Media Ciryl Gane on his fight with Volkov

Very interested in the fight.

Gane could make a big statement by putting a beating on Volkov with his agile muy thai game, but it might not be easy against Volkov's straight punches now that he's a bit stronger. Personally, I think we could learn a lot about both if Gane elects to take it to the ground; we can see how effective his aggressive wrestling is while determining if Volkov's take-down defense has improved. The most shocking outcome would be Volkov making a 3-round finish streak out of Gane, but as a fan of Swolkov, I would love to see it.

Can't wait for Saturday!
 
Well yeah maybe if you just include UFC wins, that wasn't what you initially said though .

Not arguing with anything else you said both fighters are legit imo, but there's no reason not to include Volks wins against good competition outside the UFC when comparing résumés.

Ya I guess as a whole Volkov's would be. Poor choice of words on my part. I just feel that Volkovs last few fights have been very meh. Even that Loss to Derrick Lewis, as good as Lewis is lately he's still a one trick pony (as evidenced in that fight). Yet people are saying "oh he should have won that fight!"...

I guess my point is, the HW division is awful so beating ranked guys at the end of the day are ranked. But I feel that Volkov has kind of been pushed up due to some aging vet wins and wins against crappy opponents - but what more could he do.

Its an interesting fight for sure I just feel like Gane will present major problems especially with leg kicks & wall and stall pressure.
 
I feel like this will be one of the closest fights we seen in long time skill wise I have no fucking idea who gonna win
 
The speed difference will be the key factor here. Volkov is good and powerful but he ain't exactly the flash. Gane will dance around him, jab his face and chop his leg without barely taking a shot. He might even be bigger than Volkov though both guys are massive. I'm bummed that one of them (Volkov most likely) has to lose.

Volkov is 6'7'' with an 80'' reach and cuts from 275+; Gane is 6'5'' with an 81'' reach and weights around 245. So Volkov is taller and outweighs him by 30 lbs, clearly the bigger guy (though Gane is a better pure athlete and actually has a kicking game).

Gane is much faster but what outside technical strikers has he fought? The only "higher level" strikers he's faced in the UFC are:

JDS = completely shot and a shell of himself, still gave Gane some issues and ultimately he ended up closing the distance and ending the fight from the clinch with an elbow.

Rozenstruick = had significant length/reach/speed advantage against a low-output counter-fighter so just made it a low-volume high-movement affair (took no risks as he didn't need to).

Volkov historically only does poorly against big guys that can grapple-fuck him; outside of Blaydes who are the UFC HW's that can do that?

For me the most interesting thing is the style of striking from both; Gane very quick but kind of limited to single-shot attacks, while Volkov is far more powerful and can throw punches in combination far better but lacks the kicking and speed. Will be interesting to see if Gane can feint inside to work from the clinch or set-up leg kicks, but the fact that he is so single-strike with his shot selection Volkov could just start jab-countering him if he gets his timing.

It's a true coin-flip fight but I actually lean Volkov; only Lewis has been able to finish him with strikes, only Werdum (briefly) and Blaydes were able to take him down and control him at length. It feels like Gane has to fight a perfect fight and he isn't going to be able to be able to hit a guy that tall with good boxing without getting occasionally countered. So I feel like this is almost guaranteed to turn into a fire-fight at some point - either Gane is effective early from the outside and it forces Volkov to up the pace or Gane isn't effective early and it forces him to work inside to the clinch (which will push the pace & action).

In my gut I just trust Volkov in a high-paced war; need to see Gane actually go through one against elite competition before I'll believe it.
 
Volkov is 6'7'' with an 80'' reach and cuts from 275+; Gane is 6'5'' with an 81'' reach and weights around 245. So Volkov is taller and outweighs him by 30 lbs, clearly the bigger guy (though Gane is a better pure athlete and actually has a kicking game).

Gane is much faster but what outside technical strikers has he fought? The only "higher level" strikers he's faced in the UFC are:

JDS = completely shot and a shell of himself, still gave Gane some issues and ultimately he ended up closing the distance and ending the fight from the clinch with an elbow.

Rozenstruick = had significant length/reach/speed advantage against a low-output counter-fighter so just made it a low-volume high-movement affair (took no risks as he didn't need to).

Volkov historically only does poorly against big guys that can grapple-fuck him; outside of Blaydes who are the UFC HW's that can do that?

For me the most interesting thing is the style of striking from both; Gane very quick but kind of limited to single-shot attacks, while Volkov is far more powerful and can throw punches in combination far better but lacks the kicking and speed. Will be interesting to see if Gane can feint inside to work from the clinch or set-up leg kicks, but the fact that he is so single-strike with his shot selection Volkov could just start jab-countering him if he gets his timing.

It's a true coin-flip fight but I actually lean Volkov; only Lewis has been able to finish him with strikes, only Werdum (briefly) and Blaydes were able to take him down and control him at length. It feels like Gane has to fight a perfect fight and he isn't going to be able to be able to hit a guy that tall with good boxing without getting occasionally countered. So I feel like this is almost guaranteed to turn into a fire-fight at some point - either Gane is effective early from the outside and it forces Volkov to up the pace or Gane isn't effective early and it forces him to work inside to the clinch (which will push the pace & action).

In my gut I just trust Volkov in a high-paced war; need to see Gane actually go through one against elite competition before I'll believe it.
Yeah I backtracked a little bit from my initial prediction. Volkov is indeed the bigger guy though he was about 250 lbs until his last fight where he came in significantly bigger. And he is very sharp with his straight punches and distance management. I actually do think he has a very good kicking game but he mostly uses front kicks to the body. In this matchup he'd probably be better served with strong legkicks.

It might be a lot closer than I thought. But I look at the Hardy fight and how Volkov was having problems with Hardy's speed. I think that fight would've been close if Hardy didn't break his wrist early on. (Granted, caused by Volkov highkick but still...). If Hardy can look decent against Volkov with nothing but speed and size, I think Gane can shine.
 
Yeah I backtracked a little bit from my initial prediction. Volkov is indeed the bigger guy though he was about 250 lbs until his last fight where he came in significantly bigger. And he is very sharp with his straight punches and distance management. I actually do think he has a very good kicking game but he mostly uses front kicks to the body. In this matchup he'd probably be better served with strong legkicks.

It might be a lot closer than I thought. But I look at the Hardy fight and how Volkov was having problems with Hardy's speed. I think that fight would've been close if Hardy didn't break his wrist early on. (Granted, caused by Volkov highkick but still...). If Hardy can look decent against Volkov with nothing but speed and size, I think Gane can shine.

Volkov has been significantly bulking up since the Blaydes fight - in that fight he was under 250 and was getting absolutely rag-dolled. I think he made the mistake in that point of his career of thinking that speed is the most important asset but he forgot for a moment this is Heavyweight (chin/power/skill all more important).

I've never really thought of Volkov as a great kicker, though he definitely throw a solid teep. Definitely can be dangerous when he does throw them but he doesn't set them up really. Gane is actually one of the most impressive HW's when it comes to kicking; can go High/Medium/Low, can teep/oblique/switch, really has all the bag of tricks. It's just kicking at HW is such a dangerous proposition - few have the athleticism to surprise opponents, few have the depth of technique to effectively set them up, and it uses a ton of energy (HW's really only throw power kicks).

I see your logic in the Hardy vs. Volkov match-up, but I also think it's kind of MMA-Math; there were so many crazy variables in that fight to consider: it was supposed to be JDS until a month before the fight then it switched to Hardy + it was the Volkov's first big fight in terms of billing (Co-Main) + it was in Moscow (so imagine the pressure). It felt like Volkov kind of laid an egg, but ultimately I felt like he did the same thing that Gane did against Rozenstruick which was to fight the most conservative fight possible....and Volkov even turned it up late in the 3rd while Gane was content to cruise (to be fair he had seen the Overeem horror-lip in the last second of a 5-round fight, so probably didn't want to take any chances).

Hardy is very fast/explosive for HW, he just doesn't have good long-term endurance and is limited in depth of technique and fighting experience. So was always a very good match for Volkov, he probably just didn't want to shit the bed in a short-notice fight in his home city/country trying to go on a title run. Same thing with Gane vs. Rozenstruick, it makes sense why it was a bad fight - the style match-up favored Gane and he didn't want to take dumb risks against a dangerous counter-striker that is predictable when he is easily winning.

Ultimately every fighter is unique and every fight is as well, so there is such a crazy myriad of variables and circumstances to consider. These two are such experienced, technical fighters that I think the only clear outcome is it won't be an easy fight for either man.
 
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