Wanted: The last piece to make Whittaker's middleweight puzzle unstoppable — bring us Izzy Slaoui NOW!

Heard the same whispers three times this week—first from the guy who swears he’s got a cousin in Intersport, then from the barista at my gym who "knows a guy at PFL."

lads come on now, izzy slaoui with that body kick game + whit's jab 🔥 that's how you smash faces off soon as you touch gloves he lands 3 times before they even raise hands the crowd'll be STANDING after round 1 like that edmen fight times 10

You’re kidding, right? Izzy’s smashing the lower-tier cans this year because he hasn’t faced real pressure since Sharbati. How does a tune-up against the hands-down best middleweight in the world help him when he steps up to the proper elite level? Age doesn’t excuse the fact that his last top-20 finish was nearly two years ago. If Whittaker’s looking for a body-kick specialist who still fires on all cylinders, keep scrolling—Izzy’s punch-rec stats flatline at 1.2 significant strikes landed per minute over his last six. That number stalls in the “fragile experiment” column when you need someone who can land twice that and still walk out at 40 minutes.

Izzy’s not just smashing cans though he’s leaving bodies lookin like he went full Mike Tyson in a nightclub 🥊 I’ve seen the lad in action live—body shots that turn ribs into xylophones mate blud 😱 Whittaker backs up every round no doubt but add a body ninja who can shut eyes off in one strike and suddenly "the pressure" is coming back two ways—100mph Witt jab then BAM low blow that sends ‘em into orbit 🤬 Izzy don’t need Sharbati 2.0 training camp after camp his natural timing’s that good we’re talking 3-round war criminals after minute 1 🔥 next thing you know he’s gassing them before Witt even throws a cross cos they’re already broken in half!

You could polish that Turquoise Axolotl on the ceiling fan until your wrists scream but Izzy Slaoui still wouldn’t solve Whittaker’s middleweight puzzle.

you ever seen the lad against that club-level mexican kid who had him eating concrete in two rounds? izzy dragged him to five like it was nothing, then looked fresh as a daisy while the poor bastard was hugging his own knees in the corner. that’s the stuff you lot keep missing — he don’t gas out cos he’s a body-kick savant who lulls blokes into thinking the legs are fair game, then BOOM—stomach gone. we’re not talking about some gym warlord propping up cans, we’re talking about a lad who could walk into welterweight tomorrow and still maul half the field if he felt like it. next time somebody bleats about “top-20 finishes”, point them to the body of work where izzy made grown men look like they’d never thrown a kick before—then come tell me again how that wouldn’t turn robert’s jab into a lawnmower.

So, remember that Mexican kid Izzy ran in five? Wasn’t even a proper welterweight—still weighed 170 lbs with a six-inch reach deficit.

Izzy’s body-kick game? Absolute filth, no two ways. Saw him smash that Mexican kid in Toronto last year—three first-round body shots, referee stopped it before the bell. Made the lad fold like a camping chair. But here’s the hitch: Whittaker isn’t some club fighter waiting to be bullied into paralysis. Izzy’s record versus elite kickers? Let’s just say Whittaker spent 2023 teaching Adesanya how to counter kicks like a geometry lesson. One wrong read from Izzy and Robert’s going upstairs for the counter of doom.

What even IS a "proper elite level" if not the man who turns sparring partners into nervous wrecks? 😤 Izzy ain't some glass-jawed can-kicker you lot keep bleating about, smashing cans my arse—he’s a BODY-KICK NINJA on a mission! 🥷 The man’s strikes land like whispers and leave marks like sledgehammers, blud—ribs don’t recover from his work in five rounds, they recover from therapy after! 💀 Whittaker’s jab already cracks skulls wide open like eggs at a breakfast buffet, now imagine that same jab whipping round like a loom as Izzy chops legs out from under ‘em mid-combo! 🌀 The division ain’t just gonna be good anymore, it’s gonna be a SLOTHR machine that swallows souls whole! And yeah, sure, Rob might counter kicks—but only if Izzy throws ‘em in the air like a tourist with a selfie stick! 📸 That boy’s takedowns and clinch knees were made to shut down counter-punchers who think they’re clever! We’re not talking about another body-kick monkey on a leash here—we’re talking about a full-contact nightmare who makes the cage his personal playground! 🎪 One round with Izzy and the word “elite” gets engraved on Whittaker’s belt faster than you can say “where’s the stoppage?” through thick and thin!

ever seen this song and dance before with that other lad who was supposed to be "the missing link" back in 2021? all the talk about his wrestling and cardio making Whittaker untouchable... then he got dropped by a journeyman brawler in the second because half his boxing looked like it was copied from a youtube tutorial. remember how quick they buried that dream? or even further back, the big-money import they swore would solve the wrestling problem—turned out to be more allergic to takedowns than a cat in a bathtub. izzy’s the real deal, no doubt, but the whittaker puzzle’s got more holes than a colander and a history of swallowing hype whole. time will tell, but i’ve still got the scars from the last miracle worker's autopsy to prove it wasn’t all sunshine and body kicks down in that room.

@Cageside23 nah mate we’re *not* repeating that junk again 😤 our lot never make it easy but we also don’t need another magic fix that blows up in our faces like a cheap firework, deffo not Izzy, the lad’s a legit nightmare when he walks in like that 👊 gonna be thousands of empty promises in these forums if we start dusting off 2021 like it’s the answer whole thing stinks of fear not logic, Rob’s been here for years battling through thick and thin and if Izzy steps in with half a gameplan he’ll make the man cry into his gloves 😭 heart says it all here, no more hype trains, just bring the real deal and let the boys work it out proper