Opinion
On the 12th of February 2023 in Perth Australia, Aussie home-grown Featherweight champion Alex Volkanovksi (25-1-0) challenges newly crowned lightweight champion Islam Makhachev (23-1-0) to become only the 4th double champion in the organisation’s history.
Islam Makhachev made light work of former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira in their main event at UFC 280 dispatching him in the second round to claim gold. He did so using his famous Dagestani wrestling, pressure and sophisticated striking.
Makhachev and his dangerous team plan to fly to Australia and dispose of the pound-for-pound king in his own backyard.
With many people already writing off Volkanovksi, here are three keys to victory for the featherweight champ that could put another piece of gold in the trophy cabinet.
The obvious danger Makhachev brings to this fight is his aforementioned Dagestani wrestling that he and his team have deep in their veins.
Casual fans believe that the consensus with these types of fighters is that they will be shooting for takedowns for 25 minutes without any offensive striking.
Despite this, Makhachev often competently reels opponents into a technical striking affair, then times a beautiful takedown amid a striking exchange.
Volkanvoski, who does the majority of his work on the feet, needs to be aware of this as he might be a deer in the headlights if he gets comfortable on the feet. From there, Makhachev seeks to suffocate his opponents on the mat, forcing a finish.
Throughout his career, Volk has displayed some of the best takedown defense in the whole organisation. Many of Volk’s teammates including former 185lb champion Israel Adesanya can attest to his outrageous physical strength and ability to pop right back up after being taken down.
However, he has not faced a wrestler who can do what Makhachev can.
(Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Similar to head coach Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev succeeds in putting unrelenting amounts of pressure on his opponents. Forcing them to make bad shots, gas out, and most importantly, end up with their back toward the fence.
Clinching against the fence is Islam’s bread and butter. Parallel to what he does on the mat, he uses his strength to exhaust opponents whilst standing which alludes to his primary game plan which is to tire, takedown, and smash.
So what does Volk do to eliminate this? He simply needs to gain the respect of Makhachev with his A+ striking. One powerful shot in many cases makes a pressure fighter more cautious when entering.
Another way that is famous within his sister gym city kickboxing is throwing many leg kicks. Tiring Islam’s legs will do a great deal in easing the pressure as he won’t be able to generate power lunging off his legs. How do bring down any structure? Eliminate the legs.
So we’ve discussed how to nullify Islam’s offence, how does Volk score points and take home gold?
Hit and not get hit. Volk needs to do exactly what he did to former champion Max Holloway at UFC 276. Volk is a master at moving around the cage, being offensive as well as defensive.
The key for volk here is to stay at range, pick Makhachev apart and, most importantly, do a significant amount of damage.
Early in Islam’s career, he was knocked out cold by Adriano Martins. He has that button, Volk just needs to find it.
An extremely sophisticated fight at its core, difficult to bring a game plan down to three areas however Aussies and MMA fans around the world are in for a treat with this one.
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