UFC Fight Camp’s Phil Murphy, Megan Anderson and Jimmy Smith discuss how a leg kick impacted Israel Adesanya’s footwork in …
so the start of the fifth round Izzy comes out up 39-37 on all three score cards Pereira mouths Pronto pramatar Loosely I’m ready to kill in Portuguese now that’s where Pereira got the Finish via strikes but it was preceded by a leg kick one of 22 landed in the fight but this one struck a nerve quite literally and don’t take my word for it take that of the former champ post fight chatting to Alex volkanovski Megan I saw you noticed this on Fight Night you’ve stressed it in our conversations about this fight in the interim why was that kick the iceberg to adesanya’s Titanic well when you have a guy in Israel out of Sunday WHo revives so heavily on on movement it’s going to affect his performance detrimentally we’ve seen this many times before notably Henry sahuto versus Demetrius Johnson two fight he hit that kick also Jimmy crew and Anthony Smith immediate drop foot like that kick right there and as soon as that lands Jimmy is going down as soon as he puts weight on that on that kick it’s it’s like he’s like baby on Ice yeah you can’t move he tried to fight through it he really did he he almost was able to get into the second round but no Sean O’Malley versus Chino Vera the last example I’ve got for you guys wasn’t noticeable up first almost 30 to 40 seconds later that’s when it hits that’s when as soon as he tried to push off of that right foot immediately his weight-bearing ability was compromised he was finished at the end of that round and when you have guys who rely so heavily on their movement if that is affected in any way we’re gonna see massive effects example Israel he wasn’t able to move he was doing so well adjusting to the power of Alex throughout the the first four and a half rounds so as soon as he wasn’t able to move Alex gets to finish within a minute and O’Malley I think is particularly analogous because he likes to switch stances and move around Jimmy if I’m Alex Pereira and I know how that fight ended why wouldn’t I just Spam leg kicks and hope to restrike that nerve again yeah because the reason they don’t is you got to watch for the grappling right somebody throws a lot of late kicks Ad nauseam they have to worry about getting taken down so that would be the only reason I wouldn’t constantly go to that Lake and also you never kick without a vulnerability for the counter shot Izzy’s timing is very very good early in fights so I’m not saying you shouldn’t go to the late kick but he might wait until Izzy slows down just a little bit or his counter punching slows down a little bit to make it safe for that leg attack it’s what makes this fight so compelling oddsmakers suggest adasania can check his mantle for space to redisplay his belt history suggests otherwise did you know this is the 15th time a former champ has been granted an immediate rematch the previous 14 went just three and 11 in those attempts including Kamara Usman last month Silver Lining two of the three to win back they’re gold did it in 2022 thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus