What made Israel Adesanya drop his crown against Sean Strickland? Was it his fighting-on-the-heels approach that paid dividends against Alex Pereira but proved futile against ‘Tarzan’? Or was it his cautious approach? Was it the challenger’s relentless forward pressure? Or was it the wrong choice of weapon by ‘Stylebender? Joe Rogan believes it’s the last.

The former UFC champion failed to deal with the unorthodox defense guard of the American fighter. In addition, he also ended up frequently finding his back against the cage wall. While a lot has been speculated about what caused the dramatic result at UFC 293, the color commentator knows the reason lies in the Nigerian-Kiwi fighter’s footing.

Joe Rogan points out the flaw in Israel Adesanya’s armory

The 56-year-old dissected the UFC 293 headliner as he appeared in the latest episode of JRE Fight Companion. Talking to Brendan Schaub, Bryan Callen, and Sam Tripoli, he pointed out that Adesanya lost all five rounds. Further, the famed podcaster mentioned the UFC star might have bagged one round due to significant strikes.

Rogan said, “I think it’s 5-0. I think that’s the new middleweight champion in the world. That is f*king crazy. You got, there’s one round where Izzy might have won. Might have, but I don’t think he did. All those significant strikes. That’s all nonsense.”

Following this, the standup comic mentioned that Adesanya relied on checking leg kicks, which, according to him, shouldn’t be added to the significant strikes column. “You’re looking at leg kicks that get checked. You can’t count those as significant strikes,” Rogan concluded.

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In the recent past, the debate of control time vs. damage or damage vs. strikes has gained traction. The most notable example is Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski or, more recently, Alex Pereira vs. Jan Blachowicz. This leads to various reactions on the internet as the results divide the fans.

Significant striking vs. Effective striking

While significant strikes are subjective to a particular judge, the commonly accepted idea is that clean, more damaging blows are counted as significant strikes. But is there a better parameter than significant strikes? One plausible one is “effective striking” which Judge ‘JJ’ Joshua Ferraro explained after his scorecard of Rafael Fiziev vs. Bobby Green at UFC 265 went viral.

“Strikes that are deemed most effective are strikes that have potential to end the fight. Those are the strikes that hold more weight than any other strikes. It doesn’t matter if they are punches, kicks, elbows, you name it, we have to assess who is trying to end the fight with their weapons,” he explained in a lengthy post.

He also pointed out that it was already established in the Unified Rules. Therefore, while one could land more significant strikes, he could still lose the round or even the fight if he trails back on the effective striking parameters. However, scoring has been a controversial aspect recently, and the debate will continue to rage on.

What do you think of these comments by UFC commentator Joe Rogan? Do you agree with him? Let us know in the comments below.

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