Islam Makhachev’s trainer, Javier Mendes, shared his opinion on the upcoming title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Elijah Topuria, who will share the octagon this weekend.
“In terms of technique, Topuria has the advantage because Alex has a lot of technical flaws in his game,” said the American specialist in another edition of his podcast. “But in championship rounds, the advantage is unequivocally Alex’s because, how many championship rounds has he had? In his four-year reign, he’s destroyed everyone at his weight – the only close one was the first fight with Max Holloway, where he really could have lost”
That said, Mendes doesn’t think the knockout loss the Australian suffered against the Russian lightweight will affect his performance in the upcoming fight.
“Alex is still young enough to get over it without repercussions. People tell me, ‘He missed that punch in the Islam fight, he won’t be the same now’, but I don’t think one punch can change who he is”
As a reminder, the featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Elijah Topuria will be the main event of UFC 298, which takes place Feb. 17 in Anaheim.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33937-trener-makhacheva-razobral-boj-volkanovski-i-topurii.html?rand=19907
