‘The Great’ still expects Makhachev to win, but sees potential in Poirier’s left hand if Islam isn’t careful.
Alexander Volkanovski refuses to bet against Islam Makhachev in the main event of UFC 302, but he does believe Dustin Poirier has a solid chance if he utilizes his southpaw stance to fluster his opponent.
Volkanovski knows Makhachev well. The two went to a razor thin split decision at UFC 284, and then he lost a quick last-minute replacement fight against the Dagestani at UFC 294. In a new video breaking down the June 1st pay-per-view, “The Great” shared his prediction for the card’s main event.
“Islam’s gonna be too good,” he declared. “I think he’s too safe of a fighter to make mistakes where he’s gonna get caught against someone like Dustin Poirier. Dustin Poirier is a great fighter. I just think it’s a hard fight for anybody and I don’t see anyone beating Islam for a while. Unless they catch him, right?”
And Poirier is the type of guy who could catch anyone, especially considering he’s a left handed striker. Volk detailed Makhachev’s takedown style and noted the Dagestani wrestler’s standard takedown would put his head right in line with Dustin’s power hand.
“He doesn’t like to come in straight when he feels in danger,” Volkanovski said of Makhachev. “He’ll make sure he’s off center. His head is off line and then he gets himself back into a better posture as he’s taking you down. Khabib was like this as well. The posture is not right, but he’s doing this to keep his head off center and not in the firing line, and he still does a great takedown from there.”
“But now he’s gonna be doing that with a southpaw fighter. So you dip, you’re gonna be a lot more comfortable shooting. So if someone pressures you and gets you off guard, or your instinct reaction is to shoot, most of the time you’re shooting against orthodox fighters, your head’s gonna dip to that side. Now you’re dipping to the power side of Poirier because he’s southpaw. Power side uppercuts, power side kicks, power side knees.”
Volkanovski added that he expected Makhachev and his camp to adjust and avoid putting his head in danger. But as he noted, if things get crazy then the default often comes back, or a fighter spends so much time worrying about the left that they get caught with a big right … like Islam did in his sole MMA loss to Adriano Martins.
“I think the only time [Makhachev] ever got knocked out was against a southpaw,” Volk said. “Again, you usually go outside the jab, now it’s your power side. So it’s it’s a little bit awkward.”
In the end, though, Alex is still picking Islam to win.
“I don’t think he’s gonna take too much risk on the on the feet because Dustin Poirier has great hands, great striking. I don’t think he’s gonna play … I think Islam is that good where it’s gonna be a finish. I think it’s gonna be a submission finish. Is it in the later rounds, or can he get it done straight away? Can he get on top, work him, pour on his way to getting wrapped up via naked choke? We have seen that.”
The only way to find out for sure is to tune in when UFC 302 goes down from New Jersey on June 1st. Keep it locked to MMAMania.com for all the news and details from this card from the first prelims to the high stakes main event.