Volkov is more than just the HW gatekeeper. Who else still believes he can go higher.

[Franklin U.]

This " gatekeeper " label is thrown around way too much. Sadly , a healthy percentage of sherdog doesn't even understand the term.

According to sherdog - lol - a good third of the rostered fighters have been called a gatekeeper at one time or another ( maybe more ).

Volkov doesnt even have enough UFC fights under belt to be stamped with such a label.

Maybe in future, he could be in conversation depending on his wins & losses.

 

[grimballer]

This " gatekeeper " label is thrown around way too much. Sadly , a healthy percentage of sherdog doesn't even understand the term.

According to sherdog - lol - a good third of the rostered fighters have been called a gatekeeper at one time or another ( maybe more ).

Volkov doesnt even have enough UFC fights under belt to be stamped with such a label.

Maybe in future, he could be in conversation depending on his wins & losses.

he already had 11 fights with 8-3 record.

all the fighters he beat became irrelevant/got cut

all the fighters that beat him became contenders/fought for the title

hes textbook definition of a gatekeeper right now.

 

[grimballer]

I don't bring up his losses, I explain where he is vulnerable and why he lost those fights.

Volkov is the easiest matchup for Ngannou, he would eat punches because that is how he fights. No need to bring up Gane, Tybura, Blaydes and Hardy could land clean shots on him and Ngannou is way better.

but weve clearly see hes vulnerable to superior strikers like gane or superior grapplers like blaydes

and thats neither stipe or ngannou.

stipe gets hit more than volkov, is not as accurate and we've already seen him lose to bigger fighters before. if struve can put stipe out, then volkov can easily do it as well considering hes much better than struve.

ngannou is even less technical and his entire success so far was facing smaller guys he can stalk and that have to commit and engage him inside. we have yet to see ngannou facing size disadvantage and how he would deal with it. we did however see ngannou freeze in a fight when he didn't get looks he wanted and is 0-2 in fight that go past 2nd round.

 

[Lawrence]

The top 7 are

Ngannou - hasn't fought
Gane - lost
Stipe - hasn't fought
Lewis - lost
Blaydes - lost

Rozenstruik - hasn't fought
Volkov

His recent win over Tybura, who is ranked 11th, was solid, snapped a 5 fight streak but he was expected to beat him. Volkov is 8-3 in the UFC, all good named opponents and his only losses are to top 5 fighters. Stipe seems to be out of action at the moment, if he ever fights again, so ideally Volkov would fight Rozenstruik next, even if he is coming off a loss. Striker vs striker and Volkov is the bigger, better striker. Otherwise of those ranked above him he should be favoured to beat Lewis in a rematch, he dominated 99% of that fight before relaxing 10 seconds too early.

The Blaydes fight all 3 judges gave Volkov round 5 and 2 of them gave him round 4. For all his takedowns Blaydes did very little damage with his GnP. Only Ngannou and Lewis have been able to solve that puzzle so far but I don't see why Volkov can't do what they did, he weighs 263lbs now which means more stopping power to punish attempts to close the distance as well as more strength and weight to counter the TD and at 33 he is still improving, Tybura got nowhere with his wrestling. Ok Blaydes wrestles better than Tybura but I think Volkov could get the nod in a rematch in 2022.

Volkov took Gane, the unbeaten interim champion, the distance, even if it was 50-45, 50-45, 49-46 in sig strikes the difference was only 135-115 and Volkov was never in any danger. That's a rematch for a little further down the road but there's no reason it wouldn't be competitive again. Gane can be figured out the same as anyone else. As for Ngannou sure if he connects he can knock anyone out but if Gane can beat him so can Volkov the same way.

So to sum up Volkov is an upwardly mobile HW with the tools to beat anyone in the division and I see him fighting for the belt in the future. Very experienced, still only 33, one of the best strikers at HW, 6'7" 263lbs, strong TDD and can take guys down and GnP them if he wants, all his losses were very competitive and he's still improving, he can take revenge.

Volk is Elite in today's crowd.

Gatekeeper being defined as .. Beat this guy and you are in "the hunt" Yes.

Gatekeeper as in; Feed him the new guy who just won two in a row in the regionals? He is too good for that.

He can beat many top 10 guys... But he is not a lock against any of them...

 

[Franklin U.]

he already had 11 fights with 8-3 record.

all the fighters he beat became irrelevant/got cut

all the fighters that beat him became contenders/fought for the title

hes textbook definition of a gatekeeper right now.

Lol - no.

A respected VETERAN who beats who hes supposed to and loses to hes supposed to lose to ( with an exception here & there in a lengthy career) is textbook..... not Volkov.
Nathaniel Diaz & Donald Cerrone ( donald was - hes not even that now)are textbook ufc calibur gatekeepers.

I want u to write that down.
Y.w

 

[grimballer]

Lol - no.

A respected VETERAN who beats who hes supposed to and loses to hes supposed to lose to ( with an exception here & there in a lengthy career) is textbook..... not Volkov.
Nathaniel Diaz & Donald Cerrone ( donald was - hes not even now)are textbook ufc calibur gatekeepers.

I want u to right that down.
Y.w

cowboy and diaz actually fought for the title, volkov didnt...

youre way off

 

[Small Town Andrew]

I thought he turned the corner in the Overeem fight and was about to go on a tear. It did not work out that way

I think he is where he should be in the rankings and I dont see him getting better

 

[Franklin U.]

cowboy and diaz actually fought for the title, volkov didnt...

youre way off

Yeah , they lost many moons ago .... so what ?

If the middleweight division wasnt such a horror show , Bunson would be another good example.

I'm not a Volkov supporter- I'm just calling it the way it is. You just cant label the cat a gatekeeper..... In fact 8-3 is a pretty good %. What is that 72, 73 % ?

I dont know any gatekeepers with that kind of percentage-

Again - maybe in the future , he turns out to be one but the tag just doesn't apply.

Do u know how many UFC champions start off their UFC tenure at 2-2 and went on to become champs? ( not that I think volkov will - in fact, i dont).

If you're going to label him " gatekeeper " then you're opening the door to call an awful lot of fighters " gatekeeper "

 

[grimballer]

Yeah , they lost many moons ago .... so what ?

If the middleweight division wasnt such a horror show , Bunson would be another good example.

I'm not a Volkov supporter- I'm just calling it the way it is. You just cant label the cat a gatekeeper..... In fact 8-3 is a pretty good %. What is that 72, 73 % ?

I dont know any gatekeepers with that kind of percentage-

Again - maybe in the future , he turns out to be one but the tag just doesn't apply.

Do u know how many UFC champions start off their UFC tenure at 2-2 and went on to become champs? ( not that I think volkov will - in fact, i dont).

If you're going to label him " gatekeeper " then you're opening the door to call an awful lot of fighters " gatekeeper "

everything about volkov right now fits the definition of a gatekeeper, he might be high end gatekeeper, but gatekeeper nonetheless. hes a solid veteran with 10 losses and he faced whos who of mma. again you beat volkov and you're legit title contender. you lose to volkov and you become irrelevant or cut.

 

[spinup]

but weve clearly see hes vulnerable to superior strikers like gane or superior grapplers like blaydes

and thats neither stipe or ngannou.

stipe gets hit more than volkov, is not as accurate and we've already seen him lose to bigger fighters before. if struve can put stipe out, then volkov can easily do it as well considering hes much better than struve.

ngannou is even less technical and his entire success so far was facing smaller guys he can stalk and that have to commit and engage him inside. we have yet to see ngannou facing size disadvantage and how he would deal with it. we did however see ngannou freeze in a fight when he didn't get looks he wanted and is 0-2 in fight that go past 2nd round.

Pure fantasy analysis based on cherry picked distorted facts. Garbage.

 

[grimballer]

Pure fantasy analysis based on cherry picked distorted facts. Garbage.

its better than you with no facts just baseless opinion

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

He needs to work on his footwork and output. I can't see him being the champ or even fighting for a title with this version of him.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

I would favor him over Lewis and Jairzinho.

I would like to see him fight Ngannou down the line.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

what do you think he has that Francis will have problems with? i think his height and length can be problematic, but that can only be for so long. it was the same with Gane. Gane had some problems with him early on, but after a while Volkov's lack of output makes it easier for them to settle down and focus on adjusting.

Playing devils advocate here..

Gane did not gassed against Volkov but we are not sure Francis can sustain that pace. (big) If Volkov survives a while there he could potentially test Ngannous chin and will.

 

[spinup]

Playing devils advocate here..

Gane did not gassed against Volkov but we are not sure Francis can sustain that pace. (big) If Volkov survives a while there he could potentially test Ngannous chin and will.

I would be amazed if Volkov survives a round. He is the perfect candidate for a quick KO: no TD threat, no head movement, not much lateral movement, no guard.

 

[Huligani]

I don't see him fighting for a title unless he replaces someone last minute. He's just not great.

 

[fzoid4454]

Just because it wasn't a thrilling fight doesn't mean he didn't handle a dangerous opponent professionally and shut down his gameplan.

It's not that it wasn't thrilling. I'm completely fine with smart, technical control and dominance. I'm saying he looked like crap, and gassed after 1.5 rounds. How is that going to beat anyone near the top of the division?

 

[GORO]

he has to actually throw punches all he does low kick last 2 fights omg so boring

 

[GORO]

i wanted to see him v francis one point thought would be good fight but volkov would be so outclassed literally would be unfair to send him to get KOd lol he need to be more aggresive god damn

 

[650lb Sumo]

Alexander with a much-improved grappling game and submissions suddenly looks a lot more dangerous to the top fighters:

Jon
Ciryl
Sergei
Stipe
Tom
Curtis

Tai has only been subbed once before (by Spivak) and Drago's last sub was in M1 in 2016. What if Volkov took Gane down and mounted him? What if he stuffed or reversed Aspinall's TD? Or simply survived on the ground and got back to his feet in time? What if he felt free to let his hands and feet fly against Blaydes as he wasn't worried about being blanketed? This could be a major development.