Who were the “unfavorable” matches for Alex?

[Pequeño Corey]

It's less "favorable matchups" and more "he was fast-tracked" because he absolutely was. They wanted to get the guy who already beat Izzy to the belt ASAP and that's what they did.

But they did also avoid anybody with good wrestling for obvious reasons. He still hasn't faced any good wrestlers. It hurts to (partially) agree with Weidman but he hasn't had to face a good wrestler. Weidman is so washed that he'd get knocked out immediately but a guy like Brunson would at least have given him a test. There's a good chance he would have won anyway, though, but we'll never know.

Brunson couldn’t implement effective grappling against Izzy. Alex is better and substantially stronger than Izzy in grappling. Brunson also gets finished by anyone with power. No way he should be considered as a bad matchup for AP.

 

[CatchtheseHands]

I’m starting to think that Ankalaev is in the same boat. He’s a mountain neckbeard guy who by birth should be a dominant grappler, but we’re just not seeing that in his fights. These guys like to bang and their wrestling ability is just a means to keep the fight standing.

I think they also treat it more as a "break the glass" in case of emergency sort of thing. Like Ank didn't start wrestling with Jan until he realized he was going to lose the fight if he continued to keep it standing.

 

[Siver!]

If I was going to be a dick and try to force defeats on Alex Pereira, I'd have given him a run of guys at middleweight that looked like:

Caio Borralho (both debuting around the same time, at least if Caio had fought Stoltzfus), then if he won that, give him Alexander Hernandez who wasn't ranked at the time, then maybe Marvin Vettori for his 'contender eliminator'.

At light heavyweight, he almost lost to Jan Blachowicz, so giving him Ankalaev immediately after would have been a nasty challenge.

Basically, tough dudes who are hard to KO and who can mix shit up.

 

[TadDunbar]

Lol at people saying Hermannson

 

[Striker Fox]

Adesanya had Pereira on the ground for an entire round and only got back up because the round ended, and Bruno Silva of all people took him down twice.

Knowing that, even guys like Andre Muniz and Malkoun (took Allen down 7 times) would've been risky matchups for him.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

If I was going to be a dick and try to force defeats on Alex Pereira, I'd have given him a run of guys at middleweight that looked like:

Caio Borralho (both debuting around the same time, at least if Caio had fought Stoltzfus), then if he won that, give him Alexander Hernandez who wasn't ranked at the time, then maybe Marvin Vettori for his 'contender eliminator'.

At light heavyweight, he almost lost to Jan Blachowicz, so giving him Ankalaev immediately after would have been a nasty challenge.

Basically, tough dudes who are hard to KO and who can mix shit up.
[/QUOTE]

This is actually the exact kind of response I was hoping for. Ur damn straight those first two would have been tougher, but don’t agree that Vettori would have been a harder match than strickland. Vettori lost twice to Izzy and once to Bobby, so something about a polished striker with decent TDD and sub defense seems to be Marvin’s weakness. Marvin really isn’t a good striker, but he has a solid chin so he doesn’t mind staying on the feet when he clearly shouldn’t, and he does this often. I’m told that he has dominant grappling, but maybe he can only pull this off on guys that just aren’t good.

 

[PaddyO'malley]

I love this we all know Edgie Hall be lyin Ngannou swinging backpacks good stuff. U should make a thread so everyone can vibe on this.

Imma remix it first fam Ngannou diss went HARD but cyattie ain't say it right mans even spell it out

 

[orca]

According to Chris Weidman, it was Chris Weidman

pretty sure prime weidman could defend himself standing up
dude fought lyoto and anderson

but im 100 percent sure if weidman takes him down
its already over


yeah bro i know weidmans old yall laughing at him

wait till pereira starts to lose
youl see how shty his ground game really is

got taken down by izzy and jan
lool average wrestlers took him down

 

[theincognito]

What spectator really wishes he had been fed to some low ranked grappler to get wrestlefucked and derailed instead of having this exciting run at the top? Zero. Those who say it are just searching out something to whine about.

 

[Striker Fox]

What spectator really wishes he had been fed to some low ranked grappler to get wrestlefucked and derailed instead of having this exciting run at the top? Zero. Those who say it are just searching out something to whine about.

As long as you weren't one of the majority of people who were complaining about McGregor getting favorable matchups on his way to fighting Aldo, then that's fine.

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

And you’re conveniently ignoring that Jan dominated Izzy with grappling, yet couldn’t replicate that success with AP.

And you’re continently leaving out the fact that the fight was at elevation

 

[Pequeño Corey]

And you’re continently leaving out the fact that the fight was at elevation

Wow you just invented sea level Blachowicz Guess what? Alex was also at altitude and he didn’t gas quite as bad. Maybe he’s just more efficient with his energy and movement on account of being a BJJ black belt and all. That means countless hours spent on the mat with Glover learning how to defend submissions.

 

[markg171]

People saying Alex is getting favourable matchups are haters. He’s fought like 7 of the last MW and LHW champs, with the one that he hasn’t fought being his coach.

His quality of schedule is the last thing that to bitch about.

 

[Tweak896]

UFC gave him an accelerated route to the title to feed Izzy someone new when they were running out of guys at MW, it was sort of the right time for Pereira to hop in. Either way, Pereira took it and made the most of it, he actually called out Ankalaev and if he fights and beats him, there's likely no grappler at MW/LHW he couldn't beat.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

I don’t see Vettori as unfavorable. He has a good chin, cardio, and pressure, but he doesn’t have KO power. If he couldn’t stifle Izzy in a 5 round affair, why should we assume that he could do it to Alex, the bigger, stronger fighter with equivalent counter grappling? I don’t believe believe that Sean was a better match than Marvin. In fact, as it turns out, Sean was actually the hardest match in the top ten. He went on to win the belt. People forget.

He doesn't need KO power. He has almost endless cardio and in the time we are talking about Alex's defensive grappling wasn't as good as Izzy's. Besides it might not have even been a 5 round fight and Vettori has decent submissions too.

Jan and Jiri don't have the kind of cardio that Vettori has especially not when grappling.

 

[ThaiSexPills]

It's less "favorable matchups" and more "he was fast-tracked" because he absolutely was. They wanted to get the guy who already beat Izzy to the belt ASAP and that's what they did.

But they did also avoid anybody with good wrestling for obvious reasons. He still hasn't faced any good wrestlers. It hurts to (partially) agree with Weidman but he hasn't had to face a good wrestler. Weidman is so washed that he'd get knocked out immediately but a guy like Brunson would at least have given him a test. There's a good chance he would have won anyway, though, but we'll never know.

A chinny, over the hill gatekeeper like Brunson would have done absolutely nothing except end up on a highlight reel. Alex haters always say he hasn’t faced wrestlers them act like Brunson is a deserving opponent.

Izzy beat all the top guys at MW in striking matches. If they’re truly great wrestlers there or even good ones, Izzy wouldn’t have been a dominant champion. It’s not Alex’s fault an imaginary fighter with GOAT wrestling doesn’t exist for himself to test on. I’d love to have seen a younger DC face Poatan but we can’t.

Alex is awesome. We’re all lucky to get to see this run and watch his fights.

 

[richardjohnson]

He has eight UFC fights and five of them have been for belts. I don’t think he’s getting favourable matchups, I think he’s just passing the tests that people expect him to fail.

 

[HHJ]

Khabib obviously

 

[PrideNverDies]

Definitely not Jones who ducked LHW and would get KOd by Alex worse than Hill

 

[Davidjacksonjones]

Definitely not Jones who ducked LHW and would get KOd by Alex worse than Hill

Most title defenses in LHW history.

"Ducked LHW". LOL