That was a CLEAR rd for Islam in rd 4. Those backhand punches from Volk do ZERO, everyone knows that who follows fighting, but what Islam did taking his back and putting Volk in that position is very difficult to do to someone like Volk. It's INSANE that anyone would score rd 4 for Volk.
Depends how active/damaging the shots are. Usually the guy on top will win due to positional dominance unless he's taking seriously damaging shots on constantly defending submission attempts. Many people myself included thought Gane won round 5 against Ngannou for that reason - Ngannou literally did nothing but lay on top while Gane went for submissions and had a good first minute or so standing up.
This is what I think. I scored the fight 48-47 to Islam. Gave him rds 1,2 and 4. A good competitive fight from both fighters. Islam was clearly the better ground fighter and the standup was fairly even I though. Islam is a much better standup fighter than Khabib ever was imo. I still have Volk as p4p no. 1 and don't understand this narrative that Islam is now p4p no.1 ? Islam should beat Volk at 155 as that is his weight class the same as the welterweight champion should beat Islam if they fought at 170 BUT Volk was very competitive at 155 against Islam and imo won 2 rds as well. Volk is p4p no. 1 Yair Rodriguez looked spectacular and it's a joy to watch a skilled fighter like that perform at their best level when they put it all together.
I said very early that Volkanovski is a physically strong guy. He was a former rugby player who used to weight over 200 lbs, so 155 was never a problem for him. He's tangled with bigger and stronger men in Rugby. While Makhachev is strong when compared to the rest of the division, Volkanovski is stronger P4P. I had Makhachev winning by a point, but I can understand why people thought Volkanovski won. It was a close fight. Unfortunately for Volkanovski, the fight is scored on a round-by-round system, not how well you finish. Volkanovski finished strong, and that makes him the people's champ of sorts. They matched up well. When Makhachev was fresh, he was able to outstrike Volkanovski. He was also a better wrestler, despite not having his normal success. Volkanovski only started taking over when Makhachev got tired. That tells me that Volkanovski's stamina was the big difference maker. I still think Volkanovski is the better P4P fighter between the two. Makhachev is a great all around fighter, but his weakness seems to be his stamina. If he can fix that problem, he'd have no weaknesses.
If Jon Jones beats Gane surely he becomes P4P #1 automatically? He shouldn't even be in the rankings right now. He's either #1 or not in I'm also slightly worried Volk will lose heart and not see Yair properly, who I think could be one of his toughest tests @ 145. Volk should drop the belt after/if beats him though. Go up to 155 and start campaigning. Champ-champ is overrated- not a single men's champ-champ is legit imo
