TJ Dillashaw believes Alex Volkanovski was scared of Ilia Topuria’s knockout power at UFC 298, where he lost his featherweight title by a brutal KO.
Volkanovski had a solid first round, where he used his leg, body and head kicks to keep the challenger at bay, but in the second round, Topuria came out guns blazing, pressing the Aussie relentlessly and then catching him with a fiery combo that ended the champion’s reign with one solid strike.
Each time Topuria pressed forward, Volkanovski backed off, and that makes Dillashaw think that he was scared of ‘El Matador’s’ one-punch knockout power.
“The first two rounds, all he was doing was throwing kicks,” Dillashaw said during a recent appearance of The Jaxxon Podcast. “He wasn’t setting them up, he was just throwing them, he was expecting Topuria to block them. I was thinking he was trying to slow down his arms. Every time Topuria would get close, he was just backing up and leaning away. Soon as I saw that, I was like, ‘Damn, he’s gonna get caught.’ He was fighting scared. He was worried about the power… That’s where he went wrong. He was afraid of his power and fought scared.”
Volkanovski is now eyeing an immediate rematch against the Georgian-Spanish star, but Topuria is already looking ahead, with Max Holloway, Movsar Evloev and the winner of Yair Rodriguez vs Brian Ortega as possible names to challenge the new champion in his first title defense.
Who do you guys think has the best chance of defeating Ilia Topuria?
