Being a well rounded fighter is great until you run into a highly specialized offensive juggernaut who has good defense

[dipstickjimmy]

to be honest, Topuria said there is no one to challenge him at FW and LW

Great so he can Vacate the belt and move to BW or WW. If he wants to keep that belt then he can defend it. Same goes for Islam. He has NOT ONE single defense against a LW contender and with nothing booked it will be very close to 2 year before he actually gets one in.

 

[fortheo]

I mean, the guy just had his first run to a a tittle shot. He got about as much tested as you can get for a first run:

- The most unorthodox and dangerouss submission artist in Ryan Hall, negated all his tricky entrances and even ended up going to the ground with him and KO him cold.
- A rangey striking specialist a weight class above: KOed him cold
- One of the best grappling specialist at FW in Mitchell, hurt him and subbed him
- A fairly accomplished grappler and probably the only one who could match his punching power in Emmet, and outclassed him
- The most well-rounded opponent you can get in Volk...and put a masterpiece for another cold KO

And if he didnt face Evloev yet, it was only because Movsar pulled out of their fight.

Yeah Ilia has only 7 UFC fights, obviously can't be as tested as a long time veteran in the promotion, but it's hard to not give credit to his all-around game at this point, including how he deals with grappling in MMA

I disagree about his grappling being as tested as it could be, but I seem to be in the minority in thinking this, so it's all good. Volk kickboxed with ilia, Hall doesn't have the takedowns to test ilia, mitchel is a BJJ guy with highschool level wrestling and before he got the shit beat out of him on the feet, he held ilia down on the mat and ilia had no answers. Giving up a takedown isn't a big deal, but having zero answers from his back is a big red flag to me. I've seen illias pre ufc fights too, and he was held on his back in one of those fights with no answers as well. We haven't seen him against wrestlers other than emmet, who didn't wrestle and volk, who didn't wrestle. I don't blame ilia either because this era of FW has very few wrestlers worth a damn.

He has done very well with what he was against, but I just haven't seen the grappling that people are so highly touting. That said, what he has shown us has been more than enough to get the job done.

 

[pankrat]

I disagree about his grappling being as tested as it could be, but I seem to be in the minority in thinking this, so it's all good. Volk kickboxed with ilia, Hall doesn't have the takedowns to test ilia, mitchel is a BJJ guy with highschool level wrestling and before he got the shit beat out of him on the feet, he held ilia down on the mat and ilia had no answers. Giving up a takedown isn't a big deal, but having zero answers from his back is a big red flag to me. I've seen illias pre ufc fights too, and he was held on his back in one of those fights with no answers as well. We haven't seen him against wrestlers other than emmet, who didn't wrestle and volk, who didn't wrestle. I don't blame ilia either because this era of FW has very few wrestlers worth a damn.

He has done very well with what he was against, but I just haven't seen the grappling that people are so highly touting. That said, what he has shown us has been more than enough to get the job done.

I think you can doubt some of the skills of any fighter with only 7 fights in a major promotion tbh. I do think you are exaggerating the weaknesses Ilia has shown though.

Regarding the pre-UFC fight in which he was held back...Ilia finished every of his pre-UFC fights inside one round except his 4th pro fight that ended in the 2nd round, 8 years ago. Nothing I would even bring to the table honestly.

Regarding the Bryce fight which is the other one you pointed out. It was not even a minut of top control and, being Bryce one of the best specialist in such position at FW, he was uncapable of landing even a couple of sig. strikes in the ground, nor passed guard, nor anything.

I agree Topuria is not tested enough to affirm his grappling skills are as top tier as some claim to be, but you also need to make huge efforts to point out exposed weaknesses tbh

 

[fortheo]

I think you can doubt some of the skills of any fighter with only 7 fights in a major promotion tbh. I do think you are exaggerating the weaknesses Ilia has shown though.

Regarding the pre-UFC fight in which he was held back...Ilia finished every of his pre-UFC fights inside one round except his 4th pro fight that ended in the 2nd round, 8 years ago. Nothing I would even bring to the table honestly.

Regarding the Bryce fight which is the other one you pointed out. It was not even a minut of top control and, being Bryce one of the best specialist in such position at FW, he was uncapable of landing even a couple of sig. strikes in the ground, nor passed guard, nor anything.

I agree Topuria is not tested enough to affirm his grappling skills are as top tier as some claim to be, but you also need to make huge efforts to point out exposed weaknesses tbh

I wasn't so much as calling it a weakness, just pointing out that it's largely unknown at a high level to me, and the few times he's even faced guys with wrestling, he found himself on his back and didn't try to get up and prefered to play guard, and I could have sworn it was for the last minute of round one against bryce. Now that isn't much, but again, it's one of the only times he's faced anyone with the intent to put him down ....and they succeeded. I need to see more. I actually agree that his pre-ufc fights aren't worth mentioning, which is why I don't hold his numerous submissions in that high of regard either.

I just haven't seen him have to deal with a wrestling gameplan enough, and I doubt I will unless he faces evloev. The fw division isn't what it used to be in regards to wrestlers or well rounded grapplers.

 

[SkinnyClaw]

Volk is just too chinny and didn't fight smart. Didn't gain any respect in an entire round and fought with too much fear, which let Topuria capitalize on it. A guy like Josh Emmet could take a beating for 5 rounds, so it's not like Topuria is some kind of featherweight Ngannou who will finish you if your boxing isn't as good as his.

I think guys like Max or Yair who are not afraid to bang will have much more success, as would Volk if he imposed himself instead of throwing scared lead leg kicks from ten feet away and leaning back fearfully every time Topuria took a step forward

 

[Deleted member 513083]

All love for Volk but Topuria is the better wrestler and Grappler, where does this notion come from that he is only a boxer?

 

[NicholasJBasile]

I don't know that there is clear evidence to suggest Topuria has an inferior ground game to Volk. Volk did thwart a lot of what Islam threw at him, but I feel that had more to do with cardio and footwork than pure grappling skill.

 

[Momentosis]

Topuria has seemingly fooled many mma fans to thinking he's just a striker.

 

[PrideNverDies]

Topuria is well rounded too derp