He definitely humped him at the end after the stoppage.

That didnt even look competitive. Cant see anyone in the division thats gonna give Isreal any problems. Gonna be champ for a long time.

Seems like Izzy is untouchable at MW for a bit. He's gonna have Jones reach + superior striking over all his opponents. Doesn't have the grappling of Jones but who cares if you can keep it standing.

Whittaker can beat him. Go back and watch the first fight, Whittaker was the faster and more explosive athlete and really and truly just got caught + Izzy fought him in the pocket which i think was dumb.

Not that it's going to happen but i'd love to see GSP come back and fight Izzy as we didn't get to see the GSP vs A.Silva fight back in the days.

Will be hard for a standup fighter to defeat Izzy. Best chance is a wrestler like Chimaev, although he's a true 170lb fighter and needs several more wins either way.

Whittaker just got caught? He was getting totally outclassed before that happened.

Also, exo, didn't you call Izzy doing that? You said it would be a pure kickboxing fight and Izzy would win unless I am thinking of someone else.

"Ali-Foreman": check. Foreman even forgot to swing for the fences.

Might have to wait for Alex Pereira to enter the UFC before a challenger to Izzy emerges.

It seems like fighters/coaches don't really know how to game plan for Izzy. Whittaker, Romero and Costa all made really bad decisions and looked clueless.

I did say that about Izzy vs Whittaker, i'm just saying that you can't write off Whittaker in a rematch because of what happened in the first fight. Izzy is the favorite at MW vs everybody but styles make fights and with the right game plan you give yourself a chance. Costa last night didn't even give himself a chance and is what was so dissapointing.

If Weidman was 5 years younger he would probably be the favorite if they fought but sadly he's shot.

people always say **** like this after a guy gets outclassed versus a way better fighter, same as alvarez vs mcgregor and other examples

it's rarely the gameplan, you get in there with an all-elite striker like Izzy or Conor and their footwork and timing blow up whatever you thought you could do

its rarely the "gameplan"

more like ali liston

Yeah, this is all your fault you bunch of non-basketball playing mother****ers!

Explanations for wins like 'outclassed' and 'on a different level' are generally simplistic and say nothing useful. There were a number of tools Costa could have used, eg Izzy's leg was there to be kicked and Costa did land a couple. But for the most part he let Izzy do what he wanted. That is bad game-planning.

I guess that explains why Mcgregor tried to take Nate Diaz's head off, failed, got stopped and then rematched him, used a different game plan and won.

It's also why Ngannou went from taking everybody's heads off to gassing vs Stipe and then losing to Lewis clearly worrying about gassing and then since he has returned to his brute force non technical style is just running through guys again.

Game plan matters. Even look at Israel, he had a war vs Kelvin and almost lost. I guarantee you if he rematches Kelvin he makes adjustments and makes it look easy.

Don't be telling me what it's more like after the fight when I said it before the fight. Thanks.

The lines on UFC events are really the worst I've ever seen.

Mcgregor lost the first Diaz match because he gassed not because of a difference in technical ability. Nate was getting bust up before the gas tank went. His change of gameplan was to stop doing so much coke and booze in between camps and get some cardio.

Ngannou didn't change his gameplan or lack one for Stipe, he did the same thing he'd always done which is walk forward and try to KO him. If his previous opponents had the ability to wrestle him like Stipe he'd prob have gassed out vs them too.

Game plans obviously matter but there's only so much you can realistically do with any fighter.

Let history show GOAT Jones was like -250 versus Gustafsson (fight 2) and GOAT Izzy was -180 versus Costa. Should have been 10/1 and 5/1, imo. Two pure GOATS versus two (what will prove to be) journeymen, though admittedly accomplished and dangerous ones. Still journeymen in the end. Lines seemed extremely naive in a way they would never be in a longstanding more established fight sport, say boxing. Seemed to me anyway.

Adesanya just peaked and Jones would do to him pretty much exactly what he said: rip him apart grappling. Total opposite of what Costa did ... way stronger, way more leverage than Costa brought, way smarter. A savage thing ... like Hagler/Hearns, Tarver/Jones 2 ... somebody give me a UFC similar result. When something great and GOATish lost savagely and brutally.

Izzy of course can still take out most challengers, but he just super peaked and is set for a big slide mentally and physically, imo. He's in a strange place, overconfident (of course understandable), a strange health issue, and behaving way more self-defeating and classless than Bones ever did.

One of the all-time greats. Luved watching him. A rare breed mentally and physically. He's where Tyson was right before he started unraveling, where UCLA was in '74 when it looked like to them we just can't lose a game (then they lose 4 after winning nearly 100 in a row), etc. There's not much more even possible north for him, and plenty of south. That's the Everest peak he's standing on, and an earthquake is rumbling.

Jones haven't been able to take anybody down since USADA caught him. I'm 100% sure if Cormier fought him now he'd get tossed around instead of outwrestling an olympic level caliber wrestler like he did while on roids.

Izzy talks big but he's smart, he brings up Jones and even Stipe but the reality is he knows that as of right now he's not ready for either of them.

Oh, Jones is far from his peak, agreed ... already covered that. Just saying he would tear Izzy apart in my opinion. Izzy can't knock him out so you just keep wading and diving in with way superior power. Pure manhandle tap plus hump ... but I fully expect Joe to make a rule against the hump gesture soon.

Does that move even have a name?

Yikes.

I guess it depends if Jones is allowed to eye poke again. I'm 50/50 on it. Jones is the more all-round fighter but he peaked a few years back, whereas Adesenya is at his peak right now. 3 years ago Jones would kill him but I'm not sure now.

Check on all that but Bones is bulking up major for heavyweight challenge, and Izzy is a toothpick compared to him, and it matters this time. Grappling, dominated, Khabib vs. Conor type thing ... you don't want me on you for 3 or four rounds. You can't handle it. No way. I see Izzy's only win there a choke out of Bones, which is possible but less possible with Bones than anyone else on earth.When Bones rides him, Izzy has no winning move if he can't choke him out. The other side is WAY stronger, and now Izzy fights the problem that Bones did against Gustafsson ... this guy has leverage equal to mine. Hasn't happened before. And he's way stronger. Some wild submit long shot is Izzy's only win, imo. And submitting Jones, well, probably not while he's alive.

I would have seen it exactly like this before the Jones move to bulk up, that Izzy would "early Jones" him. Dazzle him with speed, moves, creativity. Izzy was the man to take Jones down and out. But the bulking up by Jones is exactly the wrong thing for Izzy in this matchup, imo. Jones would Khabib him, I believe.