According to the Brazilian scheme: how Volkov won the most important battle against Almeida

The UFC 321 tournament, which took place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on the night of October 26, ended with the triumph of the Russian fighters. Our compatriots have won four out of four fights, and we should especially be happy for Alexander Volkov, who, after a difficult victory over Brazilian Gilton Almeida, can claim the title fight.

Return the favor

Alexander Volkov had a very difficult opponent, a special one. Almeida, although he started in MMA with a welterweight, with his current 105-107 kilograms, he can drag absolutely any weight in the fight.

Almeida spent more than 20 minutes lying on top of Derrick Lewis, whose weight on the day of the fight was hardly less than 125 kilograms. Lewis is not a wrestler, but he is very strong physically. Almeida was mauled in the stalls by Alexander Romanov, who regularly wins grappling tournaments and participated in the World Freestyle Wrestling Championship. Sergei Spivak started the fight well with the Brazilian, took him down himself, but it all ended with Almeida climbing behind Spivak and winning by TKO.

Almeida came into the fight with a record of 8 wins, 1 loss — he spent the entire round pulling apart the hefty Curtis Blades, but was beaten at the net at the beginning of the second round. 14-1 in rounds won, seven early victories on the ground, Almeida has not missed more than one punch in six fights. Impressive statistics.

The Brazilian started the fight as expected — he immediately took a takedown. In MMA, only Khamzat Chimaev can do the same — translate an opponent when he wants. Almeida was in a dominant position from above for almost three minutes, but then Volkov managed to shake off his opponent (I must say that the referee urged the Brazilian to work harder, threatening to raise him to a stand). The fighters spent two minutes in a half-sitting, half-lying position, where Volkov was already dominating, and he actively struck, in particular with his elbows. Alexander won the first round.

At the beginning of the second round, Almeida threw a straight punch, and then immediately went down. I went behind my back and tried to do a choke. It didn't work out, but he didn't let Volkov get up, and accordingly he took the round.

The decisive third round began with Volkov pinning Almeida to the net, throwing a punch, to which the Brazilian quickly fell into step. Almeida moved the Russian wrestler, but he immediately got up, grabbed the Brazilian's leg himself, and pressed him against the net again. The fighters stood in the clinch for 50 seconds, where Volkov threw at least five knee strikes. Then Alexander landed a strong elbow, Almeida missed, but after that he quickly made a takedown.

Almeida was on top until the very end of the fight, which is 3.5 minutes. At the same time, he worked passively, almost did not hit from above, somehow got behind his back, but it did not come to an attempt at suffocation. At the same time, Volkov delivered gentle blows from below — punches and elbows, and somehow tried to take Almeida on a triangle. It didn't work out. 30 seconds before the end, the referee lifted the fighters into a stance, the Brazilian immediately made a takedown, after which he lay on top of Volkov until the gong.

Result: Volkov's victory by split decision (29:28, 28:29, 29:28). There are questions about the judges' assessments. We can say that fate has given Volkov a favor — for the previous fight with Cyril Gan, when he was better, but the victory was given to the Frenchman.

— I am very glad that the judges gave the victory to Volkov. I think he deserves it. You can't win a fight by just laying someone on top. You can't do nothing and expect to win," UFC CEO Dana White said at a press conference.

Now Volkov has outlined his priorities for the upcoming battles.

— My priority is to fight Tom Aspinall. I've already fought Gan and shown myself that I can beat him. But with Tom, I would like to fight again and demonstrate a more convincing fight than the first time," Volkov said at a press conference.

Precise strikes

In the third most important event of UFC 321, Umar Nurmagomedov performed — he defeated U.S. representative Mario Bautista by unanimous decision. The fight started alarmingly for the Russian. Bautista, after a series of somersaults, took Umar's foot and twisted it pretty badly. Nurmagomedov endured and moved the fight to the stalls. In the last minute of the round, the Russian managed to take his opponent's back. Bautista repelled attempts at painful treatment.

In the second round, Bautista fired a high kick with his right knee into Umar's head. The Russian sat down, but managed to stay on his feet. Nurmagomedov was inferior in the stand, so logically he moved his opponent to the ground and tried to get a painful reception. In the end, the fighters hacked into the rack again and the tired Bautista began to miss blows to the head.

In the third round, Umar didn't slow down and showed that his cardio was better than Bautista's. The Russian beat his opponent, but it was not possible to hold a reception. So it came to the decision of the judges, who gave all three rounds to Nurmagomedov. (30:27, 30:27, 30:27).

— I won this fight over the course of 5-6 months of my training, when I tried to be the first to come running at training camps, when I tried to give my best on the bag, to give my best in sparring, to give my best in wrestling. When I've walked in the same foot thousands of times. I won this fight there, and today it was the final job, in which I just had to put everything together," Umar said at a press conference.

Two more Russians also won at UFC 321. Azamat Murzakanov defeated Alexander Rakic from Austria by technical knockout in the first round, and Ikram Aliskerov defeated Park Chun Yong by unanimous decision. (30:27, 30:27, 30:27). The Korean looked preferable in the punch, but Ikram took the fight due to the struggle and the competent advice of Khabib Nurmagomedov from the corner.