{"id":55769,"date":"2023-10-18T09:43:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T23:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/?p=55769"},"modified":"2023-10-18T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T00:10:09","slug":"jumping-on-the-volk-swagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/2023\/10\/jumping-on-the-volk-swagon\/","title":{"rendered":"Jumping on the VOLK-swagon."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tai&#039;s Shoe-Ins - UFC 294 Volk Special\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/opQwtnQC2gw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I asked a friend of mine who is a very close follower of MMA what he thought of Islam v Volk II.<\/p>\n<p>He said, simply, \u201cI\u2019ve been on board with him unquestionably since Ortega and he hasn\u2019t lost since. I\u2019m not jumping off now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fair enough.<\/p>\n<p>Volk is a champion who fights as often and as freely as a gatekeeper.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d be what would come out if Cowboy Cerrone\u2019s attitude had a baby with GSP\u2019s skills.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that Volk, the unquestioned and unquestionable king of the 145-pound division and arguably the number one pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world today, took a fight against another champion, up a division, on 11 days\u2019 notice, coming off hand surgery, is absolutely outrageous.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody does that.<\/p>\n<p>Compare it to Jon Jones in 2012, in the prime of his career, refusing to fight Chael Sonnen on short notice after Dan Henderson pulled out of their scheduled fight.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what fighters in the position that Volk (and still Jones) occupy do. They choose. They won\u2019t just fight anyone since they have done the hard yards and now everyone is coming at the king.<\/p>\n<p>I recognize that, in this analogy, Makhachev would be Jones.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s the champion who is putting his belt on the line against a dangerous challenge and it\u2019s true, credit to Islam.<\/p>\n<p>I am 100% sure that he\u2019d rather be fighting Olivera than Volk.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d rather be fighting a gorilla.<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019m Australian, and I\u2019m focusing on Volk.<\/p>\n<p>How quickly do you reckon Volk said yes when the UFC offered him the fight? Did the call last 15 seconds? I doubt it.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a video of Volkanovski after the first fight against Makhachev heading back to his changeroom.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Unseen footage of Volk after his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC284?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC284<\/a> loss to Islam \ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>Who is going to win the rematch at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC294?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC294<\/a> next Saturday ??? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/c3vkOL8TKF\">pic.twitter.com\/c3vkOL8TKF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; capybara analyst (@CapybaraAnalyst) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CapybaraAnalyst\/status\/1712559647088132265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He looks like a caged animal. He is not angry but frustrated, agitated, even.<\/p>\n<p>He looks to me like he knows how to get to Islam and that he knows what that win would mean for him.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s as if Volk found a chink in Islam\u2019s armour and he just couldn\u2019t find a way to pierce it.<\/p>\n<p>I bet he finds a way this time.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at how the first fight played out, Volk came out looking to move and confuse.<\/p>\n<p>He switched stances consistently on the feet, as if he thought he had an intellectual edge over Makhachev.<\/p>\n<p>Confusing Islam by showing him a different picture every time he looks up.<\/p>\n<p>And it worked&#8230; sort of.<\/p>\n<p>He caught Islam with a huge shot coming off a switched stance early in the first round and was generally leading the dance through the first part of the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Also in the first round, however, Makhachev was able to show his ability on his feet.<\/p>\n<p>Makhachev is a simple but effective striker who was clearly underrated in this area by the Volkanovski camp coming into the fight.<\/p>\n<p>This showed in Volk\u2019s recklessness heading inside Makhachev, and Islam was able to take advantage of that recklessness by dropping Volk in a dirty boxing situation.<\/p>\n<p>He followed up with what would have been a fight-ending flurry for most mere mortals.<\/p>\n<p>Islam seemed to take away Volk\u2019s biggest advantage and the comportment of the fight changed.<\/p>\n<p>That moment was the freeze frame in Goodfellas of De Niro kicking Billy Batts.<\/p>\n<p>The moment, it seemed, that the fight turned horrific for our protagonist.<\/p>\n<p>Islam got on Volk\u2019s back and that was that.<\/p>\n<p>But again, Volkanovski is not normal.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s built of sterner stuff than most people, really, he\u2019s built of sterner stuff than most diamonds.<\/p>\n<p>Normal rules of pain tolerance and cardiovascular fitness do not apply to him.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s like if Phar Lap was more cerebral.<\/p>\n<p>As Islam was working to set up shop around Volkanovski\u2019s neck and render him unconscious as he would any other normal fighter, Volkanovski gave Islam his own freeze-frame moment.<\/p>\n<p>Volk is so strong that he was able to keep Makhachev away from the neck and even had time to talk shit.<\/p>\n<p>When Conor McGregor was in a similar situation he begged for his life and Volk needed to make no such pleas.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he smiled and made shaka hands.<\/p>\n<p>There, again, the comportment of the fight changed.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Volkanovski underrated Makhachev\u2019s striking, Makhachev underrated Volkanovski\u2019s temerity and strength in the clinch.<\/p>\n<p>Both men had their sharpest weapon dulled.<\/p>\n<p>The fight retained the look and feel of two men who knew how closely matched and were searching desperately for some edge over their opponent. Neither found anything sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Until the end of the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Every judge gave Volk the final round. He found something right at the end that Islam didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n<p>I believe that\u2019s where Volkanovski\u2019s frustration came from, 30 more seconds and he had him.<\/p>\n<p>After the first minute of the final round, where Islam excelled on the feet, he was blowing harder than\u2026anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Volk, after having eaten a few big shots, wouldn\u2019t have blown out a candle.<\/p>\n<p>Islam missed a takedown and all of a sudden he was cooked with 3 minutes to go.<\/p>\n<p>As Muhammad Ali said, \u201cthis is the wrong place to get tired\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"This is the wrong place to get tired - Muhammad Ali\ud83d\udc10\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mHa8PbLPoco?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the final minute Volk had the reserves to push the pace even more as the exertion showed on Makhachev\u2019s beleaguered face, almost landing a takedown but for some exceptional defence.<\/p>\n<p>Even as he wriggled out, Makhachev checked the clock begging for the seconds to tick by faster, but he wasn\u2019t in Interstellar.<\/p>\n<p>Then Volk cracked him. Dropped him. Dominated him. Under Pride FC rules, Volk wins this fight and is the champion at 145 and 155.<\/p>\n<p>This is why I believe Volk can do it this time. Islam isn\u2019t as comfortable in deep water as Volkanovki, who just needs to deepen the water more quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Push the pace on Islam early. Come out like a pitbull. If his fitness base is there like it usually is after a full camp, he can do it.<\/p>\n<p>Take Islam into deep water and drown him.<\/p>\n<p>If he can do that, he wins.<\/p>\n<p>If he wins, he will cement himself as perhaps the greatest Australian athlete in a non-Olympic sport ever. He may already be that.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the country won\u2019t accept him for what he is.<\/p>\n<p>An icon.<\/p>\n<p>Come on Volk. Come on.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":55770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8298,598,344,463],"tags":[3984,8260,3255,3281,503,8390],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-55769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guywholikessport","category-special-interest","category-sports","category-ufc","tag-alexander-volkanovski","tag-guywholikessport","tag-kamaru-usman","tag-mma","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-294"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"18\/10\/2023","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55769"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=55769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}