energy and reduced his mobility by the fifth round, in addition to some stiff jabs. He wasn't lighting Izzy up the whole fight, but he certainly landed enough that would have helped him find the finish. It wasn't just some one-dimensional head-hunting that eventually landed because of Izzy's arrogance.

 

[Taytro]

He didn’t commit to shots because he’s not a wrestler and was outweighed by a massive amount. The only time he got the fight there was because Pereira f***ed up. You’re asking a painter to build a tower. You can’t blame the painters ego when he can’t build said tower.


Again, hobbled movement. Peroneal nerve damaged. Not a grappler, was eating knees to the body when he tried to initiate. What you guys are suggesting is a lot easier said than done and has nothing to do with his ego. It has to do with his abilities/skillset (or in this case, lack there of )

A KO artist got a KO. It doesn’t have to be more than that. Moncherry is 100% correct.

Izzy puts himself up against the cage and fights like that in every fight. The difference is this time he was fighting someone where his size and reach were nullified, and a high-level striker whose power and technical ability are a fair deal better than his usual opponents.

He also engaged the clinch against Pereira and tried to take him to the floor or put him up against the fence multiple times in the last round. At one point it did look like he was going coast in the fifth through grappling but Pereira managed to break off and hunt him down.


No, saying Izzy only engaged with Pereira in the stand-up because of his ego is off-base whether it's your opinion or not. The guy is a kickboxer who has won every fight with his striking, don't get why so many expected him to turn into some Olympian wrestler for this fight.

All he managed to do with the grappling was stay on top of him for a while during the third round, it's not as if he totally dominated him with wrestling and nearly subbed him or anything like that. And I stress once more, that was off a takedown attempt by Pereira that resulted in them both ending up on the ground.

Pereira landed a lot of knees and kicks which would have sapped Izzy's energy and reduced his mobility by the fifth round, in addition to some stiff jabs. He wasn't lighting Izzy up the whole fight, but he certainly landed enough that would have helped him find the finish. It wasn't just some one-dimensional head-hunting that eventually landed because of Izzy's arrogance.

Again, disagree with both. Saying a KO artist got a KO is what I agree with, and it's fantastic. But you can also say with 100% certainty, the guy with significantly more MMA experience (17 fights, most of which are at a highevel) didn't use his MMA experience. Instead he played to his opponents potential advantages rather than his own.

I understand Izzy isn't a grappler but he has significantly more grappling experience in training and in fights. His grappling stamina, intelligence, and experience should be far and away better than Pereira's. If you don't think they game planned for grappling/takedowns then I'd call you ignorant. He is from an amazing camp with amazing coaches who definitely would have identified an area of potential advantage and put that into the game plan. They wouldn't go "we think you'd cleanly be better on the mat, but just stand with him for most of the fight anyway". Sure it would have been difficult or taken effort, and I would understand if he shot or out real effort into a takedown end didn't get it but we didn't see him pursue it beyond a few trip attempts in the clinch.

If we go off the assumption that the gameplan was to strike and occasionally get into a clinch then strike again, and there was no corner advice to grapple then I 100% agree with both of you guys and ego doesn't come into play. However, I can't see a situation where that's ever the case, and if it is, he needs to take serious look at his coaching. Everything Izzy has said about their prior meetings leading up to this fight leads me to believe he wanted to prove something on the feet, and he got humbled. There's nothing off base are wrong about that opinion.

 

[CDJ]

Again, disagree with both. Saying a KO artist got a KO is what I agree with, and it's fantastic. But you can also say with 100% certainty, the guy with significantly more MMA experience (17 fights, most of which are at a highevel) didn't use his MMA experience. Instead he played to his opponents potential advantages rather than his own.

I understand Izzy isn't a grappler but he has significantly more grappling experience in training and in fights. His grappling stamina, intelligence, and experience should be far and away better than Pereira's. If you don't think they game planned for grappling/takedowns then I'd call you ignorant. He is from an amazing camp with amazing coaches who definitely would have identified an area of potential advantage and put that into the game plan. They wouldn't go "we think you'd cleanly be better on the mat, but just stand with him for most of the fight anyway". Sure it would have been difficult or taken effort, and I would understand if he shot or out real effort into a takedown end didn't get it but we didn't see him pursue it beyond a few trip attempts in the clinch.

If we go off the assumption that the gameplan was to strike and occasionally get into a clinch then strike again, and there was no corner advice to grapple then I 100% agree with both of you guys and ego doesn't come into play. However, I can't see a situation where that's ever the case, and if it is, he needs to take serious look at his coaching. Everything Izzy has said about their prior meetings leading up to this fight leads me to believe he wanted to prove something on the feet, and he got humbled. There's nothing off base are wrong about that opinion.

Yeah agree to disagree on that one, I personally think it’s silly to blame this on ego but I certainly still respect your opinion and recognize that you know what you’re talking about in regards to MMA


You didn’t see the attempts because he can’t offensively wrestle. His takedown defense is good against ppl his size but beyond that there is nothing there. He didn’t want to gas out in a 5 round fight using grappling muscles he’s not used to using, and was fighting a much larger man. I think you’re simply expecting too much. He had an advantage when Pereira was on bottom, the problem is he was never going to get close to getting him there without pereira f***ing up.

I think you’re underestimating how much weight Pereira puts back on. He put on 30 lbs in the 24 hours leading up to the fight. He was fighting at 215. Izzy doesn’t put much weight back on. It’s really hard to take a guy much bigger than you down when you don’t wrestle. I think you’re also underestimating his movement being compromised towards the end.

 

[Taytro]

Yeah agree to disagree on that one, I personally think it’s silly to blame this on ego but I certainly still respect your opinion and recognize that you know what you’re talking about in regards to MMA


You didn’t see the attempts because he can’t offensively wrestle. His takedown defense is good against ppl his size but beyond that there is nothing there. He didn’t want to gas out in a 5 round fight using grappling muscles he’s not used to using, and was fighting a much larger man. I think you’re simply expecting too much. He had an advantage when Pereira was on bottom, the problem is he was never going to get close to getting him there without pereira f***ing up.

I think you’re underestimating how much weight Pereira puts back on. He put on 30 lbs in the 24 hours leading up to the fight. He was fighting at 215. Izzy doesn’t put much weight back on. It’s really hard to take a guy much bigger than you down when you don’t wrestle. I think you’re also underestimating his movement being compromised towards the end.

Yeah, I very well could be underestimating all those things and over estimating Izzy's skillset. Going into the fight I thought he had an advantage on the ground, during the fight I thought he had an advantage on the ground, and after the fight I was curious why we didn't see him try to use it more. We saw Pereira couldn't get up, seemed logical to put him there but if he literally just can't get him there then I guess there's no ego involved and I'm just over estimating Izzy's ability. I honestly felt emphasising wrestling would have been a no brainer here. Is what it is, happy it turned out the way it did.

Maybe my bias towards not liking Izzy has me wanting to find things he did wrong lol.

 

[m9]

I just think it's a combination of things.

Adesanya isn't good at getting the fight to the ground and isn't good once it gets there. Sure he's trained MMA longer but he probably has spent the majority of his grappling/wrestling in defensive positions to get him back to the feet where he has an advantage over 99.9% of the world.

But more importantly, he was actually doing well on the feet. Had won at least 3 rounds and Pereira looked like he was getting slower as the fight went on.

I don't think it was an ego thing. He thought he was better on the feet because up until the end, he was better.

Sometimes fighters/athletes just do great things. That's what I think happened here. Pereira dug down and pulled it off.

 

[1specter]

I just think it's a combination of things.

Adesanya isn't good at getting the fight to the ground and isn't good once it gets there. Sure he's trained MMA longer but he probably has spent the majority of his grappling/wrestling in defensive positions to get him back to the feet where he has an advantage over 99.9% of the world.

But more importantly, he was actually doing well on the feet. Had won at least 3 rounds and Pereira looked like he was getting slower as the fight went on.

I don't think it was an ego thing. He thought he was better on the feet because up until the end, he was better.

Sometimes fighters/athletes just do great things. That's what I think happened here. Pereira dug down and pulled it off.

Agreed. Also that leg check from Pereira hit the nerve in Izzy's leg and that really spiraled quickly, he didn't have the same slickness in his footwork anymore.

 

[Chaels Arms]

In almost every fight Izzy has had in the UFC he's been able to tear up his opponents' legs at will. Costa's gameplan was the same as Pereira's: corner Izzy against the fence and swing heavy. The difference is Izzy's mobility was never threatened in that fight and he destroyed Costa's mobility early so Izzy was always able to easily slip out of danger. There used to be a video on youtube just showing Costa attempting to trap Izzy on the fence and Israel slipping out over and over again. That check by Pereira which caused Izzy to do a barrel roll was a bigger deal than the broadcast realized at the time.

 

[Mickey Marner]

I don’t think it was ego either, he just fought a fighter with similar height, reach and striking prowess, while giving up strength and weight. He has historically used his length and counter striking to evade damage and pick apart a division of ~6 ft fighters. It’s a different fight when your opponent can walk you down and force exchanges. Especially when your opponent has one-punch KO power.

 

[pistolpete11]

I've only seen the top 3 fights so far.

I kind of feel bad for Izzy. I generally like Izzy. Not so much that I'm going to get into an argument with someone who doesn't, but it's a real tough pill to swallow for him. 3 fights against the same guy which you could argue he was the better fight in all 3, but he comes away 0-3....I thought this fight was going to be more entertaining than Izzy's last few and I think it turned out to be a pretty good one. Won't be fight of the year or anything, but it was a fun fight with each guy having their moments...Izzy's grappling looked more limited than I was expecting, but I also think part of it is that Pereira is f***ing massive. If he beat Izzy in a way that a rematch wasn't needed, I thought Whittaker would have a real good shot at beating him. I wouldn't count Bobby Knuckles out, but the size difference would be absolutely huge....I thought the stoppage was fine....I haven't seen Pereira's corner going into the 5th, but it does sound like it's kind of out of a movie....I think a rematch is probably next. I don't hate it. With how dominant Izzy has been and how he was clearly winning, it makes sense to me.

I thought Weili would win rather easily, but if you say you had Weili by sub without any evidence, you're a liar. Weird sub, too....The first round was both more competitive and more fun than I was expecting, too.... Kind of expecting Weili-Rose, but Rose getting a title shot off such a pathetic loss would be lame.

Poirier-Chandler round 1 went how I expected. I was expecting Chandler to hurt Poirier early. Wasn't sure if Poirier would be able to survive or not, but if he did, he would then take over. Round 2 flipped that around, though, and never saw either guy winning by sub. Fun fight and glad Poirier comes away with the win....They both tried to be professional leading up to the fight, but it seems like there is still some bad blood there for whatever reason...I hope they do Poirier-Dariush while they do Islam-Volk. I would love Poirier to get another title shot, but I don't like his chances against Islam at all. Maybe if Volk can somehow pull it off, Poirier could get a title shot against Volk instead.

 

[CDJ]

Hear me out:


Chandler-Gamrot

Poirier-Dariush (Dustin seemed interested in the post fight presser)

That is all

 

[m9]

Hear me out:


Chandler-Gamrot

Poirier-Dariush (Dustin seemed interested in the post fight presser)

That is all

It's really hard for them to go wrong matching the top of 155lbs. My preference would still be Oliveira/Dariush but if they did what you have here that's fine as well.

Wouldn't mind them doing a bit of Bellator-ish match-making here and testing out some lower guys vs the top tier. Things are so stagnant up there. Like, throw Jalin Turner up there vs Charles Oliveira and see what happens.

Gaethje/Fiziev should be announced soon enough as well

 

[pistolpete11]

Poirier-Dariush makes more sense to me than Oliveira-Dariush now because it guarantees you a no-doubt-about-it next challenger. If Oliveira beat Dariush and Islam beats Volk, I don't know about a rematch so soon.

It doesn't reallllllly matter because you could put just about anybody in the top 10 in the next title fight and I'd talk myself into it being a fun fight, but I just like it more when there's no arguments from fighters, fans, or media on who should be getting the next shot.

 

[MMC]

 

[CDJ]

Seems like he’s gonna easily get this dismissed

 

[Taytro]

I'm assuming the charges won't stick, especially if it's a gift, but I don't understand the article (or maybe just the legal system/rules). The article calls it a misdemeanor but he can face up to 1 year in jail for just owning/possessing a piece of brass with holes for your fingers? Wild.

 

[luiginb]

Why didn't Pereira join UFC earlier, anybody know?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Why didn't Pereira join UFC earlier, anybody know?

Not sure what you mean.. he got signed pretty early in his mma career. 4 mma fights before they signed him and only one recently.

2015 L
2016 2 wins
2020 1 win in LFA

Made his UFC debut last year in November THATS pretty quick. Unless you mean why didn't he leave kickboxing to come to mma earlier?

There's a good column on espn about how Pereira got into MMA just to go after Izzy. After Izzy was champ Pereira posted something on social media about having beaten him and Izzy gave an interview in which he said this:

"I've never ever watched any of his fights, ever," Adesanya told Sporting News Australia back then. "At the end of the day, no one knows who the f--- he is, and he's going to be that guy when I'm world champion and when I'm a legend, he's going to be at some pub talking s--- about 'I beat that guy one time."


Pereira heard that and 7 months later he signed the contract with LFA. He was all about kickboxing before that.

'The stone in his shoe': Inside the rivalry between Israel Adesanya and the only man to knock him out

Alex Pereira has beaten the UFC champion twice, via kickboxing. Israel Adesanya is adamant that history won't repeat itself.

www.espn.com

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Not sure what you mean.. he got signed pretty early in his mma career. 4 mma fights before they signed him and only one recently.

2015 L
2016 2 wins
2020 1 win in LFA

Made his UFC debut last year in November THATS pretty quick. Unless you mean why didn't he leave kickboxing to come to mma earlier?

There's a good column on espn about how Pereira got into MMA just to go after Izzy. After Izzy was champ Pereira posted something on social media about having beaten him and Izzy gave an interview in which he said this:

"I've never ever watched any of his fights, ever," Adesanya told Sporting News Australia back then. "At the end of the day, no one knows who the f--- he is, and he's going to be that guy when I'm world champion and when I'm a legend, he's going to be at some pub talking s--- about 'I beat that guy one time."


Pereira heard that and 7 months later he signed the contract with LFA. He was all about kickboxing before that.

'The stone in his shoe': Inside the rivalry between Israel Adesanya and the only man to knock him out

Alex Pereira has beaten the UFC champion twice, via kickboxing. Israel Adesanya is adamant that history won't repeat itself.

www.espn.com

 

[pistolpete11]

Finally got around to watching some of the other fights and rewatched the top 3 for the fun of it.

I was OK with the stoppage in Izzy-Pereira originally, now...I don't know. I think Izzy was kind of out of it and throwing up a clinch out of instinct, but the ref let him go. Then he stepped in when Izzy was ducking and weaving and I'm not sure the last few punches actually landed. Just more of a reason to do a rematch if you ask me.

Nothing new to take from Weili-Carla. Weili is a badass.

Poirier is the f***ing man. He did get caught with a couple of clean shots earlier, but when he was really in trouble, it was a headbutt that started the sequence. Didn't realize that when I watched it originally.

Poor Frankie . Gutierrez looked fantastic even considering Frankie being at the end, though. Looking forward to seeing him get a real test next. Someone like Font would be interesting.

Hooker-Puelles was awful. Hooker looked like he was throwing everything in slow motion. Maybe it was to draw out a reaction or something, but it was weird. Puelles looked afraid to be hit. He dropped to the ground after everything. Glad to see Hooker pick up a win, but hard to really take anything form this. Just a weird ass fight where Puelles was so overmatched on the feet, but doesn't answer any of the questions about Hooker.

Moicano reminds me a lot of early career Charlie Olives. Brazilian, BJJ expert, FW/LW tweener, he's got some really solid wins, but when he steps up to the truly elite, he gets handled. Unfortunately for Moicano, they are the same age. Charlie leveled up much sooner and I think Moicano might run out of prime years to really make some noise.

WTF happened to Reyes, man? I think it's a combination of being too easy to hit and no chin, but how did that guy take out Jon Jones (I know he 'technically' lost)? Kind of makes you wonder on Jones coming back.

Holy f***, Blanchfield made that look way easier than I expected. I think Molly is kind of the definition of a puncher's chance which usually doesn't end well when you get to a certain level, but that was 1-way traffic to the extreme.

 

[CDJ]

Finally got around to watching some of the other fights and rewatched the top 3 for the fun of it.

I was OK with the stoppage in Izzy-Pereira originally, now...I don't know. I think Izzy was kind of out of it and throwing up a clinch out of instinct, but the ref let him go. Then he stepped in when Izzy was ducking and weaving and I'm not sure the last few punches actually landed. Just more of a reason to do a rematch if you ask me.

Nothing new to take from Weili-Carla. Weili is a badass.

Poirier is the f***ing man. He did get caught with a couple of clean shots earlier, but when he was really in trouble, it was a headbutt that started the sequence. Didn't realize that when I watched it originally.

Poor Frankie . Gutierrez looked fantastic even considering Frankie being at the end, though. Looking forward to seeing him get a real test next. Someone like Font would be interesting.

Hooker-Puelles was awful. Hooker looked like he was throwing everything in slow motion. Maybe it was to draw out a reaction or something, but it was weird. Puelles looked afraid to be hit. He dropped to the ground after everything. Glad to see Hooker pick up a win, but hard to really take anything form this. Just a weird ass fight where Puelles was so overmatched on the feet, but doesn't answer any of the questions about Hooker.

Moicano reminds me a lot of early career Charlie Olives. Brazilian, BJJ expert, FW/LW tweener, he's got some really solid wins, but when he steps up to the truly elite, he gets handled. Unfortunately for Moicano, they are the same age. Charlie leveled up much sooner and I think Moicano might run out of prime years to really make some noise.

WTF happened to Reyes, man? I think it's a combination of being too easy to hit and no chin, but how did that guy take out Jon Jones (I know he 'technically' lost)? Kind of makes you wonder on Jones coming back.

Holy f***, Blanchfield made that look way easier than I expected. I think Molly is kind of the definition of a puncher's chance which usually doesn't end well when you get to a certain level, but that was 1-way traffic to the extreme.

To your point about Jones- I was coming to this page to point out somewhere that Jon would open as a -175 fav against Blaydes if they were to fight

Figured this would be as good of a spot as ever to post it. I would be all over Blaydes.