“Before the fight with Volkanovski, Topuria commits actions that cast doubt on his success” – fighter Myasnikov

Ilia Topuria with his behavior before the fight with the Australian UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski gives more and more reasons to doubt his victory, the Russian fighter told Valery Myasnikov .

Topuria and Volkanovski will face off in a featherweight title fight at UFC 298, which takes place Feb. 17 in Anaheim. In mixed martial arts, Volkanovski, 35, has 26 victories and three defeats. The 27-year-old Spanish representative Topuria has 14 victories in 14 fights.

—At first, it seemed to me that Topuria was stylistically very awkward for Alex. He has higher speed, he fights well, has a strong head, is assertive and, of course, younger and hungry for victories. It looked like there would be a generational shift in that weight, and Topuria would sit on the throne at 66kg. After Wolf’s last fight, these arguments became even stronger. New defeat by KO of Islam (Makhachev), little time to recover… And it seems that if Topuria gets caught even once, the Wolf will fall, but the closer their fight gets, the more doubts about Ilya’s victory are increasing. Let me explain: Topuria is starting to do things that call his success into question.

First of all, he looks behind the Wolf, changes his record on social networks, writes that he is the UFC champion. He plans to fight Conor (McGregor) in a stadium in Spain. As combat practice shows, you cannot look behind your opponent’s back. Statistically, it ends badly.

Second, Wolf has much more experience in 5 round fights. Ilya only once covered a distance of 25 minutes and, in general, during his career he was not in difficult situations, and at the first difficulty in the implementation of his plan , it can become confused and not reorganize, and the variability of the plan is most often the course of more experienced athletes.

Thirdly, most likely, Topuria will pursue a knockout, thinking that the wolf’s head has not yet recovered, and will begin to charge heavily for a knockout, will begin to fail, and it will be easier to transfer it into the fight, from l ‘catch. halfway, otherwise he will get tired and fatigued in later rounds.

Fourth, the Wolf is a more varied athlete, he has a more diverse arsenal – he kicks better and can dry up a fight against the wall. He has a more interesting and unpredictable foot movement.

Fifth, we cannot anger the veterans of our sport and call them old men. They can amaze with their mental strength and flexibility of intelligence and execute a perfect battle plan with their composure and experience. My opinion is that Volkanovski will win on points,” Myasnikov told .

The UFC 298 tournament will be broadcast live on the channel, broadcasting begins on February 18 at 6:00 a.m. (Moscow time), on the Match! Fighter” – from 2:30 p.m. (Moscow time).