UFC 284: How Alexander Volkanovski can upset Islam Makhachev
Alex Volkanovski can’t possibly win against Islam Makhachev this Sunday according to those in the know - PAUL KENT explains why the Aussie underdog dares to dream.
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So far the secret has travelled from only cauliflowered ear to cauliflowered ear, which sounds like a torturous route to the average layman but, these UFC fighters, they ain’t normal folk.
It is a secret piece of men’s business that Alex Volkanovski is happy to overlook, ignore and even, when it comes to it, deny while he promotes a fight few believe he can win.
“I’m going with this narrative,” he says, a subtle nod to bring you in on the secret.
For weeks now Volkanovski has heard it over and over.
This narrative that Islam Makhachev, the UFC lightweight champion and a man considered as unstoppable as a king tide will at some point take Volkanovski to the ground sometime Sunday afternoon and will wrap him like a python.
Makhachev has quickly found himself in that rare place fighters sometimes find themselves in, a place of myth and darkness, where the widely held belief is they have a style that cannot be beaten.
The rest, it goes, are all playing catch-up.
Part of it is that Makhachev belongs to the dominant force in mixed martial arts right now, the Dagestani wrestlers, who practice a form of wrestling very different to American wrestling and what most of the UFC knows.
They come from a minor Russian republic up near the Caspian Sea, a shockingly cold, mountainous area that seems to be put on this earth’s as god’s challenge to man. Or maybe an afterthought, the jury still out.
Before Makhachev came Khabib Nurmagomedov, another jumble of syllables who was as mean as a Dagestani morning but considered possibly the greatest lightweight ever.
Nurmagomedov’s reputation and style got its legitimacy when he schooled Conor McGregor several times, when McGregor had no answer to his wrestling technique.
It was a shock for the experts, but not enough to give them pause.
Makhachev comes from the same part of the world and he has quickly filled that place vacated by Nurmagomedov, bolstered by the aura surrounding their fighting styles.
It is considered the dominant discipline in the mixed martial arts at this time and beware, they say, any fighter that gets in the way.
Volkanovski smiles at this.
He knows the UFC is in constant metamorphosis. At various stages the streetfighters have dominated, or the Brazilian jujitsu men, the American wrestlers or the karate guys.
Styles dominate until someone finds the blueprint to beat it.
Volkanovski knows enough to ignore the noise.
There was a time scientists, the precursor to the modern strength and conditioning coaches, with similar restrictions on possibilities, scientifically proved it was humanly impossible to run a mile in under four-minutes.
The body, with its lung capacity and stride length and all that, was simply not capable.
Then the moment Roger Bannister hit the tape in 3m59.4s though the floodgates opened.
It took just seven weeks for his time to be broken and the last time anybody cared to record a man run a mile another 16 seconds or so had been lopped off.
Mt Everest was considered all but impossible to scale until Sir Edmund Hillary hit the peak. Now it is a tourist destination.
With the right down payment anybody can join the daily highway to the peak and stay long enough for a quick selfie before having to clear off to let the next group through.
The fight game is no different.
Mike Tyson was considered unbeatable until the day Buster Douglas, three weeks after his mother’s death and with nothing seeming to lose anymore thought he had nothing to lose and stood toe to toe with Tyson and all his fury, knocking him out in the 10th.
In hindsight, Tyson was very beatable by the time Douglas got to him. His combinations were gone and he was increasingly relying on the one punch knockout which, as any fighter will tell, is an illusion.
The knockout punch needs to be disguised by those before it. Pool hall rights never quite get the job done.
The style was gone and only the aura remained, which Douglas cut through.
Volkanovski has made it his career to take on the impossible, which strengthens him ahead of tomorrow.
Not long after Max Holloway was touted as the greatest featherweight in UFC history Volkanovski stepped in, ignored the script, and beat Holloway in a unanimous decision.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. Too many experts looked foolish.
So the UFC ordered a rematch and Volkanovski beat him again, this time with a split decision, which left some claiming it still wasn’t sorted.
Third time round Volkanovski dominated, finally killing the debate dead.
Currently unchallenged as the featherweight champion (65.8kg), Sunday Volkanovski steps up to take on Makhachev at lightweight (70.3kg) hearing all the same conversations again.
He has two opponents, so it goes, Makhachev the man and Makhachev the reputation.
That is where Volkanovski smiles, talking about the narrative.
Damn, Alexander Volkanovski training at high intensity only to be lightly shoulder tapped by Craig Jones and have to fend off a takedown 👀👀👀 #UFC284 coming soon pic.twitter.com/YloRMeggdM
— MMA UNDERGROUND (@theUG) February 3, 2023
He likes that Makhachev and the unbeatable Dagestani wrestling style is all anybody wants to talk about.
Every expert assessment starts with the fighters on their feet until Volkanovski is taken to the ground and the fight quickly over soon after.
“I’m looking forward to when it’s all done and dusted,” he says.
He started camp earlier than normal and brought in world renowned grappler Craig Jones to sharpen his wrestling.
Jones, who currently weighs about 90kg, is not only pouring in minutes on the mat with Volkanovksi but, more importantly, has gone through Makhachev’s fights and examined his style. They believe they have the secret to overcoming Makhachev’s wrestling.
ðŸ—£ï¸ "In some countries, kids play soccer....In Dagestan, we wrestle."
— ESPN Australia & NZ (@ESPNAusNZ) February 8, 2023
UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev shares his impressions of Alexander Volkanovski's skills, and what separates the two as wrestlers ahead of their #UFC284 showdown.
LATEST ðŸ“: https://t.co/DnJWpxV3Vspic.twitter.com/145tF0Nzo2
“He is very good at understanding what’s what,” Volkanovski says of Jones.
“There’s a lot of video of him [Makhachev] out there training and we’re trying to pick it apart.”
Jones has gone beyond working Volkanovski through the wrestling basics. He has broken down Makhachev’s habits, good and bad, so Volkanovski goes into the fight knowing not only what to expect, but how to counter it when it happens, and what mistakes to head off.
All while, all about him, they keep up the narrative.
“These grapplers are good,” he says of Makhachev.
He will not say a word to undermine the threat Makhachev possesses.
“But trust me,” he adds, “they’re not unstoppable. I’m happy that people are talking about this.
“I’m happy people are pushing this narrative.
“I can show you plenty of flaws in his game but …”
And there he stops, having kept the cork in the bottle for this long, no point blowing it now by informing us un-cauliflowered types.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he says, then adds, “but a lot of people are going to win a lot of money on me on Sunday.”
A few heads pick up at this.
“He’s four dollars, too,” says a voice, which seems a price.
Interesting treatment of the pitch in Nagpur. The groundstaff watered the entire centre of the surface & only the length areas outside the left-hander’s leg stump & then rolled only the centre, stopping short every time they got to the good length areas at both ends #IndvAuspic.twitter.com/Myr2ZblqCg
— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) February 7, 2023
SHORT SHOT
Why are teams allowed to doctor the pitch in cricket if ball tampering is so abhorrent, and clearly illegal?
At what point does gamesmanship become cheating?
The ball tampering scandal that still paints a stain over Australian cricket seemed to draw the line on that but a fresh fight has arisen with India’s disgraceful pitch doctoring in Nagpur.
The Indian commentators have done exactly what they always do, which is ignore the actual issue at hand.
Former Indian captain Ravi Shastri sidetracked everyone by claiming if a batsman was good enough he would still be able to go out and score a century, “or 80”, which isn’t the issue.
Former Australian captain Mark Taylor was fair in his thoughts this week that hometown advantage is a part of cricket and pointed to the green deck in the First Test in Brisbane last year that would have sent a shudder through the South Africans.
But the pitch was there for both sides to bat on and, later, was also criticised and declared not up to Test standard.
There is no doubt gamesmanship happens in sport.
Soccer teams coming up against faster opposition have been known to keep the grass a little longer on the home field to slow the ball and hopefully narrow their disadvantage, or vice versa.
It causes an almighty stink if discovered, though.
In all instances, though, both teams are playing on the same pitch.
The ICC should invoke laws banning pitch doctoring. Would they be so silent if 90 cents in every dollar generated out of cricket did not come from India?
Doctoring a pitch to disadvantage a team with a heavy bias against left-handed batsmen, when the home team is dominated by right-handers, seems to go beyond gamesmanship.
Pat Cummins was disappointing in his response, laughing off what everybody knew and refusing to answer the question in a manner befitting his job as Australian captain.
Few can imagine Allan Border being so accommodating, or Steve Waugh, or even Taylor for that matter.
VOLKANOVSKI DOESN’T FEAR RUSSIAN’S STRIKE WEAPON
-Todd Balym
Alex Volkanovski has vowed to give Islam Makhachev a taste of his own medicine in the octagon on Sunday, taunting the renowned Russian wrestler as being too risk averse to go after a knockout down under.
Featherweight king Volkanovski and lightweight champion Makhachev go head-to-head in one of the most highly anticipated UFC battles of all-time in Perth, as the No. 1 and No. 2 rated pound-for-pound fighters in the world meet at lightweight.
While Volkanovski’s striking ability has seen him rack up 12 KOs in his storied 25-1 career with three wins by submission, Makhachev has 11 wins by submission and just four KOs to his name from a 23-1 career and their contrasting styles make for an intriguing battle in Perth.
The Russian claims Volkanovski doesn’t have the wrestling skills to match him in combat, something the Aussie brawler is willing to prove wrong when they step into the octagon.
“Coming into my country and say we don’t have wrestling, I’m going to have to do something about that,” Volkanovski said.
While Volkanovski won’t underestimate how his opponent will approach Sunday’s pay-per-view battle, he knows enough about the Russian’s fighting style to suggest he will need a patient strategy if he is to become a two weight division champion.
Volkanovski is a much more dynamic striker pic.twitter.com/6mi2dxOO1A
— Ben Davis (@BenTheBaneDavis) February 9, 2023
”He is a very calculated fighter. Him coming looking for a knock out that is an unnecessary risk, he won’t be doing that,” Volkanovski said.
“Some people say his striking is underrated … it is calculated. It is something he does very well, he doesn’t over commit too much.
“He will fight on the back foot and wait for the right time to shoot.”
The winner of Sunday’s battle will not only be crowned lightweight champ, but walk away as the man rated the undisputed No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Volkanovski feels his fight resume looks better than Makhachev, but agrees the Russian is a worthy contender to be P4P King.
“People ask me if you take him are you going to be the greatest ever, but that’s not up to us,” he said.
“Do I think I had a harder path to pound for pound and all that? Yeah look at my resume.
“Do I believe he is as good as No. 1 pound for pound or the No. 2 pound for pound? Yeah for sure.
“I believe he definitely deserves to be up here, he is a great fighter.
“You look at that resume it’s probably not as good and as deep as some of ours, but when it comes to skill he is definitely up there.”
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