Alexander Volkanovski believes wrestling could be the key to beating Ilia Topuria.
Volkanovski (27-4 MMA, 14-3 UFC) lost his UFC featherweight title to Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) at UFC 298 early last year. After finishing Volkanovski, “El Matador” went on to become the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway a few months later.
He then vacated the featherweight belt to move up to 155 pounds—a move that paid off last weekend when he knocked out Charles Oliveira to win the vacant lightweight title.
With the Spanish-Georgian star quickly becoming known as one of the most dangerous strikers in the sport, Volkanovski says he’d like to see someone test the new lightweight champion’s conditioning and grappling defense.
"Wrestle the bloke, mate," Volkanovski said during an appearance on the FLAGRANT podcast. "You want to see what's going to happen with his gas tank. So even with Ilia, great fighter, like even a lot of the things he does, like I'm sure a lot of it's well trained, and then he's got so many good instincts as well."
Before getting knocked out at UFC 317 last weekend, Charles Oliveira engaged in a brief grappling exchange with Ilia Topuria. While it didn’t last long, Alexander Volkanovski believes he noticed signs of discomfort in Topuria’s body language immediately afterward.
"We want to see the gas tank, see what happens there because I thought Charles when he was taking him down, and forcing the wrestle and the grapple, I felt like it was starting to wear on him a little bit," Volkanovski added. "So even when he sort of ended up on top when they grappled, I don't know if you remember, Ilia gets up and then starts kicking him, didn't let him up.
"He waited like, I'm going to wait 30 seconds, kick his legs, get my breath back because that probably took a little bit out of him, which I thought was clever. You want to catch him coming in because he wants to commit as well, but there's that danger of him landing as well."
