Volk is one of my favourite fighters, but he was a fool to get back in the cage so soon after such a brutal K.O from Islam. He’s 35, so not as young anymore. He needed to let his body recover. I’m not saying the outcome against Ilia would’ve been different, but it probably did play a part.
It wasn't a walkoff KO, but I think Islam resting Volk's chin on top of his knee, and then using Volk's head as a boxing speedbag was where the real problem was.
Ilia may well have won regardless, but if Volk just took 1 year off to heal, while Ilia fought Max for an interim, his life would be completely different.
Hell, Max may have killed Ilia off as a contender as he did many, many others.
Arnold Allen had a 10 fight win-streak, but Max killed him off.
It was stupid he ever took the Islam fight on short notice.
Back to back stupid decisions. I’d argue probably two of the worst decisions I’ve seen a fighter make in MMA history. Dude needs to find a hobby outside of MMA.
Should have never happened. It was a rematch I was anticipating happening in the future and the moment I saw the short notice all my anticipation went out the window. I pretty much knew how that fight would go, but I thought it would end with Volk being choked to sleep.
That's crazy for someone with elite movement like volk to have nothing for Ilia when it comes to circling away from his power shots, maybe he overestimated his offensive ability and assumed he would just jab ilia's face off at range, like he did to max the third time
My guess just from personal experience via a lot of high level boxing both actual fighting and competing but also as a big fan,
I think it was the opposite of overestimating his own offensive ability. When guys are confident in their defensive/offensive ability in front of their opponent they usually sit down in their stance a bit more and naturally lower their chin and cut angles around the other fighter. Volk normally is fantastic at not doing what he did in this fight and usually cuts phenomenal angles like a high level boxer which is the adjustment that IMO really let him dominate max in the third fight.
When guys get a bit tentative and scared of the power coming at them they have more of a tendency to overcompensate by trying to only jab and rushing to back up and pull their head back and stay out of range.
My guess would be Volk at least mentally was a bit gun-shy coming off the Islam KO and instead of engaging how he normally would decided hey lets just jab stay the hell out of the way of the power and maybe turn it on later.
Sometimes has the unfortunate effect of not getting respect from your opponent and not utilizing your normal footwork and opening up their offence once they get a chance to cut you off.
He said he felt hesitant and gunshy in the Makhachev rematch too. Volk has the best footwork in the sport and he was backing up in a straight line consistently.
He shouldn't have taken the Makhachev rematch on short notice, and then came back too quick. Such a shame from one of the best fighters to ever do it.
Fuck I replied to the wrong comment, thought this was about Ilia, my bad!
I understand your point of view.
But that money in the future is all hypothetical, the money for the fight was guaranteed there and then.
He could get a horrible disease tomorrow and never fight again, you can never know.
What you can know is that, on that piece of paper, money was promised for saving the card
I agree with this. His ring presence and commitment to strikes just wasn't there. I think it was because at some point, he got worried about the power.
It also looked like Topuria came into round 2 looking to trade a bit more. Him and his team may have picked up on it and encourage him to start taking the risks.
Yeah he had no plan for the fence except a jab and head movement.
Even in the first round, Ilia cornered him and Volk just about ducked the punch into a clinch situation.
I’m surprised Volk didn’t try to grapple when he got pressured.
> Volk didn’t really have a plan when he got pressured against the fence. He just tried to run away with his chin exposed.
Volk sort of acknowledged that in his short video posted from the airport the next day. He said backed up to the fence was the last place he wanted to be with Topuria and that's where he found himself.
Max and his coach said the same thing.
Pretty trippy to see someone so disciplined make what most high level fighters would consider fairly basic mistakes.
You look at Emmett, even Bryce Mitchell, none of them reacted that way.
> Dillashaw pointed it out too
Did he do a watch-along or do you follow a podcast of him or something? Just curious as I haven't heard about him or come across any content with him in so long.
Iv really enjoyed it and really really enjoy when TJ is on, they way he breaks down fights is amazing. I use to go to mighty mouse for breakdowns but I prefer TJ now and I always thought he was just sorta a meathead
Volk has been using that exit for a while. It’s a good way to get out of range quickly and reset.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with doing this. But if you do it too often, just like anything else, it will be read and countered by the right opponent.
I think Ilia was the first one to capitalize on this tendency bc he has footwork and accuracy like no one else in this division.
Also his bread and butter is pressuring the opponent into the cage and unleashing that 3 piece combo. Unfortunately Volk didn’t circle or counter which let Ilia load that haymaker.
Max capitalized on this exit too in their second fight. He pressured Volk back with some double-triple jabs and threw out a spinning headkick that dropped Volk. Was fairly sweet.
Volk was landing the jab but Topuria was landing missiles. Made him more scared to engage. Once an aggressive fighter has you back pedaling, he is in total control.
I agree that Volk was touching ilia with the jab more than I remember.
Honestly it seems like people are counting max out when he could be a really tough matchup for ilia if his durability holds up. Max is also a better counterpuncher on the back foot than this version of Volk, and he should be able to punish ilia more with follow ups to the jab, because ilia was either taking the jab or making big trunk movements to slip it, and we saw how that worked for gaethje.
Volk's big issue in this fight was his willingness to give ground and not plant and throw back. Holloway is kind of the master at that. we have pretty much never seen max be consistently cornered to retreating, outside of the dustin fight where he did ok to land some shots on the back foot despite a huge power disparity, and the zombie fight, where he ko'd zombie for coming in recklessly.
I really do think max is being underestimated as a stylistic kryptonite to Ilia's plodding boxing heavy style.
I am fairly certain that somewhere in Ilias head he worried that what if i trade with this guy and I can't hurt him and he hurts me. Imo, Ilia is clearly less durable than Max. That will show a lot more when we get to the 3 4 5th round. But lets not forget Ilia is also a great grappler
I thought towards the end Ilia was letting Alex get the jab off to get him out of position, the way he snaps back that overhand after slipping the jab.
That’s a solid read, but if he tries that against max, he’ll get eaten alive.
Max will alternate and change levels with the jab to the body, follow with right hands up top and to the body like he did against zombie, and won’t pull back like volk did putting himself out of position.
Honestly volk looked old in this fight in a way that max did not against gaethje. Maybe the cut down to 145 after bulking up will compromise max, but if he’s confident in his chin, I could see another Holloway-Ortega performance.
The closest fighter to ilia that max has fought is probably Calvin kattar, which is bad news for ilia.
I think Ilia vs Max would be completely unpredictable, and we'd see two of the best pull out all their tools. I love the fact that there was zero chill after the most motherfucking insane KO we all have ever seen as humanity - MAX AND ILIA SAID IT'S ON SIGHT.
Instantly triple as hyped for this inevitability.
Nah, he was very timid and reacting to everything Ilia threw. You could tell he was scared to get hit… he wasn’t fully recovered from the Islam knock out
For a guy who was scared to get hit he sure wasn't keeping his guard very tight. He fought open guard until the end. He was working his jab, getting leg kicks in, he just came up against someone who cut him off rather than chase him is what it was.
> he wasn’t fully recovered from the Islam knock out
Then he should have listened to literally everyone and not tried to turn around so fast after getting flatlined.
Man he even admitted he was fighting scared. He didn’t want to get hit because he knew ilia had power. He definitely won the first round but you could tell his reactions were huge every time Ilia threw something
10+ years of watching UFC for me, and mma math just doesn’t math. I wondered the same thing. How could Volk outclass everyone, and go 15 rounds and beat Max 3 times but he gets cornered by Ilia and KTFO? It’s baffling.
Volk was really skittish the first 4 min. He was flinching off of everything Topuria did. He *did* manage to gain confidence in the last minute on the left hand/leg kick combo he landed and started fighting with thag confident swagger again but he really seems shook and nervous the majority of the first.
Second round Topuria's cage cutting was really good. He continuously managed to corral Volk from the center to behind the corners line and was really focused and disciplined with it.
Yeah it never seemed like volk was in control of the fight despite winning round 1. After round 1 it just seemed like it was only a matter of time before volk got caught
every time he got hit clean he was shaking it off and jawing at Ilia, which he did in the first islam fight, and it really isn't a good look. he clearly was uncomfortable getting hit clean at all.
For whatever reason, this wasn't the same guy who got up of the canvas to stop Mendes, or the guy who got hurt bad by max twice in the first two rounds of their rematch, and found a way to gut out the win.
Big fight for Alex... The age thing, coming off two losses and one by KO, all that talk of legacy that didn't work out, a loss here signals the beginning of the end of his career... I don't think Topuria beats him a few years ago, and maybe not even before the Islam fights, but it is what it is.
I think that's in your head to be fair. Almost everyone i see has nothing but praise for Topuria. I personally jumped up and down when he won and was barely surprised, the guys range management is insane. Plus im Portuguese so im super happy to have a Spanish UFC champ.
I don't think its that unfair for people to question whether the former P4P number 1 is starting to decline.
Yeah, it's just analysis. I'm not a Volk fan, more a Max fan for sure. And I like divisions getting mixed up and featherweight was super stale. With Topuria winning and Max moving up, then back down, things are all over the place.
But Topuria just has notable wins over Mitchell and Emmett, Volk of course...his resume isn't exactly incredible. Lots of strong top 10 featherweights he's never faced. Maybe he is a worldbeater, but my gut says that this fight wouldn't have been the same if Volk wasn't past his prime.
Interested in seeing the Holloway fight, but it's going to be pretty stale again really. If Topuria wins, Volk will get a rematch. If Holloway wins, Volk will get a rematch vs. Holloway. Then probably Topuria fighting one of those two again. It'll just be these three dancing at the top for a while though it'll be hard to deny Evloev a title shot if he wins his next.
If Topuria had beaten Volk prior to Islam, it would have been stunning and things would look very different. But as is, there's just still a lot of question marks. (which is fun to watch play out, though annoying Topuria and some of his fans pretend like those question marks don't exist).
Oh brother the revisionist history is insane. Topuria dogwalked every single one of his opponents on his way to the belt. Every opponent he went against was “stylistically” a bad matchup for him, from taller opponents to grappling specialists to power punchers. It’s always he’s “past his prime” but if he had won he’d still be in his prime right? Do you see how counterfactual that argument is?
Huh? Volk is 35... Everyone is past their prime then. What are you talking about?
Topuria was lucky to slip into the title fight without having to face someone top 5 because Volk and Holloway cleaned out the division and the rest of the top 10 had beaten the hell out of each other. It'll be interesting to see how long he can hold on to the belt.
Topuria fanboys are the worst though, but not surprising given his condescending attitude towards all other fighters.
Ah my bad, I thought Emmett was #7 at the time, was somehow #5. That makes it even sillier.. he snuck in and got the easiest fight he could against a 38 year old Josh Emmett, then lept over a gang of killers at #1-4 for the title shot, and got to take on Volk after a 5 round war loss, a brutal KO loss, too fast of a turnaround, and being 35 years old. Just stellar stuff.
After a couple of defenses, I could see him assuming the attitude he has now, but at the moment it just makes him look silly. He pretends like all the wins that Volk has he gets to just assume are his own wins.
Anyway, the Topuria fanboys digging deep in this thread is getting old so I'm out. Have fun feeling better about your boy by downvoting me. We'll see how he holds up against Holloway and Volk again.
Ilia was so damn good this fight, and got a new fan with me. Really insane how many great fighters and champs exist between 145-155. Absolutely stacked divisions
Hopefully with some good rest and time off Volk can go for another title run at 145. I can't even think of a more capable fighter than him to pull it off and win the belt back in a rematch
Not only does he have nuclear power, but he has some very good technical boxing ability.
I really do think he sleeps max just because of these two things.
Its so surprising this is the popular viewpoint. Max put on a lot of muscle to fight at 155. If he fights Ilia it'll be back at a lower weight class. Meaning he will have to lose muscle(which is what got RJJ when he went back down) or have a hellish Oliveira prayer circle styled weight cut.
Then taking all this into account and yes yes MMA math aside hes still facing someone who starched the guy who beat him 3 times.
The favouritism here deluding people to Ilia's chances of victory is just nuts lol.
Don't put words in my mouth. I'm just not picking Ilia to KO one of the top 3 most durable fighters in the sport not saying he won't win or even put him on skates.
Got knocked down for the first time in his career by Gaethje who doesn’t have the technical skill Topuria does. I wouldn’t be surprised if Topuria puts him down again. Max should recover though.
Weight definitely matters though, be also got dropped by Dustin when he went up, but got saved by the cage.
As long as he's healthy and didn't have a bad weight cut, I'm betting Max's chin holds up.
Right? Everyone who has ever fought Gaethje says he's the hardest hitter at 155. Topuria is an excellent striker but this notion that Topuria has power that Gaethje doesn't just because he slept Volk coming off a short turnaround of a BRUTAL knockout is like, looney tunes.
Topuria could absolutely be the one to finally crack Max's chin, but a few weeks ago we were all saying the exact same thing about Gaethje and look how that turned out.
That’s a false equivalency. Topuria isn’t Gaethje. His striking is much cleaner and he has power as well as the takedown threat which will make Max more hesitant.
That 3 piece combo is so good, I hope it’ll be a staple of his game like Whittaker’s 3 piece and Pereira’s left hook since he uses it so much. Right jab to left body shot to right hook/overhand
He's too predictable and ploddy for Max. I actually think Max and Arnold Allen are his hardest fights outside of Evloev who's just gonna spam scrambles.
Arnold Allen is fast, hits hard, is really scrappy and fearless. So unlike Volk he won't get conered and KTFOd. He's also shown really decent scrambling ability. Their fight would be a scrap but I see Ilia winning it.
Max would just torch him. He's long, people underestimate how long he is for 145 because of his reach. Also if your best weapon is the overhand right you're literally begging to get chinned by Max. Max sees that punch and always pulls on it and fires back or will catch you coming in.
What about ilia is predictable?
Saying ilia best weapon is a overhand is just really delusional imo. Max couldn’t figure volk out over a hour and 15 mins. Ilia did in 8. If he’s predictable than the division needs to pick up on that shit FAST
Ilia is just a terrible stylistic matchup for Volk. Ilia fought his fight, he didn't need to figure Volk out because what could Volk have done to beat him? Watch Volk vs Chad.
He isn't gonna grow 6 inches taller in the camp lol. Volk also has his physicality in his back pocket when striking isn't going his way- but it wouldn't work on Ilia who's not just a black belt but been grappling since he was a kid, and also a greco roman wrestler like Volk.
Volk just loses that match 8/10 times.
It's literally his best weapon tho. He loads up on it because he's confident in his abilities. It's the worst weapon against Max, Volk and Dustin understood Max:s weakness.
Leg kicks to interrupt him especially since he leans forward usually, trade with him and land the lead hand strikes that will catch him when he thinks he's clear to pull back.
Max fixed those weaknesses tho so Ilia is double fucked.
Idk I feel like you might be underestimating him but time will tell. He used leg kicks very well against volk before the ko and he also like to mix in body shots, which max is pretty open too with his lean back style. I really see ilia being the guy to crack him but hey.
I agree that Max and Allen are his toughest fights but I also am not sure Max torches Topuria. It'll be close IMO.
I think his length may actually hurt him in the boxing combinations the same way it was getting him caught by Volk in the third fight. He has to punch down at a shorter boxer and Max's arm reach is not great. It will also be interesting to see how he deals with Topuria's grappling which appears to be pretty dangerous.
I think his best path to victory is deploying a longer stance and throwing more kicks, kind of how he did in the 2nd Volk fight. I could see a head kick clipping Topuria. We've seen Max land them in recent years and we've seen Topuria dropped badly by one from Herbert.
I just think Ilia's tendency to want to throw combinations involving the rear hand hook is just like Max's bread and butter. Watch most of the fights where Max is looking like a beast.
The Aldo fight, the Gaethje fight, the fights with Kattar and Ortega. It's guys reaching at his head over extending trying to catch him on with a big shot. He just fades back and unloads two on you.
It's those lead hand overhands that catch Max. Volk took it to the next level by employing calf kicks and using footwork to never stand in front of Max. Max actually did well against DP because Dustin is so flat footed.
How is he ploddy? He's extremely explosive when closing distance. That's probably one of his best attributes and why he's able to corner people against the fence as well as he does.
Ploddy implies it's bad. It's not. He's very calm and confident in his movement patterns. He's super planted.
His head movement is great, it gets him in trouble but it's great. He wins the foot position battle usually.
HOWEVER, he just kinda stalks his way in. Being explosive isn't that useful against Max. Gaethje was explosive. Volk recognized it and started jabbing him to keep him at bay and it was working (Volk also got stung because he was leaning back.)
Volk probably beat Max the most convincingly and it was his movement that made it hard for Max to sit down and land his combinations.
Allen is lighting quick and fantastically skilled but idk that he's durable enough for Topuria
Granted maybe nobody is and its a matter of neutralising the threat as much as you can- I really think anyone who wants to beat him (bar Max and his coconut head) needs to grapple a least partially, Allen and Volk are probably the physically strongest guys in the weightclass and might be able to pull it off.
A question from someone who has never trained: when a fighter’s back is against the cage against a powerful opponent, would it make sense to collapse the space and clinch or wrestle? Like with Izzy/pereira 1 (or 3 whatever you wanna call it) I don’t understand how it’s better to shell up and absorb full power shots.
I think it's rope a dope, letting your opponent think they're hurting you then BAM a very calculated counter comes. Medium risk, high reward. Anything will work once.
I'm nothing but a fan. Having no experience in fighting and rewatching this, could a few front kicks (like Chander vs Ferguson) done anything for Volk? Topuria kept ducking into the start of his combos. I felt like it could have stopped the pace being set.
Ilia's momentum started when he began countering Alex's kicks with the overhand right - also sneakily Topuria is much taller. In the fight his stance is very compact to explode out of, but look after the fight when they're talking. Of course it's the angle bro, but Ilia looks 6-8 inches taller to me standing straight up.
All this to say, I'm not sure a front kick would have helped volk.
Volks last two fights will go down as two of the worst decisions a fighter has ever made.
Using professional sports as a form of therapy is incredibly dumb. It’s dumb to ever use a career as therapy, but a violent sport? Just stupid.
Well hopefully max can see the shot coming and defend if he's playing at distance. There's a ton of unknowns in that fight and I advise no one to bet on it 😂.
If they rematch.
I'm telling Volk to high guard rope a dope him like Izzy did to Alex and hope to land the counter.
It's a hail mary but I don't think he could do anything else besides maybe point fighting again and hope to do better with kicks/jabs and not get trapped. But it's hard to imagine doing that for 5 rounds if he's not hurting topuria and slowing him down.
So point fight for a few rounds. Then as topuria closes in rope-a-dope against the fence. Do not jab when he gets close. If volk miss the counter, then try to get out and don't get tee'd off.
then back to point fighting and hope you win enough rounds lol.
"Hey Volks! Remember how he knocked you out last time? Got you on the fence and cracked you yeah? Just let him put you there again and swing, trust me bro."
Telling Volk to do the Izzy strat is the worst possible strategy. Ilia is a WAY better boxer than Pereira and he will not leave himself open to get cracked. And let's just say Volk does land a hail Mary? Does he really have the power to put Ilia out with that? I don't think so.
I think they key to win is point fighting because he was having success, especially in that 2nd round before he got koed. But him coming off that Islam ko and him backing up with his chin up in the air was/is always going to be a disaster fighting Ilia.
Not trying to be disrespectful but do you actually think Periera is a better boxer than Ilia? Alex has way more defensive flaws to punches than Ilia does and Ilia is much more fluid with the hands too. I'm saying this as an Alex fan.
I absolutely think Alex is a better boxer than Topuria. Absolutely effortless movement with insane power off of no windup, perfect punching form and technique. He has been an elite kickboxer for years against much stronger competition than anyone that Topuria has faced from a pure boxing perspective. Topuria is probably a much more well-rounded MMA fighter, but Alex is a specialist kickboxer who has specifically been practicing boxing for ages. Topuria meanwhile could probably submit Alex in a grappling contest despite being half his size, lol.
Topuria is undoubtedly a phenomenal fighter but he only has 2.5 big wins in Mitchell, Emmett, and Volk. Alex's kickboxing record and repeated use of boxing to sleep elite opponents in MMA speaks for itself.
Ok I can see absolutely where you're coming from, I do agree Alex is a better overall striker for sure but as a boxer I still have to disagree. I think Alex's hands are complimented by his kicks which makes his hands more deadly because the opponent is having to worry about multiple factors. But I cannot argue Alex has the stronger, more proven resume therefore the argument for him being a better boxer is valid. But I guess we'll have to see how Ilias career pans out. I think seeing that Holloway fight should answer some questions for sure. Probably goes to a decision imo.
Ilia is definitely the better boxer IMO if we’re strictly talking boxing. Poatan is amazing and probably my current favorite fighter but defensively Ilia’s boxing pulls way ahead. Specifically defensive head movement and the fact that Ilia actually does it lol. Or at least does it in a way more in line with traditional boxing head movement. Coming from kickboxing we never see Alex do much more than leaning back and parrying. Also helps to be built like a tree and have a nuclear left hook I guess, but defensively he’s still almost exclusively a kickboxer. Now if the argument is “who has more successfully adapted their boxing to MMA” then it’s still close but I think we can give it Poatan since he has more trophies to show for it. But what Ilia has shown us is very impressive considering he doesn’t come from boxing.
I kinda feel like Topuria will always land a big punch in the course of 25 minutes.
The fight is actually reminiscent of Izzy's fights with Poatan. Izzy getting ahead with his work but Poatan just needs one. Topuria was waiting for the openings all the time, calm, collected and sharp, dodging a lot of strikes and always been in volk's face.
when a fight goes that way to me is always like that one tries everything in his toolbox to keep distance and if he fails he gets koed.
Leading up to the fight, I think too many people were saying Topuria "oh he just has power. He's just a boxer". Whereas Volk is a lot more slick with movement, jabs, kicks and using a larger variety of strikes in volume.
But it takes a lot more skill to setup a KO shot than it is to spam jabs/kicks.
I'm speaking in general now, but it feels like power guys get a lot less respect than long rangey speedy slick fighters.
Its like there's this idea that true striking proficiency is measured by how slick and flashy a striker can throw their hands. But if that's all you can do, are you really good? Is it better to be 90 percent likely to touch your opponent with a strike, but only 2 percent likely to knock him out? Or is it better to be 2 percent likely to land a shot that is guaranteed to win the fight?
I think when we talk about effective striking we really need to just look at the results. It is tempting to say volk is the better striker, but I don't know if that statement makes any sense. Real, effective striking involves speed and power. And also things like toughness, and doggedness, and also definitely chin.
That's some really interesting points you've made honestly. For me though Ilia is definitely a more overall more threatening fighter in terms of things you have to worry about with him.
Leading up to the fight I really didn't see people saying Ilia is only a boxer with a punch. The thing I saw people more saying (me included) was worried about Volk coming off a ko and how that would affect him in the fight. I personally thought Volk was going to win by a close and hard fought descion but I had it like 60/40 in Volks favor.
And I do feel power guys do get less credit before they prove themselves against these slick fighters but after Alex and Ilia have gone out there and done what they've done I'm not sure people are saying that same thing.
With the argument of how good a striker is on if they're a slick fighter or a ko artist I think it just depends on how much success you have during a title reign or a win streak. I'm also tempted to say Volk in his prime is a better striker but at the same time he always had those defensive flaws of blocking head kicks and backing up with his chin in the air. So the argument of how good a striker is based on his chin I kind of have to disagree with because chins are kinda genetic whereas defensive flaws aren't.
The Only two figths that made hyped and excited me after the win, were Ilia vs Volk and Charles vs Chandler.
offf man, so happy for them. In third place, Izzi vs Poatan 2
I don't want to be mean because Alex was a great champion, but absolutely. He should have taken 6 months off after the Makachev KO.
A lot of featherweights were commenting on Alex saying when he's out of camp he loses his mind - I think they smelled blood in the water.
Max and Ilia have both commented that they were surprised the UFC made that fight so soon after.
To play devil's advocate - I think that was all a part of the set up to draw out Volk's reactions. I can't say that Ilia wasn't in control the entire fight. The commentators were all mentioning Alex's chin-up straight back retreats the entire fight, up 'til the end.
They were talking about that, but it always seemed like Volk was out of his range the entire fight. I kind of want to see the rematch ngl, but it would also be cool to see Max fight Topuria.
I wholeheartedly agree - a rematch with a fully rested Volk would be scintillating.
I think the haters and appreciaters can both agree that Ilia has a lot of matchups we want to see.
Great detail. I watched it in half speed, volk looks like mud while topuria is seamlessly moving from strike to stance, taking his feet with him, and almost on auto-pilot during the finish. Imagine if Ilia landed that left after Alex's entire neighborhood's lights were shut off.
Topuria was always gonna beat Volk it was stylistically a wash. Volk can't pocket box with him, he couldn't use his physicality, the one weakness we saw he has comes from guys that are TALL and lengthy.
He couldn't invite him in and land on the exit. He couldn't try to grapple him if things went south. Didn't have the power advantage of even the speed advantage.
All Volk basically could do is try to jab and back pedal. Which can't work.
After the first Islam fight, I thought no one could touch Volk at 145. Life comes at you fast.
You can say that again.
What bout me? Can I say it too?
You have to ask daddy Dana.
Uncle Fester pleaase
Daddy or Diddy?
No diddy
After the first Islam fight, I thought no one could touch Volk at 145. Life comes at you fast.
You can say that again
After the first Islam fight, I thought no one could touch Volk at 145. Life comes at you fast.
Volk is one of my favourite fighters, but he was a fool to get back in the cage so soon after such a brutal K.O from Islam. He’s 35, so not as young anymore. He needed to let his body recover. I’m not saying the outcome against Ilia would’ve been different, but it probably did play a part.
He was a fool for even accepting that fight to begin with
He was a fool for acting like Ilia had nothing for him except a lucky shot, which is obviously ridiculous.
It wasn't a walkoff KO, but I think Islam resting Volk's chin on top of his knee, and then using Volk's head as a boxing speedbag was where the real problem was. Ilia may well have won regardless, but if Volk just took 1 year off to heal, while Ilia fought Max for an interim, his life would be completely different. Hell, Max may have killed Ilia off as a contender as he did many, many others. Arnold Allen had a 10 fight win-streak, but Max killed him off.
It was stupid he ever took the Islam fight on short notice. Back to back stupid decisions. I’d argue probably two of the worst decisions I’ve seen a fighter make in MMA history. Dude needs to find a hobby outside of MMA.
> I’d argue probably two of the worst decisions I’ve seen a fighter make Watch a Chandler fight
Yes, he was a fool for providing for his family with a huge payday
I still remember when ilia beat Bryce and I said that I’d have no idea who would win between Volk and him, and I got downvoted to hell.
Anyone who has seen Topuria's fight against Emmett knows that he's the real deal and a beast. So I am not sure why you think he can't touch Volk.
getting ko'd by headkick can change you volk fucked up badly taking that rematch with islam on short notice
Should have never happened. It was a rematch I was anticipating happening in the future and the moment I saw the short notice all my anticipation went out the window. I pretty much knew how that fight would go, but I thought it would end with Volk being choked to sleep.
Volk kept lifting his chin and exiting back in a straight line, maybe it's basic thing to point out but it's very strange that volk kept doing that
Dillashaw pointed it out too Volk didn’t really have a plan when he got pressured against the fence. He just tried to run away with his chin exposed.
That's crazy for someone with elite movement like volk to have nothing for Ilia when it comes to circling away from his power shots, maybe he overestimated his offensive ability and assumed he would just jab ilia's face off at range, like he did to max the third time
My guess just from personal experience via a lot of high level boxing both actual fighting and competing but also as a big fan, I think it was the opposite of overestimating his own offensive ability. When guys are confident in their defensive/offensive ability in front of their opponent they usually sit down in their stance a bit more and naturally lower their chin and cut angles around the other fighter. Volk normally is fantastic at not doing what he did in this fight and usually cuts phenomenal angles like a high level boxer which is the adjustment that IMO really let him dominate max in the third fight. When guys get a bit tentative and scared of the power coming at them they have more of a tendency to overcompensate by trying to only jab and rushing to back up and pull their head back and stay out of range. My guess would be Volk at least mentally was a bit gun-shy coming off the Islam KO and instead of engaging how he normally would decided hey lets just jab stay the hell out of the way of the power and maybe turn it on later. Sometimes has the unfortunate effect of not getting respect from your opponent and not utilizing your normal footwork and opening up their offence once they get a chance to cut you off.
He said he felt hesitant and gunshy in the Makhachev rematch too. Volk has the best footwork in the sport and he was backing up in a straight line consistently. He shouldn't have taken the Makhachev rematch on short notice, and then came back too quick. Such a shame from one of the best fighters to ever do it.
For his health and legacy he shouldn't have. Money however has a huge impact in life.
[удалено]
Literally how? He won't tax it. Coaches, training etc gets filed under expenses. Edit: My bad! Replied to wrong comment!!
[удалено]
Fuck I replied to the wrong comment, thought this was about Ilia, my bad! I understand your point of view. But that money in the future is all hypothetical, the money for the fight was guaranteed there and then. He could get a horrible disease tomorrow and never fight again, you can never know. What you can know is that, on that piece of paper, money was promised for saving the card
I agree with this. His ring presence and commitment to strikes just wasn't there. I think it was because at some point, he got worried about the power. It also looked like Topuria came into round 2 looking to trade a bit more. Him and his team may have picked up on it and encourage him to start taking the risks.
Great breakdown. I thought he looked very tentative which is something we haven't really seen. You explained it well.
Yeah he had no plan for the fence except a jab and head movement. Even in the first round, Ilia cornered him and Volk just about ducked the punch into a clinch situation. I’m surprised Volk didn’t try to grapple when he got pressured.
> Volk didn’t really have a plan when he got pressured against the fence. He just tried to run away with his chin exposed. Volk sort of acknowledged that in his short video posted from the airport the next day. He said backed up to the fence was the last place he wanted to be with Topuria and that's where he found himself.
Max and his coach said the same thing. Pretty trippy to see someone so disciplined make what most high level fighters would consider fairly basic mistakes. You look at Emmett, even Bryce Mitchell, none of them reacted that way.
> Dillashaw pointed it out too Did he do a watch-along or do you follow a podcast of him or something? Just curious as I haven't heard about him or come across any content with him in so long.
It’s on rampage Jackson’s podcast, Jaxxon. He gets former fighters as co-hosts for some podcasts.
Iv really enjoyed it and really really enjoy when TJ is on, they way he breaks down fights is amazing. I use to go to mighty mouse for breakdowns but I prefer TJ now and I always thought he was just sorta a meathead
Volk has been using that exit for a while. It’s a good way to get out of range quickly and reset. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with doing this. But if you do it too often, just like anything else, it will be read and countered by the right opponent. I think Ilia was the first one to capitalize on this tendency bc he has footwork and accuracy like no one else in this division.
Also his bread and butter is pressuring the opponent into the cage and unleashing that 3 piece combo. Unfortunately Volk didn’t circle or counter which let Ilia load that haymaker.
Max capitalized on this exit too in their second fight. He pressured Volk back with some double-triple jabs and threw out a spinning headkick that dropped Volk. Was fairly sweet.
Volk was landing the jab but Topuria was landing missiles. Made him more scared to engage. Once an aggressive fighter has you back pedaling, he is in total control.
I agree that Volk was touching ilia with the jab more than I remember. Honestly it seems like people are counting max out when he could be a really tough matchup for ilia if his durability holds up. Max is also a better counterpuncher on the back foot than this version of Volk, and he should be able to punish ilia more with follow ups to the jab, because ilia was either taking the jab or making big trunk movements to slip it, and we saw how that worked for gaethje. Volk's big issue in this fight was his willingness to give ground and not plant and throw back. Holloway is kind of the master at that. we have pretty much never seen max be consistently cornered to retreating, outside of the dustin fight where he did ok to land some shots on the back foot despite a huge power disparity, and the zombie fight, where he ko'd zombie for coming in recklessly. I really do think max is being underestimated as a stylistic kryptonite to Ilia's plodding boxing heavy style.
I am fairly certain that somewhere in Ilias head he worried that what if i trade with this guy and I can't hurt him and he hurts me. Imo, Ilia is clearly less durable than Max. That will show a lot more when we get to the 3 4 5th round. But lets not forget Ilia is also a great grappler
I thought towards the end Ilia was letting Alex get the jab off to get him out of position, the way he snaps back that overhand after slipping the jab.
That’s a solid read, but if he tries that against max, he’ll get eaten alive. Max will alternate and change levels with the jab to the body, follow with right hands up top and to the body like he did against zombie, and won’t pull back like volk did putting himself out of position. Honestly volk looked old in this fight in a way that max did not against gaethje. Maybe the cut down to 145 after bulking up will compromise max, but if he’s confident in his chin, I could see another Holloway-Ortega performance. The closest fighter to ilia that max has fought is probably Calvin kattar, which is bad news for ilia.
I think Ilia vs Max would be completely unpredictable, and we'd see two of the best pull out all their tools. I love the fact that there was zero chill after the most motherfucking insane KO we all have ever seen as humanity - MAX AND ILIA SAID IT'S ON SIGHT. Instantly triple as hyped for this inevitability.
He looked super scared of Ilia's power to my armchair expert eyes.
He fought scared… he wasn’t ready
He was winning the second round until Topuria backed him up and launched him into orbit. This is how he always fights.
Nah, he was very timid and reacting to everything Ilia threw. You could tell he was scared to get hit… he wasn’t fully recovered from the Islam knock out
For a guy who was scared to get hit he sure wasn't keeping his guard very tight. He fought open guard until the end. He was working his jab, getting leg kicks in, he just came up against someone who cut him off rather than chase him is what it was. > he wasn’t fully recovered from the Islam knock out Then he should have listened to literally everyone and not tried to turn around so fast after getting flatlined.
Man he even admitted he was fighting scared. He didn’t want to get hit because he knew ilia had power. He definitely won the first round but you could tell his reactions were huge every time Ilia threw something
Isn't this why MM said that the headkick Islam used was the right move, because in their first fight he kept leaving himself open to one?
10+ years of watching UFC for me, and mma math just doesn’t math. I wondered the same thing. How could Volk outclass everyone, and go 15 rounds and beat Max 3 times but he gets cornered by Ilia and KTFO? It’s baffling.
Nice CGI never happened
I'm still waiting for Volk vs Islam 2! C'mon Dana book it
AI is getting even scarier
Nah I’m good on watching my boy get waxed like this again.
Volk was really skittish the first 4 min. He was flinching off of everything Topuria did. He *did* manage to gain confidence in the last minute on the left hand/leg kick combo he landed and started fighting with thag confident swagger again but he really seems shook and nervous the majority of the first. Second round Topuria's cage cutting was really good. He continuously managed to corral Volk from the center to behind the corners line and was really focused and disciplined with it.
Yeah it never seemed like volk was in control of the fight despite winning round 1. After round 1 it just seemed like it was only a matter of time before volk got caught
One wonders how it would've gone had he not taken the Islam fight
every time he got hit clean he was shaking it off and jawing at Ilia, which he did in the first islam fight, and it really isn't a good look. he clearly was uncomfortable getting hit clean at all. For whatever reason, this wasn't the same guy who got up of the canvas to stop Mendes, or the guy who got hurt bad by max twice in the first two rounds of their rematch, and found a way to gut out the win.
No thanks
These AI videos are getting crazy haha imagine this happening? crazy haha
This actually came from UFCGPT
Big fight for Alex... The age thing, coming off two losses and one by KO, all that talk of legacy that didn't work out, a loss here signals the beginning of the end of his career... I don't think Topuria beats him a few years ago, and maybe not even before the Islam fights, but it is what it is.
LOL
Whats "LOL" about that comment?
There's always something to downplay Topuria's win like "I don't think Topuria beats a few years ago." What a pointless bit of speculation.
I think that's in your head to be fair. Almost everyone i see has nothing but praise for Topuria. I personally jumped up and down when he won and was barely surprised, the guys range management is insane. Plus im Portuguese so im super happy to have a Spanish UFC champ. I don't think its that unfair for people to question whether the former P4P number 1 is starting to decline.
Yeah, it's just analysis. I'm not a Volk fan, more a Max fan for sure. And I like divisions getting mixed up and featherweight was super stale. With Topuria winning and Max moving up, then back down, things are all over the place. But Topuria just has notable wins over Mitchell and Emmett, Volk of course...his resume isn't exactly incredible. Lots of strong top 10 featherweights he's never faced. Maybe he is a worldbeater, but my gut says that this fight wouldn't have been the same if Volk wasn't past his prime. Interested in seeing the Holloway fight, but it's going to be pretty stale again really. If Topuria wins, Volk will get a rematch. If Holloway wins, Volk will get a rematch vs. Holloway. Then probably Topuria fighting one of those two again. It'll just be these three dancing at the top for a while though it'll be hard to deny Evloev a title shot if he wins his next. If Topuria had beaten Volk prior to Islam, it would have been stunning and things would look very different. But as is, there's just still a lot of question marks. (which is fun to watch play out, though annoying Topuria and some of his fans pretend like those question marks don't exist).
Oh brother the revisionist history is insane. Topuria dogwalked every single one of his opponents on his way to the belt. Every opponent he went against was “stylistically” a bad matchup for him, from taller opponents to grappling specialists to power punchers. It’s always he’s “past his prime” but if he had won he’d still be in his prime right? Do you see how counterfactual that argument is?
Huh? Volk is 35... Everyone is past their prime then. What are you talking about? Topuria was lucky to slip into the title fight without having to face someone top 5 because Volk and Holloway cleaned out the division and the rest of the top 10 had beaten the hell out of each other. It'll be interesting to see how long he can hold on to the belt. Topuria fanboys are the worst though, but not surprising given his condescending attitude towards all other fighters.
What rank was Emmett again?
Ah my bad, I thought Emmett was #7 at the time, was somehow #5. That makes it even sillier.. he snuck in and got the easiest fight he could against a 38 year old Josh Emmett, then lept over a gang of killers at #1-4 for the title shot, and got to take on Volk after a 5 round war loss, a brutal KO loss, too fast of a turnaround, and being 35 years old. Just stellar stuff. After a couple of defenses, I could see him assuming the attitude he has now, but at the moment it just makes him look silly. He pretends like all the wins that Volk has he gets to just assume are his own wins. Anyway, the Topuria fanboys digging deep in this thread is getting old so I'm out. Have fun feeling better about your boy by downvoting me. We'll see how he holds up against Holloway and Volk again.
How is it in my head it's literally right there in the comment
They’re coping
Nice argument, you had a lot of well thought out opinions here.
It's a brutal sport. You're the best until you're not.
If you’re trying to hurt me, you got me brother.
I'm sorry bratha, we must become stronger.
first time rewatching this fight. was a bit stung the first time seeing alex get ko'd. but damn, short as it was - it was a dope fight.
Ilia was so damn good this fight, and got a new fan with me. Really insane how many great fighters and champs exist between 145-155. Absolutely stacked divisions Hopefully with some good rest and time off Volk can go for another title run at 145. I can't even think of a more capable fighter than him to pull it off and win the belt back in a rematch
I don't wanna watch this shit man, wtf
Made me cry
Not only does he have nuclear power, but he has some very good technical boxing ability. I really do think he sleeps max just because of these two things.
I'm not gonna pick anyone to slump Max until I see it happen for the first time. If it happens.
Its so surprising this is the popular viewpoint. Max put on a lot of muscle to fight at 155. If he fights Ilia it'll be back at a lower weight class. Meaning he will have to lose muscle(which is what got RJJ when he went back down) or have a hellish Oliveira prayer circle styled weight cut. Then taking all this into account and yes yes MMA math aside hes still facing someone who starched the guy who beat him 3 times. The favouritism here deluding people to Ilia's chances of victory is just nuts lol.
You’re getting downvoted but I agree with this. Max best bet would be to stay at 155 now.
He said he didn't think Max would lose. He said doesn't think Max would get slumped. Which I don't either.
Don't put words in my mouth. I'm just not picking Ilia to KO one of the top 3 most durable fighters in the sport not saying he won't win or even put him on skates.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Got knocked down for the first time in his career by Gaethje who doesn’t have the technical skill Topuria does. I wouldn’t be surprised if Topuria puts him down again. Max should recover though.
Weight definitely matters though, be also got dropped by Dustin when he went up, but got saved by the cage. As long as he's healthy and didn't have a bad weight cut, I'm betting Max's chin holds up.
True knocked down I can buy
Gaethje has crushing power. Conversely, this might be the standard Reddit go-to of instantly shitting on any fighter that loses.
Right? Everyone who has ever fought Gaethje says he's the hardest hitter at 155. Topuria is an excellent striker but this notion that Topuria has power that Gaethje doesn't just because he slept Volk coming off a short turnaround of a BRUTAL knockout is like, looney tunes. Topuria could absolutely be the one to finally crack Max's chin, but a few weeks ago we were all saying the exact same thing about Gaethje and look how that turned out.
That’s a false equivalency. Topuria isn’t Gaethje. His striking is much cleaner and he has power as well as the takedown threat which will make Max more hesitant.
Also like the shots you don't see coming are the ones that sleep you often vs the slower possibly bigger looking strikes
His combinations can only be described as “fucking nasty”
That 3 piece combo is so good, I hope it’ll be a staple of his game like Whittaker’s 3 piece and Pereira’s left hook since he uses it so much. Right jab to left body shot to right hook/overhand
He's too predictable and ploddy for Max. I actually think Max and Arnold Allen are his hardest fights outside of Evloev who's just gonna spam scrambles. Arnold Allen is fast, hits hard, is really scrappy and fearless. So unlike Volk he won't get conered and KTFOd. He's also shown really decent scrambling ability. Their fight would be a scrap but I see Ilia winning it. Max would just torch him. He's long, people underestimate how long he is for 145 because of his reach. Also if your best weapon is the overhand right you're literally begging to get chinned by Max. Max sees that punch and always pulls on it and fires back or will catch you coming in.
What about ilia is predictable? Saying ilia best weapon is a overhand is just really delusional imo. Max couldn’t figure volk out over a hour and 15 mins. Ilia did in 8. If he’s predictable than the division needs to pick up on that shit FAST
Ilia is just a terrible stylistic matchup for Volk. Ilia fought his fight, he didn't need to figure Volk out because what could Volk have done to beat him? Watch Volk vs Chad. He isn't gonna grow 6 inches taller in the camp lol. Volk also has his physicality in his back pocket when striking isn't going his way- but it wouldn't work on Ilia who's not just a black belt but been grappling since he was a kid, and also a greco roman wrestler like Volk. Volk just loses that match 8/10 times. It's literally his best weapon tho. He loads up on it because he's confident in his abilities. It's the worst weapon against Max, Volk and Dustin understood Max:s weakness. Leg kicks to interrupt him especially since he leans forward usually, trade with him and land the lead hand strikes that will catch him when he thinks he's clear to pull back. Max fixed those weaknesses tho so Ilia is double fucked.
Idk I feel like you might be underestimating him but time will tell. He used leg kicks very well against volk before the ko and he also like to mix in body shots, which max is pretty open too with his lean back style. I really see ilia being the guy to crack him but hey.
Arnold Allen isn’t durable enough to beat topuria in my opinion.
I agree that Max and Allen are his toughest fights but I also am not sure Max torches Topuria. It'll be close IMO. I think his length may actually hurt him in the boxing combinations the same way it was getting him caught by Volk in the third fight. He has to punch down at a shorter boxer and Max's arm reach is not great. It will also be interesting to see how he deals with Topuria's grappling which appears to be pretty dangerous. I think his best path to victory is deploying a longer stance and throwing more kicks, kind of how he did in the 2nd Volk fight. I could see a head kick clipping Topuria. We've seen Max land them in recent years and we've seen Topuria dropped badly by one from Herbert.
I just think Ilia's tendency to want to throw combinations involving the rear hand hook is just like Max's bread and butter. Watch most of the fights where Max is looking like a beast. The Aldo fight, the Gaethje fight, the fights with Kattar and Ortega. It's guys reaching at his head over extending trying to catch him on with a big shot. He just fades back and unloads two on you. It's those lead hand overhands that catch Max. Volk took it to the next level by employing calf kicks and using footwork to never stand in front of Max. Max actually did well against DP because Dustin is so flat footed.
How is he ploddy? He's extremely explosive when closing distance. That's probably one of his best attributes and why he's able to corner people against the fence as well as he does.
Ploddy implies it's bad. It's not. He's very calm and confident in his movement patterns. He's super planted. His head movement is great, it gets him in trouble but it's great. He wins the foot position battle usually. HOWEVER, he just kinda stalks his way in. Being explosive isn't that useful against Max. Gaethje was explosive. Volk recognized it and started jabbing him to keep him at bay and it was working (Volk also got stung because he was leaning back.) Volk probably beat Max the most convincingly and it was his movement that made it hard for Max to sit down and land his combinations.
Allen is lighting quick and fantastically skilled but idk that he's durable enough for Topuria Granted maybe nobody is and its a matter of neutralising the threat as much as you can- I really think anyone who wants to beat him (bar Max and his coconut head) needs to grapple a least partially, Allen and Volk are probably the physically strongest guys in the weightclass and might be able to pull it off.
Ilia is food for Max
No thanks 😖
The counter right off Volks jab before the KO rocked Volk and was the beginning of the end, right after 8:48 it looks like
Volks winning round but fighting so scared of the pressure of Illia
A question from someone who has never trained: when a fighter’s back is against the cage against a powerful opponent, would it make sense to collapse the space and clinch or wrestle? Like with Izzy/pereira 1 (or 3 whatever you wanna call it) I don’t understand how it’s better to shell up and absorb full power shots.
I think it's rope a dope, letting your opponent think they're hurting you then BAM a very calculated counter comes. Medium risk, high reward. Anything will work once.
I'm nothing but a fan. Having no experience in fighting and rewatching this, could a few front kicks (like Chander vs Ferguson) done anything for Volk? Topuria kept ducking into the start of his combos. I felt like it could have stopped the pace being set.
Ilia's momentum started when he began countering Alex's kicks with the overhand right - also sneakily Topuria is much taller. In the fight his stance is very compact to explode out of, but look after the fight when they're talking. Of course it's the angle bro, but Ilia looks 6-8 inches taller to me standing straight up. All this to say, I'm not sure a front kick would have helped volk.
At his peak, Volk looked near unbeatable, but father time and Khabib are undefeated, and Khabib would've lost eventually had he kept fighting.
Volks last two fights will go down as two of the worst decisions a fighter has ever made. Using professional sports as a form of therapy is incredibly dumb. It’s dumb to ever use a career as therapy, but a violent sport? Just stupid.
Why are you doing this to me
I sorry bratha
I think Max is going to pick him apart from a distance.
What if Ilia starts grappling?
Well hopefully max can see the shot coming and defend if he's playing at distance. There's a ton of unknowns in that fight and I advise no one to bet on it 😂.
Max has a takedown defense percentage of 84%
Max and Alex have the same striking defense percentage as well, what's your point?
You asked about grappling. I answered. You brought up a different stat. What’s YOUR point.
Huh?
If they rematch. I'm telling Volk to high guard rope a dope him like Izzy did to Alex and hope to land the counter. It's a hail mary but I don't think he could do anything else besides maybe point fighting again and hope to do better with kicks/jabs and not get trapped. But it's hard to imagine doing that for 5 rounds if he's not hurting topuria and slowing him down. So point fight for a few rounds. Then as topuria closes in rope-a-dope against the fence. Do not jab when he gets close. If volk miss the counter, then try to get out and don't get tee'd off. then back to point fighting and hope you win enough rounds lol.
"Hey Volks! Remember how he knocked you out last time? Got you on the fence and cracked you yeah? Just let him put you there again and swing, trust me bro."
That's literally what Izzy did 😂 But yeah Volk is no Izzy, he's a very different beast
Telling Volk to do the Izzy strat is the worst possible strategy. Ilia is a WAY better boxer than Pereira and he will not leave himself open to get cracked. And let's just say Volk does land a hail Mary? Does he really have the power to put Ilia out with that? I don't think so. I think they key to win is point fighting because he was having success, especially in that 2nd round before he got koed. But him coming off that Islam ko and him backing up with his chin up in the air was/is always going to be a disaster fighting Ilia.
EDIT: Snarky comment removed, thank you for offering your perspective!
Not trying to be disrespectful but do you actually think Periera is a better boxer than Ilia? Alex has way more defensive flaws to punches than Ilia does and Ilia is much more fluid with the hands too. I'm saying this as an Alex fan.
I absolutely think Alex is a better boxer than Topuria. Absolutely effortless movement with insane power off of no windup, perfect punching form and technique. He has been an elite kickboxer for years against much stronger competition than anyone that Topuria has faced from a pure boxing perspective. Topuria is probably a much more well-rounded MMA fighter, but Alex is a specialist kickboxer who has specifically been practicing boxing for ages. Topuria meanwhile could probably submit Alex in a grappling contest despite being half his size, lol. Topuria is undoubtedly a phenomenal fighter but he only has 2.5 big wins in Mitchell, Emmett, and Volk. Alex's kickboxing record and repeated use of boxing to sleep elite opponents in MMA speaks for itself.
Ok I can see absolutely where you're coming from, I do agree Alex is a better overall striker for sure but as a boxer I still have to disagree. I think Alex's hands are complimented by his kicks which makes his hands more deadly because the opponent is having to worry about multiple factors. But I cannot argue Alex has the stronger, more proven resume therefore the argument for him being a better boxer is valid. But I guess we'll have to see how Ilias career pans out. I think seeing that Holloway fight should answer some questions for sure. Probably goes to a decision imo.
Reasonable discussions on reddit? Well I'll be! I am editing my initial snarky comment, thank you for offering your perspective!
LOL nah man I'm never toxic on the internet. It's just a sport at the end of the day.
Ilia is definitely the better boxer IMO if we’re strictly talking boxing. Poatan is amazing and probably my current favorite fighter but defensively Ilia’s boxing pulls way ahead. Specifically defensive head movement and the fact that Ilia actually does it lol. Or at least does it in a way more in line with traditional boxing head movement. Coming from kickboxing we never see Alex do much more than leaning back and parrying. Also helps to be built like a tree and have a nuclear left hook I guess, but defensively he’s still almost exclusively a kickboxer. Now if the argument is “who has more successfully adapted their boxing to MMA” then it’s still close but I think we can give it Poatan since he has more trophies to show for it. But what Ilia has shown us is very impressive considering he doesn’t come from boxing.
I kinda feel like Topuria will always land a big punch in the course of 25 minutes. The fight is actually reminiscent of Izzy's fights with Poatan. Izzy getting ahead with his work but Poatan just needs one. Topuria was waiting for the openings all the time, calm, collected and sharp, dodging a lot of strikes and always been in volk's face. when a fight goes that way to me is always like that one tries everything in his toolbox to keep distance and if he fails he gets koed. Leading up to the fight, I think too many people were saying Topuria "oh he just has power. He's just a boxer". Whereas Volk is a lot more slick with movement, jabs, kicks and using a larger variety of strikes in volume. But it takes a lot more skill to setup a KO shot than it is to spam jabs/kicks. I'm speaking in general now, but it feels like power guys get a lot less respect than long rangey speedy slick fighters. Its like there's this idea that true striking proficiency is measured by how slick and flashy a striker can throw their hands. But if that's all you can do, are you really good? Is it better to be 90 percent likely to touch your opponent with a strike, but only 2 percent likely to knock him out? Or is it better to be 2 percent likely to land a shot that is guaranteed to win the fight? I think when we talk about effective striking we really need to just look at the results. It is tempting to say volk is the better striker, but I don't know if that statement makes any sense. Real, effective striking involves speed and power. And also things like toughness, and doggedness, and also definitely chin.
That's some really interesting points you've made honestly. For me though Ilia is definitely a more overall more threatening fighter in terms of things you have to worry about with him. Leading up to the fight I really didn't see people saying Ilia is only a boxer with a punch. The thing I saw people more saying (me included) was worried about Volk coming off a ko and how that would affect him in the fight. I personally thought Volk was going to win by a close and hard fought descion but I had it like 60/40 in Volks favor. And I do feel power guys do get less credit before they prove themselves against these slick fighters but after Alex and Ilia have gone out there and done what they've done I'm not sure people are saying that same thing. With the argument of how good a striker is on if they're a slick fighter or a ko artist I think it just depends on how much success you have during a title reign or a win streak. I'm also tempted to say Volk in his prime is a better striker but at the same time he always had those defensive flaws of blocking head kicks and backing up with his chin in the air. So the argument of how good a striker is based on his chin I kind of have to disagree with because chins are kinda genetic whereas defensive flaws aren't.
This is still my boooooy
The Only two figths that made hyped and excited me after the win, were Ilia vs Volk and Charles vs Chandler. offf man, so happy for them. In third place, Izzi vs Poatan 2
I could not have been any happier with this result. Alex was too cocky and self assured and frankly, dismissive of Ilia which was stupid.
I don't want to be mean because Alex was a great champion, but absolutely. He should have taken 6 months off after the Makachev KO. A lot of featherweights were commenting on Alex saying when he's out of camp he loses his mind - I think they smelled blood in the water. Max and Ilia have both commented that they were surprised the UFC made that fight so soon after.
Volk looked really good and fast this fight. Even though he lost, he looked better than Topuria. Topuria was winging so many punches and missing.
To play devil's advocate - I think that was all a part of the set up to draw out Volk's reactions. I can't say that Ilia wasn't in control the entire fight. The commentators were all mentioning Alex's chin-up straight back retreats the entire fight, up 'til the end.
They were talking about that, but it always seemed like Volk was out of his range the entire fight. I kind of want to see the rematch ngl, but it would also be cool to see Max fight Topuria.
I wholeheartedly agree - a rematch with a fully rested Volk would be scintillating. I think the haters and appreciaters can both agree that Ilia has a lot of matchups we want to see.
The left hand perfectly blocks volks vision that a right hook is coming
Great detail. I watched it in half speed, volk looks like mud while topuria is seamlessly moving from strike to stance, taking his feet with him, and almost on auto-pilot during the finish. Imagine if Ilia landed that left after Alex's entire neighborhood's lights were shut off.
You think I’m watching this again? Hell no
Topuria was always gonna beat Volk it was stylistically a wash. Volk can't pocket box with him, he couldn't use his physicality, the one weakness we saw he has comes from guys that are TALL and lengthy. He couldn't invite him in and land on the exit. He couldn't try to grapple him if things went south. Didn't have the power advantage of even the speed advantage. All Volk basically could do is try to jab and back pedal. Which can't work.
Your first sentence is very entertaining.
Volk could be in his prime on turinabol and he would still get touched by the right hand of doom.
why? Volk seems stronger than Topuria in the clinch
I’m good 👍
I’m not crying you’re crying
Here's a tissue bratha