T.J. Dillashaw raises concerns about Alexander Volkanovski’s strategy against Ilia Topuria.
Volkanovski, who held the featherweight title, suffered a second-round knockout defeat to Topuria in the main event of UFC 298 on Saturday. Dillashaw believes that Volkanovski displayed an uncharacteristic hesitancy and feared Topuria’s punching power.
“He relied solely on kicks. It was evident that he was afraid of the power,” Dillashaw expressed on the “JAXXON PODCAST.” “His fighting style showed clear signs of fear towards Topuria’s punching power, which is understandable to some extent. However, this is not how he has fought in the past. Throughout the first two rounds, all he did was throw kicks without any setup. He anticipated Topuria to simply block them.
“I speculated that he was attempting to tire out Topuria’s arms. Blocking a kick causes a stinging sensation, similar to a charley horse in the arm. The repeated hits slow down the opponent’s arm movements. So, my assumption was that he was using kicks to hinder Topuria’s arm speed, without aiming for a knockout. This was evident because if he intended to knock him out, he would have thrown a combination followed by a kick in hopes of connecting.”
Dillashaw also criticized Volkanovski’s body language whenever Topuria advanced.
“Every time Topuria closed the distance, Volkanovski would back away and lean back,” Dillashaw continued. “As soon as I noticed that, I thought to myself, ‘Damn, he’s going to get caught.’ He fought with fear. He was concerned about the power. I’m a huge fan of Volk, and I wanted him to win. However, he kept evading and leaning away from everything, including the power punches.
“It was only a matter of time before Topuria caught him because Topuria is incredibly composed in his boxing and possesses excellent combinations. I believe that’s where things went wrong. Volkanovski was scared. He fought with fear of Topuria’s power, while Topuria had nothing to lose. Volkanovski fought with the fear of losing everything.”
According to the Source mmajunkie.usatoday.com