I can't wrap my head around Whittaker's strategy

Style wise, he fought a completely different beast 2 times in 2 years.

Yoel stalks and waits to explode, so Robert's blitz style was the quicker and more consistent attack. And it worked but by the hair on his chin.

Izzy was wise to play matador to the bullrush, and around 4:44 into the fight he clocked him and shocked him.

What I'm saying is.. styles still make fights
 
He’s always fought that way before and always found success with it...

Just ran into a better striker.

When he tried to use grappling against Hall, he looked awful in the process...
 
The Legendary Scarface said:
Consider this,
If you asked some random "tough guy" off the street to get inside a cage and fight Adesanya, he'd probably go in there and attempt the same thing that Bobby attempted.

.... Lunging hooks and wild over hands.

As someone who considers Whittaker to be a great champion and a fighter with very good fight IQ, how is it possible that with months to prepare, that's what him and his team came up with?

I cannot wrap my head around that or understand at all.

And, he came out immediately in rd 1 fighting like that, so it wasn't some spontaneous adjustment or impulsive decision he just made. Plus, neither Bobby or his team said anything about him going away from the gameplan or not listening so it's fair to assume that was deliberately the gameplan his coaches came up with.

No hate but that has got to be one of the worst game plans in UFC Title Fight History and I don't understand it.

What say you Sherbros...what the fuck? How? Why?!

PS - Not taking anything away from Izzy, while I don't like the dude, he put on a masterclass performance, hats off to him he was spectacular. This is about Whittaker's gameplan though.
Click to expand...
He told you his strategy in all his pre fight interviews
 
BEER said:
Thats how Whittaker fights lmao

I don't know where this notion of Bobby K coming into fights with individualized and highly intelligent game plans comes from.

He fights the same in basically every fight.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what people are talking about. He showed up and fought like himself. What the hell else was he going to do?
 
He tried using oblique kicks, izzy countered him with a beautiful switch kick to the head. He was coming very close to landing some of his big shots, so why change the plan if your millimetres from landing? Adesanya allowed him to think this, which made Rob over commit a few times and allowed izzy to land his own counters. Couple this with the fact he got essentially knocked out at the end of round one and didn't fully recover in round 2 and then you get the finish.
 
DelanoRunnymede said:
He tried using oblique kicks, izzy countered him with a beautiful switch kick to the head. He was coming very close to landing some of his big shots, so why change the plan if your millimetres from landing? Adesanya allowed him to think this, which made Rob over commit a few times and allowed izzy to land his own counters. Couple this with the fact he got essentially knocked out at the end of round one and didn't fully recover in round 2 and then you get the finish.
Click to expand...

What you say is right but it doesn't explain why he thought this play would work from the start of the fight.
He's never fought like that before.
 
Whitaker's was head hunting and went for the KO victory. Was super aggressive maybe to send a message or to exploit a hole.

No shame in that. He's a fucking beast
 
Congo66 said:
What you say is right but it doesn't explain why he thought this play would work from the start of the fight.
He's never fought like that before.
Click to expand...

I feel like he fights like that often? He has a really good high kick that he hides behind punches as well, and he's used it to great effect in the past, but Izzy read it every single time. Maybe he just didn't understand quite how far ahead Izzy's stand up was?

Perhaps in camp he saw what he thought was a flaw in Izzy's game as well, but when it came to the actual fight, that flaw wasn't there anymore, or was a bait to lure him into the over commitment.
 
BEER said:
Thats how Whittaker fights lmao

I don't know where this notion of Bobby K coming into fights with individualized and highly intelligent game plans comes from.

He fights the same in basically every fight.
Click to expand...

He has never been that overly aggressive before. Lol you don't know shit if you think that.
 
The only thing that was missing from his gameplan was to throw hands at the body. His combinations had Izzy leaning back hard to avoid being hit in the face (not using a ton of footwork), as shown in the gif in this thread, the body was open and in range but his headhunting shrank his intended target substantially. The body punch in range would also have lessened his overextension and maybe he gets his hands back up defensively in time to avoid the big shots.

Either way, based on what Rob did; Izzy fought a perfect fight. Best performance of his career.
 
I think he was betting on creating an opening solely from pressure. He didn't anticipate Adesanya being able to find angles like he did to counter in the pocket. But yeah, those GIFs show Whittaker was getting desperate and left his chin exposed.
 
Whittaker is a hell of a fighter, but realistically he knew he couldn’t beat Izzy with his grappling or in a point fighting match. His best bet was to use his speed and power to try and knock Izzy out.

Of course in the rematch he could attempt to outstrike Adesanya until he catches him with something that hurts him, but he would lose the match until he did hurt him. It’s hard to bank on that game plan also.
 
He thought he was fast enough to hit Israel. He didn't respect Adesanya's power enough/overestimated his own chin. And he didn't want to risk fighting conservatively and getting picked apart. It wasn't a terrible strategy. Whittaker isn't a grappler. Maybe he should have at least made Israel think about it, but it wasn't a real threat. His biggest advantage was power and he wasn't much slower than Izzy. I don't see the issue with his 'game plan'.
 
I think a bit of rust came into play. He hit him with a couple of those is the first rd. Really think he was hurt on the bell a lot more than he let on
 
That was probably the ideal gameplan in hindsight it just didn't pan out well for him. He was never going to outstrike Izzy in any sort of technical display of striking. His best bet was probably to rush him and try and catch him before he got into his groove. The fact that it didn't work out for him doesn't make it stupid, it just means Izzy was able to counter that particular gameplan.
 
I like both fighters, and picked rob because he is more proven than izzy. I imagined robert would use tds early to wear down the striker...would have need a food strategy...instead he went out head hunting a guy that's known to be hard to hit. It was a horrible gameplan. In a rematch I would have to go with izzy, just because of that gameplan. If his team really thought that was the waste beat a really technical striker, I just dont know what to say. I have 0no confidence in his teams gameplanning at this point.
 
Still salty you sad Israel hater? <45>

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