Rewatch Is Volk’s performance against Islam in the first fight still impressive?

[garbohydrates]

At the time, it absolutely was. Islam had just demolished Charles who people were calling the new LW GOAT. Islam was regarded as Khabib 2.0 and was thought of as unbeatable at LW.

Volk went to war with him ending his dominance streak. He rearranged his face with viscous GNP in the final seconds of the last round. Throughout the fight Islam never had him in any danger via his grappling. Volk did all of this as a career FW. He lost a UD in the end but many people thought he won 3-2 or at least lost the competition but won the “fight”.



After Islams fight against Dustin does this sentiment still hold true? 35 year old Dustin with bad hips and a broken rib stuffed 5 out of 16 takedowns. He went to war with Islam and gave him a gash on the face as parting gift.
Many thought they were 2-2 heading into the fifth. Islam eventually subbed him but he looked like the victim of a serial killer after the fight.


So evidently(at least to me), Islam simply was never as good as we thought he was . He simply never fought enough elite LWs to expose his actual skill level. This devalues Volks performance in his first fight against Islam for me. Especially seeing as the norm for fighters moving up is to finish the defending bigger champ i.e Pereira, Jon, Conor, DC, Amanda, GSP , BJ.

Thoughts?

 

[mjfan23]

So basically you are saying hindsight is 20/20, you have recency bias and a PhD in mmamath!

Cool story bro

 

[Luthien]

That is the face of a man who was thinking he was losing

 

[Simple Southerner]

Yea but that was the last time he looked good in the octagon it's been all downhill since

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Yes, and I would like to see Volk face other LWs dammit


Like Dustin/Justin dammit!

 

[MarioLemieux]

yeah but he got knocked out twice in a row after so its over

 

[laleggenda27]

The only thing about Volk that isn't "impressive" is his decision-making.

Rematching Islam without a camp and completely unprepared is one of the dumbest things we've seen in recent memory. And turning right around and fighting Topuria 4 months later, when it was obvious he hadn't recovered, was absurd.

Volk essentially flushed away the end of his prime with poor decision-making.

 

[Enigma87]

This is so stupid

 

[Bork Neslar]

Yes, absolutely.

 

[Corrado Soprano]

Islam had a off-night and Volk fought the best fight of his life and still lost.

 

[HNIC215]

Brather... doesn't matter.

Who get the win, brather?

Spoiler

 

[maximus__]

At the time, it absolutely was. Islam had just demolished Charles who people were calling the new LW GOAT. Islam was regarded as Khabib 2.0 and was thought of as unbeatable at LW.

Volk went to war with him ending his dominance streak. He rearranged his face with viscous GNP in the final seconds of the last round. Throughout the fight Islam never had him in any danger via his grappling. Volk did all of this as a career FW. He lost a UD in the end but many people thought he won 3-2 or at least lost the competition but won the “fight”.

View attachment 1063818

After Islams fight against Dustin does this sentiment still hold true? 35 year old Dustin with bad hips and a broken rib stuffed 5 out of 16 takedowns. He went to war with Islam and gave him a gash on the face as parting gift.
Many thought they were 2-2 heading into the fifth. Islam eventually subbed him but he looked like the victim of a serial killer after the fight.
View attachment 1063814

So evidently(at least to me), Islam simply was never as good as we thought he was . He simply never fought enough elite LWs to expose his actual skill level. This devalues Volks performance in his first fight against Islam for me. Especially seeing as the norm for fighters moving up is to finish the defending bigger champ i.e Pereira, Jon, Conor, DC, Amanda, GSP , BJ.

Thoughts?

This is why LW is such a great division. On the right day anyone in the top 10 could be the champion and beat the other.
Volk came up from 145 and nearly pulled it off against a guy who had been borderline flawless until then.

Since then 1 of Islams ranked wins has completely turned his career around, his best recent wins pre belt are at 2 and 5. he has a win over Armen from years ago and Poirer at 4 in a close defence, he looked very beatable in, but ultimately pulled off a late finish.

The whole division including his previous match ups have put on streaks. LW is full of great matchups and it's time to get some defences running against top LWs.

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

While I agree that Islam is being overrated around here and that he is benefitting from "Stipe timing" aka coming in when most of the elite of a stacked division are getting old, I still think Volk's performance was excellent. Volk is not exactly a spring chicken himself and he is not even that big for a FW. This was an extremely ballsy move

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

It was impressive enough to Volk that he came into the rematch with no camp and was still cocky as fuck. Only to get KO'ed.

 

[SamuraiBro]

Yea but that was the last time he looked good in the octagon it's been all downhill since

The Yair fight was right after this?

 

[HolmeZy55]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

 

[The Siege]

Yes. It was and is very impressive.

And how you (or anyone else) came away that Islam is not as good as we thought when he cruised through Charles and out struck both Volk and Dustin in an area where everyone thought he would get KOed in if it stayed there, I have no idea.

We must be watching something different when you cast a primarily grappling/wrestling based fighter beating elite strikers with his B-plan in negative terms.

 

[Simple Southerner]

The Yair fight was right after this?

You are 100% correct. He lost Islam #1
Beat yair then lost Islam #2 then lost to topuria

So the last time volk looked was against yair

 

[TR1]

Good performance, but Volk still clearly lost.

Sherdoggers need to stop coping about this fight.

EDIT: Lmao you are a shit troll. Just saw your alternative history of how the Porier fight went.

 

[HuskySamoan]

While I agree that Islam is being overrated around here and that he is benefitting from "Stipe timing" aka coming in when most of the elite of a stacked division are getting old, I still think Volk's performance was excellent. Volk is not exactly a spring chicken himself and he is not even that big for a FW. This was an extremely ballsy move

Islam is overrated huh? He's on a 14 fight win streak, the longest in LW history. He's 26-1, the LW Champ and has defended the title 3 times, about to make it a record 4th. He's a pretty hard guy to overrate at this point. He could go take the belt from Belal if he wanted I'd wager.