Volkov is more than just the HW gatekeeper. Who else still believes he can go higher.

[grimballer]

I really don't understand how people can think he matches well against Stipe or Ngannou. Volkov's main weakness is that he gets easily punched in the face and doesn't react well to getting punched in teh face. He has no head movement and pretty much no guard either, just relies on being all and long.
That's how Gane beat him, that's how Lewis beat him, that's how Minakov beat him and that's what Tybura did that caused him problems.

Now who is the best at punching people in the face? Who made a career and became UFC champ by punching people in the face? Who has a longer reach than Volkov, a granite chin, gets body punched for fun at the gym, and hits like a high speed freight train? You get the idea...

the problem is neither stipe or ngannou are as good technical strikers as gane is and thats the only guy who really beat up volkov on the feet. he dominated that lewis fight and only other tough fights he had is when he faced high level grapplers, however he put on weight to deal with that issue.

now you say he gets punched easily, but you do realize he gets punched less than stipe and was kod only twice in 43 pro fights compared to stipe who got ko 3 times in 24 fights?

also you wanna bring up all volkov losses, but ignore that stipe was finished by struve...

as for ngannou, he just used to being bigger guy in the cage and stalking ppl with his size advantage. hes not very accurate striker and doesn't have good defence.

his style of fighting works when facing opponents smaller than him, but not so much when the guy is bigger and more technical. weve seen ngannou also freeze in fights when plan a doesn't work and doubt he has a plan b. once he eats couple of volkovs low/front kicks he might turn into ngannou from the lewis fight.

 

[650lb Sumo]

Did you think that Volkov looked particularly impressive in his latest outing? I didn't see anything that said to me "this guy is GOING places."

Just because it wasn't a thrilling fight doesn't mean he didn't handle a dangerous opponent professionally and shut down his gameplan.

 

[Pilo]

Not me.

Too inconsistent, movement is stiff, output deficient most of the time. No real ground game to speak of either. He's got some good wins for sure (Overeem and Werdum), but I don't see this guy reaching anywhere above gatekeeper status.

One fight that was an eye opener was when he fought Greg Hardy. It was a last minute change of opponent, but damn did he look hesitant and unimpressive. This was supposed to be a huge step up in competition for Hardy, and he looked like the improved fighter in that bout.


We should be having this conversation about Curtis Blaydes.

 

[ChumpyKiwi]

As we see more of his fights I actually think hes looking worse

He looked kinda tired in the Tybura fight imo which is weird since he has shown good cardio against Blaydes and Gane. I would hope it is just an outlier. But yes seemed slower and even slower to get out of the way of tyburas strikes. I am glad he got the win but I didn't love that last fight

 

[The_Renaissance]

Nah, this is his peak. He's been at this level for a long time, he's not the most entertaining HW to watch to be honest - when you think "6ft 7in, lean kickboxer" you imagine a proper entertaining fighter but he's pretty conservative a lot of the time.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

He's like a better version of Strive and that's not really a compliment.

 

[2004 account]

Is he even better than Hightower?

 

[mjfan23]

Let’s have him fight Stipe and find out

 

[spinup]

also you wanna bring up all volkov losses, but ignore that stipe was finished by struve...

I don't bring up his losses, I explain where he is vulnerable and why he lost those fights.

Volkov is the easiest matchup for Ngannou, he would eat punches because that is how he fights. No need to bring up Gane, Tybura, Blaydes and Hardy could land clean shots on him and Ngannou is way better.

 

[SteveColdStone]

Didn’t impress me at all on Saturday. He looked slow and I don’t think he’d avoid getting bombed out of there by Frank. Gane is too slick and is still improving and in a rematch I think Gane would do better.

 

[kellier]

I think he's like Blaydes. He'll flirt with top 5 for the next few years, probably get a title shot as division is light on contenders, but he is unlikely to be champ.

The Lewis fight killed his momentum. Still shocked he didn't hang in there.

 

[650lb Sumo]

Let’s have him fight Stipe and find out

Stipe looked bad and got KTFO in his last fight, fights once a year and is now 39 and clearly past his prime. He's fought 2 opponents in the last 3 and a half years. Who knows if and when he fights again. He's 2-2 in his last 4. He was trying to hold out for a Ngannou trilogy and doesn't seem to be interested in fighting anyone else before or after Ngannou Gane got announced. Stipe would still be a good name for Volkov to add to his resume but Rozenstruik is really the more relevant fight at the moment. I suppose the winner of Lewis - Daukaus would also make sense.

 

[Poser Caust]

Volkov is everything Struve could have been.

 

[Ironheart]

It's heavyweight, so really he's about two lucky punches from winning a title.

In a more technical or serious sense, I think he has the skill set to reach that level but sometimes he fights like he doesn't have the drive. Guy reminds me of Gustafsson in that way.

 

[Fioretti]

Gate keeper is not a badass thing. Its like saying the doorman is badass. Thats what the gatekeeper analogy refers to. Youre a stepping stone for the ranked fighters.

Never underestimate the doorman.

 

[Hypetrainhipsta]

It's heavyweight, so really he's about two lucky punches from winning a title.

In a more technical or serious sense, I think he has the skill set to reach that level but sometimes he fights like he doesn't have the drive. Guy reminds me of Gustafsson in that way.

He has never been a huge puncher and has always been vulnerable to wall and stall tacticts. He has tons of reach, is a good striker (by HW MMA standards) who moves well and rather akward to handle on the ground for most guys because of his long limbs.

 

[Sticko]

He's like a better version of Strive and that's not really a compliment.

Not really. Struve was a submission artist. Volkov is just a tall rangy kickboxer with pretty good TDD.

It's hard to look good against Tybura but Volkov didn't show anything that made me think he could beat Gane or Ngannou.

The added size could help defend Blaydes' takedowns but maybe it will affect his speed or his cardio? Against Gane, Volkov just looked way too slow.

Volkov has only lost to T5 fighters in the UFC and I could see him winning a rematch with Lewis or Blaydes but he needs to find another gear to have a chance against Gane or Ngannou.

 

[Juzie]

As we see more of his fights I actually think hes looking worse

Yeah, his win against Overeem was very overstated. Overeem has looked like a glass corpse for a while.

Overeem from 5-10 years ago would be a nightmare for him.

 

[MCS]

This Tybura fight was a bad showing from both. Volkov won via old tricks. He'd need to show improvement to get there. Added weight, looked good against old Reem, but in this he gassed, was a HW slopfest.

 

[Yoctogram]

Yeah, his win against Overeem was very overstated. Overeem has looked like a glass corpse for a while.

Overeem from 5-10 years ago would be a nightmare for him.

Overeem was also shook from having his DMs to that 18 year old girl exposed.