Ortega tried to do that -- twice -- after catching Volk in his two signature chokes and wasn't able to finish either one. He's also a vastly more accredited submission specialist to Yair. And Volk's been putting in a lot of mat time for this one with Craig Jones after studying Yair's guard play.
I don't think that's fair. If Yair wins, Yair wins fair and square. Chalking it up to "Volk just got old and went out of his prime" when he just went to war with Islam in a competitive five-round scrap would be a disservice to both men IMO.
Yeah but what about all the other guys who have had success taking Yair down and holding him down for minutes at a time while he was forced to play Jiu-Jitsu or throw strikes off his back? Holloway, Stephens, Emmett, Rosa, and Hooker all had some degree of success with wrestling him and none of those guys are renowned offensive wrestlers in MMA.
Agreed. Volk is so crafty and aware of the ebb and flow of a fight, I think it's inherently difficult to out-point him especially if you're not fundamentally sound. I think it would require a really weird situation like where Yair drops him early and Volk just never fully recovers but doesn't get TKO'd, either -- like TKZ against Ortega. Other than that, I think Yair's best wins are with a finish... probably KO/TKO. And for the record, I do think he has non-zero odds of achieving that. He's a fairly dangerous fight for Volk just due to his dynamism despite his readily exploitable flaws. Hard not to pick Volk to win of course -- potentially quite dominantly -- but I think Yair's fairly live for an upset all the same.
