But you have to then factor in how much those who are cutting to make 155 are walking around at, and what they're then coming into the ring weighing. There's just a huge difference between temping a weight division and your body and frame being naturalised in it, which is why Max looked so small in there, and that, allied to Dustin being a big 155, made it look even more extreme. What was then sad is that it wasn't an outright contesting of skill because the power difference was just too vast. Max really put some work in and showed his heart and ability, but the shots he was receiving just did too much disruptive damage and impeded his gameplan something chronic. In the end, he said fck it and went in on his shield, but if he were natrualised, I don't think he has to do that as his own shots would warrant more respect and the volume would not just stumble the opponent but make him unable to return fire, as we see so often at 145. In this fight, the punches bothered Dustin, but he still could absorb, load up, and fire back something that killed all momentum because of the weight differential - that wouldn't have happened at 145, imo.
I think for his body type and level of cardio, adding bona fide mass and becoming a proper 155 would just take way too long for it to be viable. If he wanted to keep his volume up he can't shortcut the process. It just makes no sense to me for him to put himself through all of that at the age he is, unless he truly wants to go up and stay in the 155 division for the rest of his career. There are no guarantees he will have the same effective, impactful style against bigger guys, which makes it even more of a risk to go up.
re. Adesanya and Jones. Jones' boxing is still not very good and probably never will be, but his 8-point striking is better than Adesanya's without the need for all the flash. Jones' knees, elbows and reductive strikes to the knees and vulnerable points of the torso, plus his calculative volume of them show a strike intelligence and planning that I've not seen from Adesanya - I haven't seen Adesanya work on a point of the body relentlessly and then switch it up as the opponent becomes wary, which is bread and butter with Jones.
It's interesting if you remove grappling and wrestling because it opens up the hands a lot more, and Adesanya is a better puncher than Jones, unquestionably imo, and that's where he could find joy if he can stop Jones hyper-extending his knees on the way into range. Ultimately, I'm still not convinced Adesanya is the same kind of on-the-up-talent as we've seen from Jones - nothing he does is prodigious, is what I'm really getting at although it is fun and exciting to watch and displays a high level of technical ability. Jones deconstructs opponents cerebrally until they've got nothing left to try, and he rarely gets hit in the process of doing so. Of course his wrestling base is a huge factor in why he can be so brazen, and without it, you are talking about a very different kind of fight, but I'd still favour Jones over Adesanya in a pure strike contest because of the intent behind his strikes and the planning he would put in place within a couple of rounds of fight time.
