is ilia's wrestling legit or is he another Justin Gaethje

[clownkiller]

if his wrestling is as legit as people claim it to be then guys we have a potential goat of the featherweight division

the kind of striking he has and maybe great wrestling i don't see none of the current fighters beating him

kid is gonna be next megastar of ufc

what you guys think

 

[fortheo]

Depends on who you ask. People insist it is the elite of the elite, despite the fact that we barely really see it in the UFC.

To be honest, I don't know what to make of it yet. In before someone tells me, "but bro, he ragdolled and submitted highschool wrestler bjj guy bryce mitchell!"

Yeah, he did, after rocking him bad and knocking him down. I'm sure people will tell me I'm dumb though and he's been wrestling since he was a child and it's his strongest skillset!......

I'm just waiting to see it against opponents worth a damn.

 

[MMAProfessional]

Depends on who you ask. People insist it is the elite of the elite, despite the fact that we barely really see it in the UFC.

To be honest, I don't know what to make of it yet. In before someone tells me, "but bro, he ragdolled and submitted highschool wrestler bjj guy bryce mitchell!"

Yeah, he did, after rocking him bad and knocking him down. I don't know what topuria's wrestling looks like at the highest level of the sport yet. I'm sure people will tell me I'm dumb though and he's been wrestling since he was a child and it's his strongest skillset!......I'm waiting to see it against opponents worth a damn.

Not many who are going to truely test it at FW aside from Evloev. If you watch his earlier fights he goes to the ground more. Obviously it was against lesser competition but he has pretty good control from the top.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Depends on who you ask. People insist it is the elite of the elite, despite the fact that we barely really see it in the UFC.

To be honest, I don't know what to make of it yet. In before someone tells me, "but bro, he ragdolled and submitted highschool wrestler bjj guy bryce mitchell!"

Yeah, he did, after rocking him bad and knocking him down. I don't know what topuria's wrestling looks like at the highest level of the sport yet. I'm sure people will tell me I'm dumb though and he's been wrestling since he was a child and it's his strongest skillset!......I'm waiting to see it against opponents worth a damn.

In his earlier fights and training footage, there's certainly a trend of him being able to execute upper body takedowns and throws very well, technically sound. Which is his background, Greco Roman. But with guys like Mark Madsen, Shinobu Ota and Mihran Harutyunyan all being Olympic Silver medalists in Greco and not really making it far in MMA, you gotta think. We haven't really seen Ilias ability to set up takedowns, fence wrestle, transition in on shots from openings in striking etc. Nor do we really know how his cardio holds up. His grappling on the mat does seem good though.

I really want to see the Evloev fight, it'd answer some of these questions about his wrestling and cardio if he doesn't spark him early.

 

[fortheo]

In his earlier fights and training footage, there's certainly a trend of him being able to execute upper body takedowns and throws very well, technically sound. Which is his background, Greco Roman. But with guys like Mark Madsen, Shinobu Ota and Mihran Harutyunyan all being Olympic Silver medalists in Greco and not really making it far in MMA, you gotta think. We haven't really seen Ilias ability to set up takedowns, fence wrestle, transition in on shots from openings in striking etc. Nor do we really know how his cardio holds up. His grappling on the mat does seem good though.

I really want to see the Evloev fight, it'd answer some of these questions about his wrestling and cardio if he doesn't spark him early.

I agree with all of that. Beyond that, I want to see how he reacts to being put on the back foot, but that's a different discussion.

 

[fortheo]

Not many who are going to truely test it at FW aside from Evloev. If you watch his earlier fights he goes to the ground more. Obviously it was against lesser competition but he has pretty good control from the top.

Volk should have, and if he gets the rematch maybe he'll try. But yeah, the amount of wrestlers at FW these days are slim.

I have seen all of topuria's fights, and like husky said, he showed good fundamentals, but the guys he was facing were really sloppy.

I need to see more.

 

[duke_droese]

I don't see it. He did greco as a kid but they were moving around a lot.

Unless you're in dagestan, kids' classes are shit.

 

[moreorless87]

In his earlier fights and training footage, there's certainly a trend of him being able to execute upper body takedowns and throws very well, technically sound. Which is his background, Greco Roman. But with guys like Mark Madsen, Shinobu Ota and Mihran Harutyunyan all being Olympic Silver medalists in Greco and not really making it far in MMA, you gotta think. We haven't really seen Ilias ability to set up takedowns, fence wrestle, transition in on shots from openings in striking etc. Nor do we really know how his cardio holds up. His grappling on the mat does seem good though.

I really want to see the Evloev fight, it'd answer some of these questions about his wrestling and cardio if he doesn't spark him early.

Sub fighting of course makes a BIG difference, look at how effective a wrestler Maia was due to the sub threat.

 

[Objectively Correct]

Greco Roman does not translate to mma as well as freestyle wrestling usually.

 

[SamuraiBro]

Greco Roman does not translate to mma as well as freestyle wrestling usually.

I think they both do, all about how you apply them.

 

[HHJ]

I think they both do, all about how you apply them.

This.

 

[Paulsp]

He’s very physically strong

There was a few points in the Bryce fight where he straight up rag dolled him

 

[usernamee]

Depends on who you ask. People insist it is the elite of the elite, despite the fact that we barely really see it in the UFC.

To be honest, I don't know what to make of it yet. In before someone tells me, "but bro, he ragdolled and submitted highschool wrestler bjj guy bryce mitchell!"

Yeah, he did, after rocking him bad and knocking him down. I don't know what topuria's wrestling looks like at the highest level of the sport yet. I'm sure people will tell me I'm dumb though and he's been wrestling since he was a child and it's his strongest skillset!......I'm waiting to see it against opponents worth a damn.

He trained at Burns place for a few weeks and Gilbert said they were finishing the workout by doing takedown battles where they just go to war with someone to see who can takedown who and Topuria was going with a legit Dagestani wrestler and he took him down

Non wrestling comment Burns also made was that Topuria knocked three of his training partners out cold with the big gloves

 

[Staph infection]

Gaethje is a block headed brawler, Ilia is a skilled boxer.

 

[The_Renaissance]

I haven't seen it yet but his grappling in general seems legit. He just skulls people.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Not many who are going to truely test it at FW aside from Evloev. If you watch his earlier fights he goes to the ground more. Obviously it was against lesser competition but he has pretty good control from the top.

Topuria started off as a grappler IIRC.

His wrestling and ground game are legit.

 

[Harlekin]

Gaethje has 1 submission his entire career.
Ilia started with 7 straight.
So far it was good, let's see if it's elite.
As long as it's good enough to fuck up Islam, I'm fine

 

[NicholasJBasile]

I would argue his resume suggests that his ground game is exceptional, but doing what he has done in regional circuits obviously isn't the same as doing it in the UFC. I tend to believe his wrestling/grappling is very good, but I can see other people's objections.

 

[jko1355]

if his wrestling is as legit as people claim it to be then guys we have a potential goat of the featherweight division

the kind of striking he has and maybe great wrestling i don't see none of the current fighters beating him

kid is gonna be next megastar of ufc

what you guys think

I think he is annoying and won't become a megastar because he is basically pretending to be Conor and I don't think people enjoy fake personas

 

[NicholasJBasile]

Not many who are going to truely test it at FW aside from Evloev. If you watch his earlier fights he goes to the ground more. Obviously it was against lesser competition but he has pretty good control from the top.

A prime Chad Mendes would've been a great test back in the day