UFC 314 MailBag: Alexander Volkanovski’s best paddie pinblet ever rises, Jean Silva arrives

UFC 314 It’s in the book Alexander Volkanovsky He is once again the UFC featherweight champion.

Volkanovski provided vintage performance Diego Lopez On Saturday he won the vacant featherweight title and became the first person to win the belt in the UFC in the weight class below 170 pounds.

Also on Saturdays Pedestrian Pin Bullet By defeating the brakes, he entered the ranks of genuine competitors. Michael Chandler, Patricio Pitbull I had an unforgettable UFC debut Jean Silva I made the most of his big moments. So let’s talk about it all.

curse

“Does Volk’s victory mean that the curse for over 35 is beginning to lose its validity, or is Volk just a special fighter, or does he have a unique matchup tonight?”

Probably a combination of three.

The biggest reason Volkanovski acquired on Saturday is that he is an exceptional fighter. Volkanovski was one of the 10 great fighters who raced up the gloves, and it was a fact-check as Saturday wasn’t the peak of Volkanovski. But all the greatest of all time can pick up meaningful victory, meaning the opposition of the top, even after Prime is over.

But the second biggest reason Volkanovski has won on Saturday night is that he is a nightmare matchup for Diego Lopes. I know everyone loves ropes and he is undoubtedly fun, but he is not a technical or tactical savant. Lopez wins the battle by being big, dangerous and a little wild. It’s not a good style to fight against one of the greatest tacticians and engineers in MMA history. He hurt Volkanovsky when Lopez was able to land, but he’s far from Ilia Topria in terms of footwork and depth of skill. If they compete in 100th round, Lopez wins some of them. He doesn’t have the necessary skills.

As for curses over 35, it’s not a curse, it’s just a data point that speaks to facts about sports and combat in general. It’s a game for young men. When the older you get, the slower the competition isn’t slowing, it leads to an inevitable conclusion. But all the statistics have outliers and Volkanovski is here now. It is testament to him, even if it is important to note that there is an asterisk in this title, as he did not defeat the champion.

record

“This performance by Volk was great, but he still looks Beatable, but he never did anything before Islamic Makhachev.

“Do you foresee that he has two more defenses to break Aldo’s record with what he saw tonight?

First and foremost, the two title defenses never break Jose Aldo’s record. Aldo had nine consecutive title defenses. Volkanovski has five. He needs four more defenses to get there. I think this is the fact that people are forgetting (because the UFC is actively trying to erase Jose Aldo’s importance for some reason), but since the UFC didn’t have a featherweight division, he only has seven UFC title defenses. However, he is the WEC champion (owned by the same people as the UFC) and has nine title defenses before that. He is also the youngest champion in Zufa history by this same principle.

Anyway, my guess is that Volkanovski doesn’t get two more title defenses, but it’s not impossible. As mentioned before, I think Lopez was a unique and great matchup for Volkanovsky. If Topuria returns, I will choose him comfortably and get the belt back. In other words, Volkanovski is only championed by the bounty of Topuria, and we don’t know how long it will last.

That being said, Volkanovski has benefited from a decent matchup in front of him. It appears that Movsar Evloev will win the next shot in Volkanovski. The Evloev is a good fighter, but it’s not an offensive dynamo that makes the Volkanovski less durable a big concern. And since the rest of the division is fluid, Volk may creep up to Jaa Rodriguez’s rematch or something. I think that’s possible.

Goat’s Discussion

“Featherweight goat.”

Go back later this week as we dig deeper into this topic. But the answer is simple. Jose Aldo has nine consecutive title defenses. Volkanovski has more than half of that. You can think of Volkanovski as a “better” fighter than Aldo, but he barely undoubtedly achieves it. If he gets two more title defenses, we can start the conversation.

Diego Lopez

“Lopez is lost, but is his inventory higher than ever?”

no? So, he’s still high in stock, but when half of his MMA fanbase thought he was likely to become a champion, he was high. Now we saw Volkanovsky bring him to school on Saturday, and Lopez is not a spring chicken. He is 30 years old and a whole new featherweight crop is coming. The rope can no longer rest in his glory.

Pedestrian Pin Bullet

“Who will be fighting Paddy next? Should Topria fight Top LW before fighting for the title?

Before UFC 314, I asserted that the winner of the battle between Pinblet and Chandler will fight Ilia Topria, and I still think that’s what Should It happened, I think it will now. It’s very possible to see him fighting for the lightweight belt one day after Paddy’s performance on Saturday, so if that’s the case, the UFC would probably want to play in the Topuria vs. Pimblett title fight. Therefore, unless Islam is separated to move to welterweight, that fight is postponed. Because if I had a pen, that’s the battle I’m making next.

But if it’s off the table, I’d love to see Pinblett take on Charles Oliveira. It’s no secret that I don’t think there’s much about Michael Chandler, but the way Pinblet destroyed him made me believe in “Paddy” as a legal title candidate. Like Charles Oliveira, he didn’t run through such Chandler in the rematch. And now I’m really interested in seeing Paddy be with Oliveira. A few years ago I said it was a licensed murder, but now I am hardly sure.

Paddy vs. Ilia

“Are you crazy to think Paddy’s size is giving Ilia the issue? Obviously, if they fought, I would still prefer Ilia, but Paddy dealt with Chandler, who appears to be built from them, despite having a brick fight.”

Not at all. Again, like the Battle of Oliveira, a few years ago I was sure it was a run. Now Pinblet can definitely win that fight. Topuria wasn’t particularly big featherweight. The world collectively decided that size doesn’t matter and should fight for a lightweight title, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not true. It’s not just the size that matters, but it’s very helpful to help with fist fights, and paddy fields are bigger compared to Topulia. Yes, Topuria is an elite fighter, but Pimblett has become himself. I still choose Topuria, but it’s a matchup that I’m very interested in all of a sudden.

Patricio Pitbull

“Is Patricio losing to Yaa in a unanimous way? Has he proved that the quality bay from PFL/Berator to UFC is bigger than expected, or was he too late for him to move?”

It was just a way, too late for the pitbull to arrive. Think about this. Michael Chandler moved at 34 and was still above his best. Pitbull did that three years ago. Pitbull isn’t elite Elite for a while. Honestly, Saturday made me think that Yair might have passed that, considering how unstimulating his performance is.

But no, the gap between the UFC and other promotions is real, but it doesn’t exist at the top. The gap lies in the middle class. The UFC has hundreds of great fighters. Bellator had dozens. But all the guys at the top were always elite. Similarly, they were previously elite with WEC, Strike Force and pride.

Jean Silva

“Do you think Jansilva needs one or two rounds to take the belt from Volk?

Look, man, Alexander Volkanovsky is the best ever and deserves our respect. But I do high with Jean Silva like anyone and somehow he exceeds my expectations. I really thought Bryce Mitchell could trouble Silva on Saturday. Instead, it was one of the beatdowns of the year so far.

I don’t think Silva is the best fighter to come from Fighting Geek Camp (Caio Borralho may have retained that distinction), but he is definitely my favorite and the featherweight division is open as it is now, so he has a real chance to win a title shot earlier than he later did. And while this may be blatant Homerism for my boy “Lord”, I think he has a great shot to beat Volkanovsky.

Diego Lopez wasn’t close to winning Saturday, but he got Volkanovsky in trouble several times, but didn’t have the tools to complete the drill. Not only does Silva have these tools, but it is also well equipped to hurt Volkanovski in the first place. Silva has much more clever boxing and footwork than ropes, much faster and hits like a track. Honestly, I think Silva could be a pretty tough match for Volkanovsky.

But he still needs to get there and there’s no cake walk at 145. I choose Silva to beat most featherweights, but just Lerown Murphy out-technical about him in 25 minutes didn’t make me feel daunted. Or, Evloev or Aljamain Sterling might be successful in tackling him more than Mitchell did.

If I were in the UFC, Silva is playing against Arnold Aennémétator this summer. And if he wins, the Lord is coming, so Volk be careful.

Thank you for reading and thank you to everyone who sent me a tweet (xs?)! Are there any burning questions about at least some relevance to combat sports? Then you are lucky because you can send your tweets to me, @jedkmeshewand I answer all the good things! As long as they’re good it doesn’t matter whether they’re local or insane. Thank you once more, and take a look at y’all next week.