Volkanovski will lose his next fight vs Topuria...

[chimpoehurricane]

Nah, Volk will win.

Volk likes to lean into head kicks.

 

[chimpoehurricane]

Anything is possible, but I wouldn't bet against Volk.

He's a very cerebral fighter and game planner. Pretty solid everywhere. Great cardio as well.

But in the fight game very few stay at the top for an extended time.

For now I don't see anyone beating him in the division though, unless he lost a step.

Hea the ultimate paddy cake fighter. He's good but illia has what? 25 min for a ko on paddy cake? I won't be shocked.

 

[bean88]

Volk top3 all time jeez

 

[Fact Checker]

I like Volk and I think he’s head and shoulders above the division. That being said, if anyone can start closing the gap it’s Topuria. He looks drastically better every fight.


His wrestling is cleaner than Volks, Volk has the obvious advantage in striking, but Topuria has more power. I don’t think FW has had a real up and coming contender like Topuria in a while.

 

[vini123456]

He might. I'm a fan but Volkanovski is one of the most overrated fighters right now.

You say that after his performance against Islam?? That fight proved to me Volk is next level in every way.. he went up a weight class and almost beat Islam..

 

[Objectively Correct]

How is he overrated, he literally is the best fighter on the planet and maybe the most skilled fighter we've ever seen.

He is objectively overrated. He cannot be above the guy he lost to in the P4P rankings without being overrated. Reality does not work that way.

 

[Harlekin]

He is objectively overrated. He cannot be above the guy he lost to in the P4P rankings without being overrated. Reality does not work that way.

Islam's weight wasn't measured correctly, the scale never aligned and the guy stopped weighin him after a quarter second. =overweight . He is a foot taller and probably used a IV. So P4P wise he is fine.

 

[wolfss]

10% chance that topouria finds the chin of volk. 90% chance that volk beats the shit outta topuria. Based on scientific calculations.

 

[StonedLemur]

Im a huge Holloway fan so i was really upset when Volk won the title from him at UFC 245 and then robbed him at UFC 251 (though admittedly rewatching the fight, i scored it 3-2 to volk). However, since watching the way he systematically destroyed Ortega, and the subsequent insane performances he's put on since then in every fight, there's no denying in my mind that currently he is the current lb4lb best fighter in the world. He even made me converted me to a temp aussie by having the greatest walkout and fans in the UFC lb4lb.


There's also no denying that if he wins his next fight against Topuria, he surpasses Aldo easily to be the greatest FTW of all time and tbh, top 3 on the goat list (next to GSP and Jones). However, i just dont see it happening. dont get me wrong, stylistically and iq wise, volk is a better fighter and mixed martial artist than topuria right now but there are certain factors that lead me to believe Ilia will beat Volk and not only that, potentially finish him.

1) The UFC game curse. we know historically every fighter who has been on the UFC game cover has losses subsequently in their career. for context:
UFC 1: Jones ended up being stripped of his title shortly after the game release and DC 1 fight and Gus lost his next two fights to Rumble and DC
UFC 2: Rousey lost her next fight to holly holm and Amanda dunes and Conor lost his nextfight to Diaz
UFC 3: McGregor lost his next fight to Khabib and went 1-2 after.
UFC 4: Masvidal lost to Usman and went 0-3 after whereas Adesanya (whilst beating Costa) would then lose to Blachowicz in his bid for champ champ status.
Rumours are Volkanovski will be on the cover for UFC 5, and as we've seen, statistics are not on his side to retain his World title.

2) We've seen this before. 2019 was a weird year as it saw champs that many people at the time couldn't see being defeated (woodley, Whittaker and holloway) be overthrown by three more dominant more goat champs in Usman, Adesanya and Volk. These three pretty much over the course fo the next three years, established themselves as arguably the three best lb4lb fighters in the world, with Usman like Volk being a former no.1. However, in the case of Usman and Adesanya, both racked up 5 world title defences before losing their belts by 5th round finish to Edwards and Pereira (despite being 3-1 going into the fifth). Its almost as if the 6th title defense is their way of challenging the GOATS of their division (Silva and GSP) and the loss is almost a reminder that its impossible to touch the legacy of the GOATs. Volk just achieved his 5th title defense by beating El Pantera, and many believe he would surpass Aldo with a Topuria win for his 6th. Historically though, if we look at two former champs who won the belt in a similar timeframe, its appears highly unlikely, and if anything, there's a chance topuria to be losing the fight 3-1 but end up getting a shock finish in the 5th to win the 145lb belt.

3) Topuria had the perfect setup fight for this. Firstly, im not comparing Emmett to Volkanovski cos there is no comparison. Other than the fact that dimensionally, they are relatively similar, both 5'6, volk with a 71 inch reach emmet with a 70 inch. Even though stylistically Emmet is an average boxer while volk is an elite all round fighter, Ilia fighting that dimension of fighter and going 5 rounds comfortably will put him in good stead when facing a similar build in Volkanovski. There's no denying in my mind, Ilia will level up from the Emmett fight and prove a little too much for the older Volkanovski. speaking of age...

4) Age. I dont believe any fighter older than 35 has won a UFC title at 155lbs or under. The oldest from recollection was figuereido when he had the close fight with moreno in the trilogy at UFC 270 and was 34 when he recaptured the belt. Volks gonna be 35 when he fights Ilia and again statistics, dont seem to be on his side as fighters old than than 35 have never won a world title fighting at over 35 (look at Frankie at UFC 240 and Cejudo and TJ on their returns).

5) We've seen this before (again). the last fighter to step up from 145 to 155 for a world title (or an interim one) was Max. Max lost a close back and forth fight of the night to Dustin at 155 (sound familiar) then defended his title in July (sound familiar) and ironically lost the belt to Volk in december. Volk vs Topuria has supposedly been rumoured to be happening before the end of the year (maybe december), so again not saying history repeats itself, but....

Dont get me wrong, im not ruling out Volks chances completely as stylistically, he presents a different level of fighter than Ilia has faced previously. but just based on the reason above, my prediction is volk will be winning the fight 3-1 but in the fifth, ilia will drop volk and put him to sleep via sub.

thoughts sherbros?

Even if Volk wins be still has a few title defenses to go to be goat.

 

[maximus__]

Im a huge Holloway fan so i was really upset when Volk won the title from him at UFC 245 and then robbed him at UFC 251 (though admittedly rewatching the fight, i scored it 3-2 to volk). However, since watching the way he systematically destroyed Ortega, and the subsequent insane performances he's put on since then in every fight, there's no denying in my mind that currently he is the current lb4lb best fighter in the world. He even made me converted me to a temp aussie by having the greatest walkout and fans in the UFC lb4lb.


There's also no denying that if he wins his next fight against Topuria, he surpasses Aldo easily to be the greatest FTW of all time and tbh, top 3 on the goat list (next to GSP and Jones). However, i just dont see it happening. dont get me wrong, stylistically and iq wise, volk is a better fighter and mixed martial artist than topuria right now but there are certain factors that lead me to believe Ilia will beat Volk and not only that, potentially finish him.

1) The UFC game curse. we know historically every fighter who has been on the UFC game cover has losses subsequently in their career. for context:
UFC 1: Jones ended up being stripped of his title shortly after the game release and DC 1 fight and Gus lost his next two fights to Rumble and DC
UFC 2: Rousey lost her next fight to holly holm and Amanda dunes and Conor lost his nextfight to Diaz
UFC 3: McGregor lost his next fight to Khabib and went 1-2 after.
UFC 4: Masvidal lost to Usman and went 0-3 after whereas Adesanya (whilst beating Costa) would then lose to Blachowicz in his bid for champ champ status.
Rumours are Volkanovski will be on the cover for UFC 5, and as we've seen, statistics are not on his side to retain his World title.

2) We've seen this before. 2019 was a weird year as it saw champs that many people at the time couldn't see being defeated (woodley, Whittaker and holloway) be overthrown by three more dominant more goat champs in Usman, Adesanya and Volk. These three pretty much over the course fo the next three years, established themselves as arguably the three best lb4lb fighters in the world, with Usman like Volk being a former no.1. However, in the case of Usman and Adesanya, both racked up 5 world title defences before losing their belts by 5th round finish to Edwards and Pereira (despite being 3-1 going into the fifth). Its almost as if the 6th title defense is their way of challenging the GOATS of their division (Silva and GSP) and the loss is almost a reminder that its impossible to touch the legacy of the GOATs. Volk just achieved his 5th title defense by beating El Pantera, and many believe he would surpass Aldo with a Topuria win for his 6th. Historically though, if we look at two former champs who won the belt in a similar timeframe, its appears highly unlikely, and if anything, there's a chance topuria to be losing the fight 3-1 but end up getting a shock finish in the 5th to win the 145lb belt.

3) Topuria had the perfect setup fight for this. Firstly, im not comparing Emmett to Volkanovski cos there is no comparison. Other than the fact that dimensionally, they are relatively similar, both 5'6, volk with a 71 inch reach emmet with a 70 inch. Even though stylistically Emmet is an average boxer while volk is an elite all round fighter, Ilia fighting that dimension of fighter and going 5 rounds comfortably will put him in good stead when facing a similar build in Volkanovski. There's no denying in my mind, Ilia will level up from the Emmett fight and prove a little too much for the older Volkanovski. speaking of age...

4) Age. I dont believe any fighter older than 35 has won a UFC title at 155lbs or under. The oldest from recollection was figuereido when he had the close fight with moreno in the trilogy at UFC 270 and was 34 when he recaptured the belt. Volks gonna be 35 when he fights Ilia and again statistics, dont seem to be on his side as fighters old than than 35 have never won a world title fighting at over 35 (look at Frankie at UFC 240 and Cejudo and TJ on their returns).

5) We've seen this before (again). the last fighter to step up from 145 to 155 for a world title (or an interim one) was Max. Max lost a close back and forth fight of the night to Dustin at 155 (sound familiar) then defended his title in July (sound familiar) and ironically lost the belt to Volk in december. Volk vs Topuria has supposedly been rumoured to be happening before the end of the year (maybe december), so again not saying history repeats itself, but....

Dont get me wrong, im not ruling out Volks chances completely as stylistically, he presents a different level of fighter than Ilia has faced previously. but just based on the reason above, my prediction is volk will be winning the fight 3-1 but in the fifth, ilia will drop volk and put him to sleep via sub.

thoughts sherbros?

Topuria nearly got deaded by an unranked 155er before coming back to finish him.
Alex arguably beat the 155 champion in every area of their fight but unfortunately lost a close 48-47 on control time, against the best mma wrestler in that division as the smaller guy.

Topuria isn't the guy to take out Volk. Emmet actually gave him trouble in the 5th round, Volk would have chased him down and gotten him out of there if the performances were similar.

 

[Ahmed Masood]

Topuria nearly got deaded by an unranked 155er before coming back to finish him.
Alex arguably beat the 155 champion in every area of their fight but unfortunately lost a close 48-47 on control time, against the best mma wrestler in that division as the smaller guy.

Topuria isn't the guy to take out Volk. Emmet actually gave him trouble in the 5th round, Volk would have chased him down and gotten him out of there if the performances were similar.

agreed totally with everything you are saying, but one fight doesn’t necessarily determine another.

Put it this way:

Usman kod covington in the 5th round of their fight.

Diaz wobbled Edward’s in the 5th round of their fight.

everyone agrees Usman probably hits harder than Diaz.

therefore, Usman should’ve kod Edward’s in the 5th round of their fight by that logic.

 

[kellier]

Can't see it happening. Volk has surpassed 145

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

topuria is basically brian ortega in 2019. he is due for the same beating also. hopefully he doesn't become a rank squater afterwards

I don't see how they are similar at all, Ortega was known for getting his butt kicked and getting come from behind wins and he's a BJJ guy primarily. Topuria isn't known for getting beat up and he's primarily a striker.

 

[TR1]

lol @ Volk being top 3 GOAT.

 

[Fact Checker]

Islam's weight wasn't measured correctly, the scale never aligned and the guy stopped weighin him after a quarter second. =overweight . He is a foot taller and probably used a IV. So P4P wise he is fine.

That’s all speculation though, you can also factor in that Islam had significantly less time to rehydrate. Almost 12+ hours less due to the Aussie PPV time, he looked visibly smaller. That was arguably Islams worst performance vs Volks best and he still got the job done in Volks backyard.


I’d say that’s being downplayed

 

[TR1]

Islam's weight wasn't measured correctly, the scale never aligned and the guy stopped weighin him after a quarter second. =overweight . He is a foot taller and probably used a IV. So P4P wise he is fine.

More delusional conspiracy theories, along lines of "Khabib didn't make weight" vs Justin.

 

[Bobby00]

That is a really tall short order.

 

[MigitAs]

The EAUFC cover curse is real, and kind of creepy when you think about it.

 

[Black Blood]

Skillset and age give Topuria a real solid chance against Volk.

 

[maximus__]

agreed totally with everything you are saying, but one fight doesn’t necessarily determine another.

Put it this way:

Usman kod covington in the 5th round of their fight.

Diaz wobbled Edward’s in the 5th round of their fight.

everyone agrees Usman probably hits harder than Diaz.

therefore, Usman should’ve kod Edward’s in the 5th round of their fight by that logic.

It's MMA so anything could happen. The only reason I even compared the fights is the first post is comparing Emmet and Volk as kinda similar due to reach etc. Worth a mention is Topuria will probably be the only time Volk fights a guy his own size with the belt. Everyone else besides KZ has been on the larger side of FW, Max, Ortega etc

That sure as hell could have happened in that fight though. Usman 100% could have caught and hurt Edwards, but instead he got clean KO'd by deciding to go for a finish in the 5th. Usman fought out of character. If Usman fought like normal and just stalled out that 5th round he would have won the belt.

Topuria was getting pressurred and caught in the 5th because he went so hard earlier and gassed himself. He didn't know what to do when Josh wouldn't go away from his power. He couldn't adjust. Volk is going to capitlize on that. The only thing Topuria has, is he appears to carry more power even up to 155.[/QUOTE]