Alex's attempted hip throw was more him panicking when Izzy brought him into the double unders. It was credited as a takedown for Izzy.
Sure. They both went for a takedown at the same time and Izzy was in a better position and ended up getting it.
Why is Aspinall a bigger grappling threat than Jan? Jan has twice as many subs. Aspinall has only subbed a can back in the day, AA who isn't that great a grappler and just gave up his neck, and Volkov who is competent. Jan on the other hand did sub Nikita who has as many or maybe more than anyone in the division.
What we have seen from Aspinall is an extremely high level, even though there's a smaller sample size than Jan.
Arlovski is better than people give him credit for. At the time he fought Aspinall he was still winning most of his fights. the Aspinall loss was his only loss in a 6 fight run. He's an international master of sport in Sambo and at the time Aspinall beat him he'd only ever been subbed once, and that was against Josh Barnett after almost 3 full gruelling rounds. Aspinall subbed him within seconds of getting him grounded.
Volkov himself is a bjj black belt, and while he picked up a couple of sub losses very early in his career, he since made a bit of a career of beating grapplers. He usually tends to end up in top position throwing ground and pound. He subbed Ivanov, a world Sambo champ, back when he actually used it to take people down and sub them. Before he became a sloppy brawler in the UFC. He also did well on the ground against Werdum and defended his sub attempts well. Same with Romanov, able to defend his grappling offense and beat him up in the process.
Aspinall went through him like a hot knife through butter. Took him down with ease, passed to half guard with ease, busted him up with elbows, and subbed him.
Jan has more subs but we've also seen him lose a lot more fights in the grappling realm. Gustaffson was able to outwrestle him pretty effectively. Glover dominated him on the ground, Corey Anderson really outclassed him on the ground in their first fight. I wouldn't make too much of the Krylov fight. He subs strikers and most of his losses are by submission. 6 of them in fact. He's good by today's LHW grappling standards but he isn't that great all things considered. Subbing him is less impressive than subbing Arlovski at the time or Volkov.
Aspinall is the one we need to see more of in regards to grappling. He hasn't fought any good grapplers. Blaydes fight didn't really count, and Sergey was a scared bum and isn't that great anyway.
Somewhat disagree due to what I said above. Aspinall is much more proven on the ground at this point than Poatan is. Agreed Spivak isn't that good though.
And yeh, I don't think anyone is saying Alex can survive on the ground with Jones. At least I'm not saying that.
I'm not saying he's some wiz grappler either. Just that his defensive grappling is decent, which it has been so far, or Jan, Michalidis, and Izzy would have finished him.
The Ank fight should be good, if it ever happens.
The Ank fight will be the real test to see where Alex's grappling is at, agreed. Not being finished by Izzy and Michalidis doesn't really mean much. Surviving gassed Jan is a bit more impressive but again, meh.
