287 - Alex has Izzy's number and Jorge's corpse fights again

[Dupp]

Thought Izzy might get a finish. He’s a bit of a turd but I’m happy for him

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[Dupp]

I don’t even like Izzy but the “sore winner” stuff is weird to me. These dudes fight in a cage for our entertainment, let them release some emotion lol. Especially after a W like that.

His opponent was up 3-0 on him including back to back vicious KO/TKOs across two sports. He lost his belt and had his legacy on the line, all against the same dude who had been his kryptonite from 6 years ago. He had his back against the wall about as badly as you could imagine, and responded with what will go down as one of the greatest KOs of all time. Like let’s not pretend we all wouldn’t be acting up in that moment lol.

It’s all fine imo. Izzy mocking Alex’s kids was even great

[Susan]

God damn Izzy is an all time great. As is Alex - would like to see Alex take on Bobby Knuckles and Izzy take on Chimaev. That division is so good at the top right now.

[Mehar]

Adesanya already beat all the top contenders at 185 in convincing fashion, including Whittaker twice. It makes sense to set up a trilogy with Pereira, but maybe not right way. If Pereira wants to stay at 185, he should face a top 5 guy next and then set up a trilogy with Adesanya. Adesanya in the meantime should fight the Khamzat/Costa winner (rumoured to be booked in the coming months).

[Dupp]

God damn Izzy is an all time great. As is Alex - would like to see Alex take on Bobby Knuckles and Izzy take on Chimaev. That division is so good at the top right now.

Actually feel the division is trash but those 4 guys are good.

I’d like to see those fights you suggested but feel like they ain’t doing khamzat no favours since the whole Nate debacle.

[cowboyronnie]

He definitely should not fight Costa again. Bobby or Khamzat if they get wins.

[Prez]

Khamzat getting a title shot with zero ranked wins at 185 would be **** lunacy imo. At some point merit has to matter. You shouldn’t be getting title shots in a division you have zero ranked wins in, all because you had one competitive top 5 win a weight class DOWN.

Book him vs Costa. Big, strong legit 185er with solid defensive grappling and serviceable striking with good power. Great level test to see where Khamzat’s at as a 185er. If he truly deserves a title shot, he’ll prove it by running through Costa. But he needs to go out there and actually earn it.

[ronnymac2]

Let's see, I was totally wrong about them feeding jobbers to Rosas. Easy clap for Rodriguez. He looked way more nervous during the post-fight interview than he did during the fight.

Really happy for Gastelum to get a win in a banger of a fight. That division is finally looking good again, and if KG can make his way back into title contention, the division will be all the more better for it. He's an entertaining fighter when he's right.

Font looked so sharp. I'm not sure how forward-thinking this is, but Font vs. Sandhagen would be awesome.

I called no finish in the co-main with Burns winning. Burns was never threatened at all, and his power shots in round 3 were sending Jorge all over the cage. I usually don't mind poor commentary, but the commentary was egregiously poor to me in round 3. It was super clear who was winning the round by a mile, yet the commentary team was acting like it was competitive.

Super happy for Izzy. Most active champion there is. Finally beat his boogeyman. I said he was the clearly superior fighter based on their first three bouts. If they fought 100 times in a simulation, I've got Izzy winning 61 times. Alex just happened to get three of his 39 right away in our reality.

I don't mind a rematch because these two are destined to have amazing fights, but I also don't mind if 35-year-old Periera doesn't want to cut weight and fight Izzy for a fifth time. After a while, whether you are winning or losing, I don't think you want to fight the same human over and over. Alex accomplished what he set out to do in that he 1.) became a champion and a bankable star in MMA, and 2.) He beat Izzy. Glover is no longer in the division up. He's a bankable star with built-in storylines vs. champion Hill and former champion Jiri who both beat his MMA mentor Glover, and both are more strike-heavy as opposed to grapplers. Why not go for a different challenge and try to become a multi-division champion, all with an easier weight cut?

Either way, much respect to both guys. They made each other. Not every great in sports gets to have a true rival. Magic and Bird were lucky they had one another.

I liked their embrace in the back after the fight and Izzy talking about wanting to train with Alex in Brazil at some point. I'd take them over any middleweight duo ever in a tag team UFC fight.

[cowboyronnie]

Good point about commentary in Jorge vs Burns fight. Yeah, that 3rd round was a runaway, Burns was in his face landing clean shots at will.

Not surprisingly, Jorge was on JRE a week ago.

[NO-KG-AI]

I also like Alex going up to 205, bunch of interesting things to do there. Plus, if they end up doing Izzy and Perreira one more time, adding a new wrinkle a weight class up adds some more intrigue.

I thought Whittaker won the second fight, but I still kinda feel like the only fun fight right now for Adesanya is Alex again, or moving up, unless Khamzat can blast through a top 5 guy. Khamzat has been around long enough, we don't need to baby him or try to build him up. Either throw him in against someone like Whittaker, or move on.

Izzy feels like he's kind of outgrown regular title defenses now tbh. Just feels like he should be in huge fights with more stakes and meaning, almost anything out there for him right now is going to be a big come down from these two Alex fights.

[Dupp]

Good point about commentary in Jorge vs Burns fight. Yeah, that 3rd round was a runaway, Burns was in his face landing clean shots at will.

Not surprisingly, Jorge was on JRE a week ago.

Joe is beyond awful. “Close fight, close round” man stfu.

[Susan]

Like Alex going up to 205 and just starching dudes. At his age and the current state of that division, he'd be my favorite to win the belt and Izzy and him seem to be done with one another for a minute.

[Dupp]

Like Alex going up to 205 and just starching dudes. At his age and the current state of that division, he'd be my favorite to win the belt and Izzy and him seem to be done with one another for a minute.

It’s a great division for him until he fights ankalaev or the best guy in the division, Rakic.


But Jan, Jamal, Jiri, all the Js are fun matchups. Imagine him winning the LHW strap and Izzy moves up to settle things once and for all.