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[Applause] [Music] the featherweights are set to headline UFC 298 in Anaheim California the longtime champ returns to 145 lbs Alexander vinoski defends his title Against The Undefeated Challenger from Spain Ilia topura Brandon fero was safe Salud the general here for the preview on UFC breakdown and we all know vul has been dominant at 145 lbs he’s yet to drop a fight in the UFC but undefeated and confident on the other side and a guy that a lot of fight fans believe have the best chance to take his belt from him is Ilia Toria yeah Ilia is super exciting but let’s not get ahead of ourselves let’s start with the featherweight great Alexander banovski this guy’s shown us an incredible standup very well balanced he sets it up with great footwork always keeping his opponents guessing on what’s next also a very Dynamic clinch game once he hits the mat a very powerful Grappler we SE great top control from him simply put vul is one of the best guys right now in the UFC he takes on the young upstart ilot Toria this guy’s got dynamite in his hands knockout power in both hands also really good in the clinch very well versed moving around once he hits the floor we’ve seen flashes of Brilliance of him a BJJ black belt this kid’s coming in confident hungry ready he really feels like he’s the one to take the title from the champ confident with a Capital C is ilot toor he will tell you it let’s go into fight focus and we know the greatness of vulcanos and we’ll certainly dive into the details there but let’s start with the new guy ilot tooro who’s got a championship opportunity and he’s a perfect six and0 in the UFC absolutely and you said it these guys have both never lost at featherweight Ilia has got incredible striking but it’s how he delivers it he rips to the body with vicious body shots gets guys dropping his hands lightning speed finishes to the Head this guy’s really dangerous and he really has Cris boxing so let’s just take a look at some of the things he does inside the octagon we see Ilia just give a little faint right here and we’re going to see EMT react with the hands up right there okay and the reason why is when you look at Toria we talked about big Power in the right hand big Power in the left hand so this little faint gets a reaction out of EMT I don’t want to get hit with that shot he’s right in front of him in the a Zone here they’re right in front of each other right and he knows okay this isn’t really a good position so what you’re going to see EMT do is he’s going to skate out and try to reset the middle and get away from the power which is smart but I want you to watch toria’s feet and what he does here as EMT starts a slide we’re going to see OT he’s just going to take one little step with his left foot and reset the middle he didn’t even really go that far we see EMT traveled all the way from here all the way to here so emt’s like all right I reset the middle let me get away from this right hand I want you to watch ilot okay whenever we study him he’s always watching his opponents and he’s so confident in his hands and his hand speed which is the thing that we really need to see see here Here Comes EMT he’s going to throw this jab and just watch IL again he isn’t moving at all look he barely moved he let EMT come all the way in he’s just going to slip and rip right over the top and I mean the confidence to stand there and let Josh EMT walk forward at you while you’re waiting to counter and we’re going to see this on the replay he’s going to execute this perfectly look at the arch of this punch right over the top crushes EMT in the face and look at emt’s response right he never saw it coming you can kind of see with his reaction after he got hit the hands come up so Ilia will wait and bait and he can land here we go we see him against Bryce Mitchell and we’re going to see kind of the same thing here let’s watch Bryce Mitchell Bryce is gonna give a faint we know Bryce is a guy with a lot of energy let’s look at this give a little yell and a roar here I come and let’s watch this guy this guy’s pretty smooth man with the sunglasses and all I mean he’s really laid back and relaxed but he’s so confident we’re going to watch OT he’s not going to do anything he’s just going to watch Mitchell’s coming forward we see Mitchell put the hands up he knows he’s kind of getting Into the Danger Zone again this guy’s just locked and loaded right he has not moved his hands or anything he’s just watching this really speaks to his confidence and why because he’s got that hand speed he’s going to rip this right hand right down the middle cut catch Bryce right on the chin and Then followed up with that left hook that he loves and we’re going to watch this slow-mo he’s so good at following up his punches so once he lands the right hand the left hand comes like a whip right back around and he doesn’t even think about it puts those two things together really really well and hurts Bryce breaks his confidence and so this is a thing that Ilia does really really well is he’ll get in boxing range and he’ll start getting guys guessing like man I don’t want to stay with this guy then he starts pressing forward and here he against DJ Damon Jackson a longtime vet we’re going to let this play first and we’re going to break down oh ripped him to the body and came over the top and ends this fight pretty quickly in the first round but what did he do how did this exactly happen we’re going to watch this right hand right here and we’re going to see Damon Jackson put his hands up get ready to block right everybody knows hey I don’t want to get hit with that big old right hand so Damon’s got that hand up all right but he’s against the fence and you do not want to be against the fence with ilot Toria this is where he does some of his best work so let’s watch what he does with his right hand Damon thinks it’s coming up top but he’s going to go right in the middle he switches it to an uppercut we see Ilia here he lands his powerful uppercut he gets Damon to react Damon’s got his eyes closed he doesn’t really know where that came from he thought it was going to be an overhand right then it comes right up the middle but let’s watch this hand this is the real damage that ilot does he gets you up top worried about getting hit and then he rips you to the body look at the velocity on this body shot and how he just rips right to the liver you can see this right here you can see the impact that he has right on the liver and this is something that no matter who you are you get that shot your hands are going to drop down we’re going to see Damon Jackson right here he’s going to react hands are going to kind of come down right he kind of tries to grab we see Ilia with perfect distance pushing Damon getting the exact distance that he wants to get ready to strike again he’s loading this right hand and we’re going to see just how slick he is in the pocket Damon’s goingon to throw a left hook and we’re GNA watch Illy he’s just gonna kind of just whoop right out of the way right right by the hairline okay and then he falls up with that left hook again which is what he likes to do he throws this little left hook kind of start and this punch lands but it’s the right hand over the top and you can see the angle at which he’s coming in at right he’s coming right over the top of that shoulder and that’s the punch that you don’t see coming and that punch will put you down and that’s exactly what happens here loads the right hand right puts Damon Jackson down and that’s it I mean you don’t want to get in the pocket with this guy and throw hands he’s not a joke and bu’s going to really have to watch out for this guy’s boxing you can’t be a great Striker if you don’t have good footwork and so ilot Toria known for his boxing known for his heavy hands that means he’s got to put himself in the right place to do it as we saw in some of those clips right there you’re absolutely right he’s so good at putting himself in a position to be successful and execute his offense so let’s take a look at some of the things he does inside the octagon and how he kind of cuts off the cage and this is yousef’s zal and this was a a short notice fight by Ilia he took this fight I think on like a week’s notice or whatever and zal is a guy that moves around a lot but I want you to watch the footwork of Ilia and how he cuts off the octagon and he’s gonna get zalal behind this black line the whole time just kind of running around back and forth and everybody studies the tape that knows they don’t want to get against the fence so let’s watch how he does this he doesn’t even use a lot of energy right he’s just sliding around sliding that foot around and look at zalal he’s spending all kinds of energy so let’s stop it right here zal’s went halfway across the Octagon at this point he realizes like all right I gotta kind of settle down here and you’re gonna see him he’s going to try to go all the way this way right a little misdirection but I want you to watch how Ilia Cuts him off and how he slides his feet and goes exactly to where he’s going and beats him to that point and when you do that you’ve got an athlete who really starts to feel trapped and starts to feel look at this this actually makes you pretty tired right you feel like you’re running away from a guy and at some point you’re going to have to stop and that’s when you get engaged with the boxing here he is against Josh EMT man this is confidence if I’ve ever seen it Ilia does things a little bit differently he’ll walk straight into the a zone right I mean we showed that earlier this is where all the danger happens both these guys are 50-50 right now right the right hand is here the right hand is here right they’re both loaded up they’re both ready to fire but Ilia is so confident and his speed and his footwork that he’ll walk right in and get really really close because boxing is what he wants and we’re going to see him walk in close to EMT little bit of a faint and he’s right there and look at EMT EMT loads this up he’s like all right here we go here’s my right hand I’m gonna fire away here’s my chance watch Ilia just slide out of the way just ever so slightly and then look at the hand is going to Parry this punch okay let’s stop right here you look at ilot right here he’s in a stance he’s kind of leaning back right his body’s kind of going this way and you think okay like he doesn’t look like he’s in great position watch his ability to not only recover but create an offensive position the other thing I like is we know after EMT throws his big right hand he falls with the left hook Ilia knows that look how defensively disciplined he is in this position he’s going to step back and create a perfect angle right here to hit EMT so once he sees EMT clear that space right there once EMT has cleared that space and it’s heading this way IL has got this right hand loaded up and man he has his eyes on the target so right when he gets out of the way he’s like a matador right when he gets out of the way it’s time for me to fire back and fire back he does watch this right hand extension I mean this is exactly what you want want as a striker full extension foot hips turned everything going forward and I he Nails EMT with his shot he follows it up with that left hook that he loves right and then one more big punch Again full extension so he’s very good at just sliding his feet just enough to get himself in position to score and win and like we said you don’t want to get hit by this guy he is dangerous and very very powerful and here we go one more replay look at this here this gives us a good Insight on what he was looking at okay he came forward and once EMT lifted his head up and he saw emt’s eyes he’s like all right that’s exactly what I need watch him slip out of the way here there’s the Perry there’s the hand for the defense and now he’s just going to step back and we’re just going to let him do his work boom there’s the big right hand he’s going to add the left hook doesn’t really land but watch a final right hand straight through the guard so he can execute his hands really really well but he’s got to use the feet to get in position and vulcan’s going to study this and definitely be ready for it all right so ilot topor known for the Striking in specifically the boxing Alexander vinoski known for a well-rounded game regardless of where you go in mixed martial arts but in the Striking game he’s a little bit more diverse there too absolutely Brennan you know he’s one of the most balanced Strikers we’ve seen especially at featherweight whether it’s his well time leg kicks or his blitzes with his hands he’s always setting his opponents up and keeping them off balance but something that’s very important to not is volkanovski enjoys a 71 and A2 inch reach he usually has a reach Advantage almost over everybody in featherweight and in this fight he has a 2 and a half inch reach advantage and he uses this really well to kind of pick it guys with a jab and keep them off balance so well here he is in his last title defense against Yer Rodriguez and we know how a dangerous Striker Yer is Right very Dynamic and we’re just going to watch how vul just kind of picks him apart so first we see that lead hand feeler right here all right and he’s always doing this he’s always touching to get the range right I’m 71 A2 so I know if I’m touching you and I’m at the very end of my range you can’t punch me right I know that and when I saw him do this in the beginning I was just amazed because he lands this combo over and over again so he’s got his range and we’re gonna watch him he’s gonna flip this little leg kick up here and it doesn’t even look like he’s really trying to land it he’s just throwing it right he just barely touches it and yer throws it very slow and yer checks it well we know when you throw a leg kick right the counter to the leg kick is the straight right hand if you’re fighting an orthodox fighter you’re supposed to smoke them right down the middle they’re on one leg hit them that’s what we always say in the room so vul knows that and when you watch yir Yer is like oh yeah here’s my chance right he’s loaded up and ready to go and vul is just watching him he’s just analyzing everything he’s doing so y’s plan is to come forward and counter this vul is on one leg and let’s let’s let this play a little bit more and see right here this doesn’t look like he’s in a good position to win look at volkanovski he’s backing up his body’s going this way his feet are almost together parallel right here which you don’t want and here comes Yer he’s taking a big step forward right here and he’s ready to close the distance he’s ready to fire that right hand that’s not what’s gonna happen watch vulcanos step back into Southpaw and let’s just freeze right here let’s go a little bit more he steps back to Southpaw and in doing that he’s here he takes his head and puts it in a totally different position now when you look at it he’s so far back right here that he’s out of the distance of y’s counter he knows that because yir I think is 69 or 69 and a half he has the reach Advantage he knows from checking so he’s going to step back to Southpaw now y’s right in the middle right he came forward but the picture is now different and here comes vul he used this right hook from Southpaw over and over and he kept on catching Yer with this boom right in the face a very slick setup and here we have the Mendes fight we put this in here because Mendes is a similar stature to Toria also a power puncher with very good boxing and this fight shows what vul will do when he has the reach advantage against guys his size he will circle into the power Mendes’s got a big right hand he’s a dangerous guy right but vul knows with that reach that he can use his lead hand touch and extend score and not get hit and let’s watch what he does he’s going to get Mendes really biting on these faints first he’s going to knock his hand out of the way then he’s gonna take that and extend it into a jab boom right beautiful stuff right really smart I’m GNA Circle knock that out of the way get it out of the way and extend my shot so he’s gonna land here and he’s goingon to hit Mendes flush now let’s just watch it how he gets Mendes to react now from that lead hand right he’s just going to be walking him down just moving fainting a little bit let’s watch Mendes is watching that right hand just looking at it thinking about not getting hit with that jab watch the reactions here he’s just waiting and that’s what that lead hand does now he’s just kind of pumping it out there but once he knows he’s longer and has the distance you’re always going to be worried when you’re staying at the end of his range and not your range because Mendes can’t reach him here but Vault can reach him we’re going to see it again there’s a little paw he gets a reaction look at the reaction Paul now has a big reaction and finally and all vul is doing is calculating watching watching waiting now he shoots it again he lands it again so he gets you busy then he lands this jab but it’s not the jab now we start going to the leg kicks look at how he times the leg kick here on the bottom he’s goingon to knock Mendes’s base out and you’re going to watch Mendes right here Mendes is gonna lose his base and kind of get off balance right here you see that now in that proc process vog steps out into Southpaw right hits him with the jab and then steps back to Southpaw position touches him with the lead hand again but let’s watch this left hand that he fires here and how he connects right on the chin boom his ability to switch in close is really something hard to deal with and now we’re just going to let this play watch this blitz he’s going to go back to Orthodox big right hand big left hook and now he’s chasing so when you get close to vulcanos you’ve got to watch out because he’s always playing games he’s striking high and he’s striking low and he’s a guy that will kick and take out the base where we don’t really see that as much from Toria so it’ll be interesting to see how he does that without trying to get countered and this was the finish this is just brilliant work by him we’re going to show you the details here on the replay so we can see this load up right here and we can see this hand is is in motion right and Mendes knows look at how good of a job Mendes does of getting that elbow low to really try to protect that liver I mean this great defense because he still has his hands up he’s tight he’s tired but he’s aware well when you fight volcanos you’re fighting one of the best ever I guess this is why he’s one of the best ever watch this delivery of this strike and the placement right here I’m just incredible that he could fit that punch in real time right underneath like that and I mean that lever shot again we talked about it will shut you down but now let’s watch what else he does we’re going to see this hand is up here and we’re gonna watch volkanovski he’s gonna take this arm and he’s gonna pull this arm down okay and clear space in a path for himself to land and we broke this down uh on the last breakdown I think a vog feel free to watch that guys um some great stuff here but we think this is really relevant again he’s going to pull this down and he’s going to create a space for him to punch up top so let’s watch it in real time here pulls it down and then comes right over the top boom to the temple we don’t know if it was the temple shot or the liver shot but that was all she wrote for him and look at this add-on still on the chin when the guy’s down on the ground so vul is really good at accessing and scoring accurately in close or at distance and I look for him to play that high low game against theor it well you continue to find new ways to break down the Striking game of owski we’ve seen him on this show a bunch and we always talk about his fight IQ and I wonder if it will lead to some clinch work against a guy like Toria who of course loves the bocking range and has heavy hands I think you’re Hest something there Brennan I think he’s going to try to grab hold of this guy a little bit he’s got a very Dynamic clinch game he sets up excellent elbows powerful knees or he’ll transition to some really good takedowns against the fence let’s take a look at some of the stuff he does here here he is against medz big uppercut again that was from the Southpaw position frame big knee we see him Mendes is reeling here he’s got a hold of his head right here but it’s the position he’s driving his head upward in Mendes right he’s kind of holding him in place the head is like an arm right the head is holding him in place and here’s the hand this might come into play since him and Ilia are kind of the same size we’ve seen him do this against Yer as well so it doesn’t really matter but Mendes fits that stature so he’s holding him in place and we’re going to watch what he does hold him in place keeps Mendes there he doesn’t even see it come and rips the giant elbow there so he’ll land really big punches really big shots here and put big damage on guys against the fence so something for us to look out for and I definitely think he’s going to try to do this against Toria and here we see him against Yer Rodriguez and again he’s got that collar tie and he’s going to attack with a big knee here and get y you’re thinking about the body shot right here comes the big knee and we see Yer kind of trying to block that and we’re gonna see a reaction from yir right whenever someone’s trying to pull your head down and knee you in the face what are you trying to do you’re trying to get your head up right you’re like no no no thank you so we see yir is gonna pull himself this way right he’s going to try to get his head up and as he does that as he pulls up fols like oh well while you go up I’m GNA go down and you can see that he’s going to get his hands connected against the fence there’s no easier takedown and we see y’s head popped up right always a step ahead this guy and he uses the clinch so well to do that he’s going to wrap the hands here and get a really big taked down and once the hands are wrapped against the fence it’s really hard to stop that takedown goes right to the back and gets That back control so vog will use the clinch really really well to either strike and set up big elbows big knees or change to the wrestling I look for him to do that against Toria Ilia Toria does have a black belt in the grappling that’s where we go next haven’t seen it very much it’s not what he’s known for but you got to think he can handle himself absolutely we’ve seen some great scramble trilia right we’ve seen him lock up submissions like he did against Bryce we’ve seen him get top position and do some damage so this guy’s no slou he’s fully capable on the ground it’s just not something that he usually does this isn’t great position right here um but again Ilia is strong and that’s going to really be important because we know how strong vul is we’re going to see him rip this taked down and J Herbert’s gonna get a little cage grab right here he’s going to try to hold on to this a little bit he’s probably getting yelled at pretty good but Ilia is just not deterred and we see him put that knee in the middle and get that head in close similar to vul a little bit and he’s just going to rip this Tak down all the way up and all the way down and right when he hits the ground you see he’s inside control he’s going to switch his hips right here and he’s going to move forward into this crucifix position controlling the biceps right really good work here by him to put him in a dangerous position right off the Tak down so he’s got his own takedowns he’s got his own ground game but we want to talk about ilas takedown defense as well because we know we talked about vog clinch game right this this is super relevant I want you guys to look at this hand and this hand right we know that Bryce Mitchell has an underhook on this side and we know that he’s got this hand kind of braced here Ilia is going to take both of those hands and he’s gonna actually connect them right he’s gonna get this little figure four grip on his own wrist okay this is just really slick stuff so you see now he’s G to grab his own wrist and what he’s doing is he’s trying to double up the power and the force on that side and the reason why is he’s going to push rice Mitchell’s arm up and then he’s going to take this hand and shoot the underhook and then turn right and this is just like really slick stuff and vul does a bunch of stuff with the wrist too so this is going to be a real battle between these two we’re going to watch him push that arm out because he’s got two on one he’s got extra pressure right and we’re GNA see him extend That Elbow out away from his body and you see it right here and now watch Bryce is going to try to swim up to readjust and IL is just going to shoot the underhook right there I mean that is very high level stuff really Technical and and just really smart these are the things that you know you see and you’re like man dude like it’s just those little tricks that really get guys off their game great job here now here he is on top and we told you he’s got a good top game Bryce is a good Grappler right we know Bryce is tired and stuff and he’s on top and he’s he’s laying his damage but Bryce is like all right let me just get back to my feet not only does he scramble to the back but his ability to lock this arm triangle up right here this is just not a spot where you see guys get arm triangle and Bryce just made one little mistake by keeping his elbow here and Ilia locked it up right Ry was just like let me get back to my feet here just left that arm out but you make that mistake against Ilia he’s GNA make you pay and he’s also strong enough to finish look at this horses him all the way back down then he reconnects his hands there let’s go and reconnects his hands after he reconnects his hands he’s going to bring Bryce Mitchell all the way back to the the floor and look how tight this is right and now we’re going to see him switch his hips this way first to allow himself to come back to finish this arm triangle just brilliant stuff here the switch and now he’s going to switch his hips back and you see his hips are now flat again that way and now that thing is getting tight and you can see it because look at you can see the arm changing color right you can tell by how purple somebody get you can see it all the way through his arm because Bryce is a little bit paler than some guys and so you see how tight this is and you know submitting Bryce Mitchell like this is a feather in his cap because Bryce is really good on the ground the way that he set that up and how fast he he did it vul cannot sleep on this guy’s ground attack he’s really really slick and he’s got great scrambles as well woganowski is not known for submission wins but he did show top control against Islam makev in their fight that certainly says a lot he’s well-rounded fighter as we’ve known he’s absolutely well around in Brennan but you hit on it this guy grappled a lot in his early UFC days I mean if you watch him he’s very physical the guy played in rugby league he was over 210 pounds very strong and even though he lost Islam he showed that he could grapple at lightweight he usually handles featherweights pretty handedly in the grappling so let’s take a look at that guys Focus locked in look at him ready to rock and here he is against yir and when you see this position he’s got one underhook here and he’s got an overhook and he’s got his hands together right Yer has his underhook here and you can see vul is in front of that knee so when you’re in this position you’re trying to kind of hike the guy forward but Yer is like as long as my leg is behind him he’s not gonna be able to hike me forward I’ve got my base behind him watch how slick vul is vul is gonna take this leg and now he’s gonna step behind yir Okay and then he’s gonna reap that leg he’s goingon to attack that leg with a trip and he does this so well off the clinch he’s gonna take Yer the opposite way right with this body lock while he reachs the leg watch him step behind here he’s still in front he feels all kinds of pressures then close there’s a step behind now he’s gonna pick that leg up and put it in between both of his legs and there’s the Tak down right and now you can see it here how he trapped that leg and how he used that body lock to rip backwards really slick stuff here by vul and once he gets that top position he’s going to start pounding we’ll see him right here again this is vul’s business right here and because he’s got such long arms he can get this grip on people right um in this division so here we go he’s going to Yer is going to try to get up great job y’s trying to work but right back down again attacking the leg right and we got to go back and go over this little detail for all my wrestlers this is a grany roll we see here and I just want to stop it here you see the hands are connected right here okay when somebody gramy rolls you actually want to let go of them so that they can just roll and then you want to float the hips to try to catch and that’s exactly what’s going to happen here as he rolls you’re going to see it’s going to kind of almost look like he’s just going to let go like he’s going to fall flat on his face right there right you release okay and then after this release we’re g to watch vul he’s got to make up the space and then just slide forward and get to that top position that’s exactly what he does so really good highle stuff here from volkanovski gets really busy on the ground and pound right away so he likes that top position and he will work from it he will look for takedowns against the clinch here we go Mendes has taking him down Mendes is a great wrestler but again I put this in here because Ilia will wrestle and he’ll wrestle against the fence so we’ve seen a similar situation when studying Ilia we see vul he’s got what we call four on the floor puts one hand here one hand here and he’s going to take both of his legs and try to scoop back towards the fence right and use the cage as like a wall to stand up and this is exactly what he’s going to do get to the fence he’s pushing the head to try to separate the head away from the body right here which is exactly what you want to do this is key if I push your head away you can’t stay attached to me we see that he still got that frame there now he’s going to work his way all the way back up and this takes a lot of energy look at him here you good job man now I’m right in your face again so vul even if he does get taken down he’s used to that he pops right back up and he’s right back at you so will Toria be able to do that take him down waste the energy that’s going to be an interesting exchange and again we put this in here just because it shows his willing to go to the ground here he against Islam the great Islam this is the end of the fight right and it just shows he doesn’t even think and he gets in top position in the garden he just starts pounding he really is good at throwing ground and pound from the guarden this position and he’s not a guy that really goes for a lot of submissions but he’s very powerful and very good at facing up and throwing down hammers with those 71 and half inch arms all right so we went through kind of the the X’s and O’s of what these guys do so well that’s brought them to this fight now it’s xfactor time we’ll start with the Challenger for ILO topor in a five round Championship setting headliner on a pay-per-view what’s his X Factor here man it’s the power I mean this guy believes in his power so much and I mean he’s never been proved wrong he’s never lost right so he’s willing to give one to take one and that’s just really not a game that you want to play with him so let’s take a look at some of his work and we’ll just highlight it because it you know it speaks for itself so here we go right here he’s fighting Herbert and this is right in the pocket we’re throwing down we’re letting fly and we’re going to see ilot do his deal he’s going to throw right hand he’s going to throw the body shot but watch what happens when he throws the body shot okay he’s gonna start ripping boom so there’s the body shot well you see that right when he threw that body shot Herbert was like all right I’m ready I’m gonna land mine okay and we see Ilia gets a little overzealous sometimes when he gets in there because he just believes in his power so much and he’ll rip one to take one and he does right here he eats this shot right here but the problem is Here Comes his shot you’re going to see Herbert just falls down and that is all she wrote let’s look at it in slow motion he hits that level change here we see the left Hook’s going to land okay there’s my body shot but again here’s my left hook okay which is the counter right you know that he’s throwing here and his hand is down throw that left hook but I want you guys to watch this is textbook overhand right when you throw an overhand it’s almost like you’re throwing a baseball right you got to get your head down you got to get your whole body into it and turn and when you see the power here and we’re going to watch this in slow motion we’re gonna watch the right hand here of ilot Toria wind up and we’re gonna take a look at Herbert Herbert can see it coming this thing is way back here his body is loaded I mean his whole weight is in this thing and look at Herbert man he sees it coming too he sees that thing coming that thing’s coming 100 miles an hour boom right on the chin lights out here you cannot trade one with him he’s just too dangerous and vul’s got to really watch out for that here he’s against EMT and we’re going to let this play Boom sets EMT down it’s like okay what really happened there that didn’t really look like a crazy exchange okay let’s break this down we know we saw Ilia with the big space and the big wind up right getting a little over zealous but like Grand Slam knockout right here he is in a very tight space Brandon just a very little tight space and we see EMT being very aware comes from a great team he’s got his hand up he’s like all right I don’t want to get hit with that left hook watch the placement of this left hand right here he’s just GNA go right it’s a small little punch but he’s going to hit it right on the chin boom and you see that his location and his accuracy and and tight too he just went from here to here and that’s really what a hook should be that left hook either to the body or to the head so powerful and we see EMT fly all the way back sits him down from that little short punch tons of power from this guy finally we see him here with Ryan Hall and Ryan Hall is conscious right here he’s not doing well but he’s still conscious right and the amount of power that Ilia is gonna generate from this position right I mean this is not a lot of space and we’re going to go ahead and let this play and we’re going to watch this first punch okay that there’s one and Hall’s still conscious he kind of clipped him but not really right now I want you guys to see this this punch is coming from right here just to right here okay he’s on the ground he’s he has no legs no feet no hips to turn this is just from here to here watch the power that ilot Toria has in his hands one punch from that distance and Hall looks like he’s out right here but one more for good measure and he is absolutely out this guy knocked him out on his knees with a a quarter of a punch right ilot toria’s power is something to be reckoned with and no matter what volcanos is going to really have to be careful when dealing with him in the pocket on the other side vinoski has been there and done that he’s headlined big pay-per-views he’s gone five rounds with some of the best in the world whether it’s his weight class or Upp a weight class with is LAM Mev what’s the X Factor here I mean you just said it Brendon this guy’s got five title defenses at featherweight right considered by many to be the featherweight goat okay and he always finds a way taking on the best in the world the max holloways all these incredible fighters to find their weakness and expose it and he does it time and time again whether it’s in the fight he figures it out with his Spight IQ or his voracious game planning with his coach Joe Lopez who doesn’t get any credit Joe Lopez has brought vinoski up from nothing he’s really a guy that needs to be revered for this career and a shout out to Joe Lopez these guys study and execute like no other at featherweight so let’s take a look at some of the work by the featherweight goat okay here we go we want to talk talk about Yer Rodriguez is so dangerous with this left kick right his hands the way his knees he Sprints into this azone right here you don’t want to be in the a Zone with him right because he’s so quick at going in and out throwing punches and kicks we broke that down feel free to watch it he you can’t really guess what he’s doing well Joe Lopez and vul knew that so like let’s just keep changing the picture walk forward here let’s switch here let’s switch here let’s faint and fake and I just couldn’t believe it when I broke down the film how disciplined volosi is at sticking to the game plan let’s watch how many faints and fakes he does in the first 20 seconds switching constantly changing the picture and you see y ear trying to gauge it and figure out where to be so vul will even kind of come back to the middle a Zone and you see y ear like okay here we go let me load up the head Kick let let him come back to where I want to be and then watch vul He’s goingon to go right back to the left I’ll fake it I’ll let you feel good about it then I’m going to switch over I’m going to step over again he’s always playing games with the range he switches then he switches again so he’s always getting guys to react he’s making all of his reads once he’s got his reads and where he needs to be that’s when he puts the pressure on and he got Yer Jumping All Around in the first round reacting showing him the kicks showing him the game plan it’s just brilliant stuff and again credit to the game planning and the discipline of vulcanos the discipline for him to execute that so here it is now I believe this is the third round okay and we can see things haven’t been going well for y year okay okay and vul when he gets going he is a prime example of what you want to see in mixed martial arts cuz he does everything so well together and we’re going to show this here again he’s going to hit that little switch the kick and then the hook and now watch the tempo change he’s in his face right he knows when to attack and here we go he’s going to land a big knee in the clinch once he’s got you hurt he doesn’t wait now watch this right hand here watch the skill and the speed in which he executes this he’s going to throw a nasty body shot boom and again we talked about his placement man this guy finds the holes like real time it’s crazy how good he is at that and now watch this he’s gonna reload this to a nasty uppercut and snap y your’s head right up boom again let me get you going up so I can go down beautiful job he’s going to connect his hands and this is just beautiful transition right into the takedown steps right over in the three quarter and just starts going to work so volkanovski when he gets hit on all cylinders he’s attacking you with the hands he’s attacking you with the feet he’s taking you down he’s beating you up not a guy that you want to play games with and let him get his Tempo going five rounds is his is his wheelhouse man and he will use every bit of that to dissect any weaknesses that Ilia has in this game all right great detail there from all the X’s and O’s now we go to keys to Victory as the featherweight belt hangs in the balance at UFC 298 and we’ll start with the champion what does he need to do safe to keep his belts absolutely Brenan vulcanos has got to use that 2 and 1 half inch reach right we talked about it he’s got to use that reach and mix up the strikes keep that high low game going keep tore guessing we know Toria wants to get in close use those big hammers to try to put vul down so I look for vul to have a really really slick standup game keeping that range either all the way out or all the way in he also needs to utilize that grappling we talked about his physicality just how strong he is how good he’s looked at featherweight on the top control in those positions I look for him to test that you know I think they he looks at ell and goes I’m not the small guy here you’re smaller than me right I just fought at 55 and could grapple at lightweight okay so I think he’s going to be that new found size we know that he was working out trying to get bigger and the guy is a big physical guy I think he’s going to use that clinch game that we talked about and also try to wear to pour you down and kind of see where that goes finally though he’s got to avoid the power shots man vul is a gamer we know that from his last fight took it on short notice and it didn’t work out right but he will take chances and and he’s a guy I wouldn’t call him a guy that has an ego because he’s so accomplished but man he likes to bang and when he gets hit you see him be like oh yeah all right like here we go here we go he cannot do that against Toria right Toria is got such speed in his hands and so much power he’s really good at at doing what he does and he sets up those power shots man you don’t see them coming they’re coming from here you’re getting hit in the body so he’s just really got to maintain discipline and give Toria that respect and that regard all right if we’re to hear and new let’s hit that button go to the Challenger what is Ilia topura need to do I mean he’s got that unbelievably crisp boxing right I mean just the left hook to the body the way he rips over the top to the Head his boxing is really at a high level it’s not something that we really see in the UFC and not something that we’ve seen uh in that division the body work right we know Max and we’ve seen guys vul’s got good boxing but the Bodywork that he does and how he winds up and gets in there tight this guy can hurt you I mean there’s no doubt about it so he’s going to need to get in close and and he’s really good at doing that but he’s also going to have to win the scrambles okay we know that folk is big and physical we know his clinch game is good we know his top game is good Tor has no slot on the ground as well I’m sure he can give folk fits too but not from the bottom right he’s not Ortega he’s not a guy that’s going to throw up triangles and stuff like that um you know he’s not built that way he’s a top guy so whether he wins a scramble to get on top or he just wins a scramble to get back on his feet back to that striking range and finally he’s got to stay defensively responsible this guy’s a goer too man I mean he just doesn’t care he’s trying to finish and we show that he’s coming full Forceman he’s swinging for the fenes we know vul is going to game plan with that fight IQ we know he’s going to try to figure out where the holes are and expose them and Tor has got to know that too he can’t be overzealous in there he’s really going to have to stay disciplined to win this championship and be a championship level fighter well we’ll see if ilot Toria stays undefeated and if he takes the belt away from Alexander vinoski and hands Alexander the Great his first loss in the featherweight division of the UFC meanwhile volkanovski he’s got a big chip on his shoulder after the last result against makev he wants to make a statement that he is indeed still the one that uh is in firm control of that featherweight strap for safe saoud I’m Brendon Fitzgerald thank you for watching UFC breakdown and enjoy the fights at UFC [Music] 298