The Ariel Helwani Show<\/a> this week, Volk was asked what went wrong for Topuria and pointed to a combination of factors — while also giving plenty of credit to Gaethje.<\/p>\n\u201cA bit of everything,\u201d Volkanovski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Ilia was very aggressive. I think he tried to rush everything very early, and that\u2019s why he took damage pretty early. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven though he had success in the earlier rounds, that damage was already accumulating. He started getting a little busted up straight away. <\/p>\n
\u201c…It was a risk that Ilia took. That was a choice he made. It could have paid off for him. You\u2019ve seen him \u2013 he did hurt Justin a few times, but Justin just did a great job to survive and be just that little bit safe enough to do work.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite the devastating loss, Volk believes Topuria will learn from the experience and come back a better fighter. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf he fights the right fight, he will learn a lot from that. Ilia wins the rematch,\u201d Volk said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s no knock on Justin at all. Obviously, Ilia was a favorite for a reason. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that Ilia, if he doesn\u2019t rush as much, fights at a little bit better distance, and then does what he usually does, sets up nice traps, he\u2019ll eventually find him. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut being so aggressive is sort of what cost him, I believe.\u201d <\/p>\n
MAKHACHEV SET FOR GARRY TITLE CLASH<\/p>\n
While Topuria appears focused on securing a rematch with Gaethje, one dream fight seems to have slipped out of reach.<\/p>\n
The UFC this week confirmed reigning welterweight champ Islam Makhachev will defend his crown against Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330, effectively shelving any prospect of a blockbuster showdown with Topuria in the near future.<\/p>\n
The promotion announced on Thursday morning that Makhachev and Garry will headline the August 16 event at Philadelphia\u2019s Xfinity Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
In the co-main event, women\u2019s strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern will put her title on the line against top contender Gillian Robertson.<\/p>\n
Makhachev, who many people regard as the best MMA fighter on the planet, claimed the title from Aussie Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Rogan has declared Justin Gaethje\u2019s savage upset win over Ilia Topuria the greatest fight he has ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-743574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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