The guy should retire. He's lost enough title fights now. One of my favourite fighters but he should call it a day. He said he can't see himself fighting past 2027. Too long imo.
Another loss by K.O. He's lost about 5 of his last 6 and it's now 4 straight losses. He's got to hang them up. He's my favourite along with Khabib but I don't want to see him take punishment anymore.
R.I.P. Unfortunately he will likely fight on, at least once, and the UFC will undoubtedly feed him to another up and comer on a FN headliner.
The fact that he's doing a FN headline speaks for itself. He's gone from being the main event on a ufc card to this. It's like playing premier league soccer in England then being relegated to the championship.
Fall off is reminiscent of Anderson Silva, apart from the fact that Silva wasn’t getting finished every single fight. I wasn’t around for Izzy’s come up and yes the amount of defences is impressive, but he has a really poor resume, it’s sheer quantity over quality. Apart from Whitaker x2 who I myself believe to be pretty overrated, he has nothing else during his first title run. 43 year old Romero in one of the worst title fights of all time. Vettori x2, Paulo Costa, Derick Brunson? Not to kick a dog while he’s down, but it baffles me people rank him above Silva as the middleweight GOAT. Time to take a serious step down in quality or hang up the gloves Izzy.
It’s certainly the weakest ever claim to a division GOAT that exists. I’m just left looking at what even is Izzy’s legacy. My mate was hyping him up as the middleweight goat and a top 15 goat last night while we were streaming and I just shook my god damn head and bit my tongue
To be fair, his run up to the Błachowicz fight was damn good. Had a solid UFC debut and then beat the up and comer Vettori, shortly after that he had that brilliant performance against the excellent veteran/gatekeeper Derek Brunson. Next up was Silva - in a passing of the torch type of fight - followed by one of the best fights of the year against Gastelum. To recap: he won a SD over Vettori, shined against Brunson, had a boring fight with old ass Silva, and capped it off with a war with Gastelum. Yea, not that impressive really, to be honest, but its his next 3 fights that I think generated the hype. Izzy dominated Whittaker, who by all counts is an excellent fighter and clearly in the top 5 for a long time: even you would say that beating Whittaker the was Izzy did was pretty impressive. Then Izzy takes on the boogeyman in Romero. This is the fight that Izzy himself asked for, and the fans appreciated him for it, even after the "fight". And everyone memoryholed how close the fight really was. And then the biggest fight yet: Paulo Costa! Costa was rising to prominence fast, and it was the fight most were looking forward to. And what happened? Izzy once again dominated. That 3 fight streak at the championship level is what created the image of Izzy being a dominant champion and a savage. It made him look better than he really was. Then Blachowicz used some basic wrestling and shut Izzy down. At no point did Izzy show the fire he had shown against Gastelum, as it was a one of performance. I will say this tho: Izzy looked damn good in the first Pereira fight, and also in the du Plessis one, even tho he lost both. Also, Izzy benefitted from having to fight mainly strikers throughout his career, same as Pereira. Ironically, the first time either guy faced someone who used good wrestling against them, they lost.
Pyfer almost blew it before realizing he needed to strike first to set up the takedowns. Pretty fun fight while it lasted though. Izzy has seen better days, but there might still be some fun winnable fights for him. UFC should give him a tuneup before booking a fight with MVP.
Whittaker wasn't dominated in the rematch. It was pretty close in spite of what the biased commentary was saying. Izzy had a lot of close fights. Like Anderson Silva if you didn't chase him or show any real aggression he was more than happy to pot shot and point fight his way to boring decision. Didn't see the post. Prime Whittaker was something else. I think injuries and wars took some of the wind out of his sails. He's still been a solid contender, but not what was during the late 2010s.
I am old enough and have been watching mma for long enough (wary 2000s) to have seen a lot of stars come and go. And it's very sad when fighters stay on past their best and start to lose regularly in a way that you wouldn't have foreseen a few years earlier. Decline in elite MMA can do a lot of damage, both physically and to your historical standing. Izzy was an excellent fighter though I never quite bought into the MW GOAT stuff. To me, that was always Anderson Silva. He was another guy who stayed on too long (way too long actually) but, as his best, I've never seen anyone like him, as good or as dominant.
Yup, I was pointing to the specific 3 fight streak from Whittaker 1 to Blachowicz. I saw an interview clip of Strikcland about Izzy, and he said something like: Izzy is better than 90% of the roster, but hes not that good when compared to the other 10%. Izzy had a lot of close fights, but that 3 fight run molded an image that he somehow still carries.
I think hes always been vulnerable to effective pressure. But now he cant deal with it at all. He just crumbles.
Izzy was mainly a point/counter striker against guys that had way shorter reach. He could hit them and be out of the way of anything coming back at him. Now these other guys have come along and the size/reach difference has stopped his adavantage. The last couple of fights he has tried to almost brawl and trade and gets hurt. He had that fight yesterday, a couple more leg kicks on Joe and he was ready to collapse. He decided to stop kicking and trade punches which led to his downfall.
He beat Periera in a rematch. Look at how much bigger Alex was than Israel. Come on. Israel's win over Periera is one of the all time great wins in UFC.
