Ilia will not keep it striking with Max

[Rubios]

He says so to sell the fight.

I know his new boxing coach is not a douche like the former ones, his team will not be dumb and plan a wrestling-heavy approach.

And why are many of you saying Top will be the best boxer Max ever faced? DP, anyone?

And even talking about "the best boxer" in MMA is relatively irrelevant. Volk*, Justin (now it seems Gaethje is a "sloppy brawler" but he looked amazingly crisp and calculated vs DP #2) and Poirier are superior STRIKERS than Ilia.

I think Max is aswell.

*Not 4th fight in two weight classes in a year span, less than 4 months after a brutal KO Volk.

 

[Arm Barbarian]

Max has very good TDD, but it's definitely wise for Ilia to mix things up with his wrestling, to try and throw off Max's timing, and get him dropping his hands to try and counter the shooting in.

 

[AldoStillGoat]

 

[RockyLockridge]

I really feel like Illas combination of speed power and technique is something seldomly seen in modern mix martial arts. He's tailor made to hurt people and his grappling is excellent.

I think he finds a way around max and stays champ for a while.

 

[mister piscadinha]

sure illia could grapple him but he doesnt really NEED to, he's a better boxer than max

 

[ExitLUPin]

This fight will answer a lot about Max's TDD and Ilias wrestling

The best and maybe only wrestler Max has fought since the Bermudez loss was a washed Frankie.

Maxs TDD on paper is great but its been tested against Ortega, Dustin, Volk, Kattar, Yair, Arnold, KZ, Gaethje, Aldo, Cub.... Volk is the only competent wrestler there but besides Max a few times hes only gotten down a washed KZ and Yair who both have horrendous TDD.

 

[AmericanMMA]

Hand sanitizer boy is going to get crushed, lad. Max by however he wants.

 

[usernamee]

He doesn't usually wrestle heavily in his fights so sounds like a ticket to gas town in a 5 rounder

 

[Domitian]

It would be smart of Ilia to make Max aware of the takedown threat early on but I don't think that's his plan. Wrestling is plan B if plan A isn't working out for him. Ilia is definitely talented enough to stand with Max though.

 

[MM808]

Should but Ilia seems like he’s gotten so cocky that he will just stand to try to prove a point

 

[RockyLockridge]

sure illia could grapple him but he doesnt really NEED to, he's a better boxer than max

That says a lot.

Grappling is an option for Illa. he might not even need it.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

I honestly don't see him using wrestling much, even when he was out on his feet from the head kick against Jai Herbert he was still trying to force boxing exchanges in tight.

I mean he's 5/16 on takedowns in the UFC, but he was 5/9 for takedowns on his first opponent Youssef Zalal, which means in the 6 fights after that he's attempted 7 takedowns in total; that's 50+ minutes of fighting where he unsuccessfully attempts a takedown once every 10 minutes.

His core style is to be a pocket-boxing blitz fighter, he mostly wants to sit inside kicking range on the edge of boxing range and have you reacting to his feints/attacks. Maybe he'll threaten some to keep Max off-balance and create openings, but he's never consistently outwrestled anyone in the UFC besides Zalal, seems crazy to think he's going to be able to do it now against much better fighters when it's kind of proven that he can't.

 

[boingyman]

I doubt Max needs to worry about Ilia's wrestling/grappling. The only time I was legit concerned about Max getting grapplefucked was when he decided to step up against Khabib. If Ilia is going to win this it's because of his standup. He may mix it up here and there, but I don't see it doing much unless he hurts Max badly.

 

[TheBulge]

I don't know how good Ila's cardio is which will be a deciding factor if he doesn't score a KO. I'm quite confident he is the far more technical and effective striker but for how long can he keep that up? Can he force the fight on his terms and pace? What a great matchup though.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

100% he is gonna stand and trade and strongly doubt he shoots for the laces, even once

 

[Rubios]

I really feel like Illas combination of speed power and technique is something seldomly seen in modern mix martial arts. He's tailor made to hurt people and his grappling is excellent.

I think he finds a way around max and stays champ for a while.

You're describing a lesser version of DP.

Ilia's striking is mainly boxing (a pretty solid boxing, sure) but I dont't understand how being a "better boxer" than Max -that's at least debatable- is relevant.

Volk, DP and Justin are better (much better?) MMA strikers.
Max is, too, IMO.

Ilia has a boxing stance and his striking offense/defense is pretty much orthodox boxing. Max uses -sort of- a MT/KB stance, can keep fights at range and throws vicious knees and elbows.

Ilia kicks HARD but is very limited to some low kicks here and there.
After Volk #3, Max improved a ton his kicking game, as it showed against JG, one of the best leg choppers in the UFC.

Top's legs would be fucked if he did not finished Volk that early. And the Volk he fought was veeeeeeeery gun shy.

Max will not run backwards panicking with his chin up and no defense, counters, pivoting or even spamming a jab to keep Ilia from the pocket.

 

[Rubios]

I honestly don't see him using wrestling much, even when he was out on his feet from the head kick against Jai Herbert he was still trying to force boxing exchanges in tight.

I mean he's 5/16 on takedowns in the UFC, but he was 5/9 for takedowns on his first opponent Youssef Zalal, which means in the 6 fights after that he's attempted 7 takedowns in total; that's 50+ minutes of fighting where he unsuccessfully attempts a takedown once every 10 minutes.

That fairly bad TD stats surprise me.

Ilia's lifetime background is Greco and BJJ. I believe his best weapon is still the ground, and by far.
But given his Greco background and his strenght and conditioning, I expected a much higher TD%

He improved his boxing vastly because:

#1 He enjoys boxing the most and quickly noticed he's very talented.

#2 He knew a stand up, KO artist approach, would help him getting the spotlight in the UFC.

Now he's the champ, I guess he will fight smart to win.
And trading with Max is not very clever.

 

[Rubios]

I don't know how good Ila's cardio is which will be a deciding factor if he doesn't score a KO. I'm quite confident he is the far more technical and effective striker but for how long can he keep that up? Can he force the fight on his terms and pace? What a great matchup though.

I doubt his cardio is on Max's level, but Top's cardio is great to say the least.
Nothing to worry about.

 

[textwarrior]

He says so to sell the fight.

I know his new boxing coach is not a douche like the former ones, his team will not be dumb and plan a wrestling-heavy approach.

And why are many of you saying Top will be the best boxer Max ever faced? DP, anyone?

And even talking about "the best boxer" in MMA is relatively irrelevant. Volk*, Justin (now it seems Gaethje is a "sloppy brawler" but he looked amazingly crisp and calculated vs DP #2) and Poirier are superior STRIKERS than Ilia.

I think Max is aswell.

*Not 4th fight in two weight classes in a year span, less than 4 months after a brutal KO Volk.

I seen him in trouble, and still wanted to keep it striking.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

That fairly bad TD stats surprise me.

Ilia's lifetime background is Greco and BJJ. I believe his best weapon is still the ground, and by far.
But given his Greco background and his strenght and conditioning, I expected a much higher TD%

He improved his boxing vastly because:

#1 He enjoys boxing the most and quickly noticed he's very talented.

#2 He knew a stand up, KO artist approach, would help him getting the spotlight in the UFC.

Now he's the champ, I guess he will fight smart to win.
And trading with Max is not very clever.

I know he has a background in Greco and BJJ, it's just that he doesn't really use it in his fights because they aren't inherent to his style. They were a good base to build an MMA game around and it looks like he's spent the majority of his time building striking skills and using his Greco/BJJ as defensive tools to stop takedowns and force opponents to stand and trade with him. He's gotten to the title by boxing up all of his competition, including the guy that took apart Max in the stand-up (especially in the 3rd fight), so would seem crazy to make a drastic style change for no reason when he's been so successful in his current approach.

Max is a legend, one of the GOATs, a pure savage, but let's also be real here - he's had 33 fights, 29 of them in the UFC, with at least a dozen absolute wars, leading to him absorbing more strikes than any fighter in UFC history. He's only 32 but he's been pro since 18 (and been scraping on the Island for quite some time), so in fight years he's an old man for what he's put his body through. At some point that uncrackable chin will get cracked with his approach and getting in pocket boxing exchanges with a prime in-fighter like Illia is not a good idea.

It's easy to have recency bias because of the Gaethje fight but the facts are that Justin is a LW so he's far slower than Illia and Max had a lot of problems with an older Volk's speed and ability to move in and out of the pocket. Also Justin for some reason decided to be a counter-fighter when it's insane to let Max set the range and rhythm of exchange (especially early), there is no way Illia is going to be trying to out-fight when he's giving up height/reach, he's going to have to pressure to close the void.