Belal Muhammad broke down his keys to victory for Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes at UFC 325.
Featherweight champion Volkanovski (27-4 MMA, 14-3 UFC) rematches Lopes (27-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in Saturday’s main event (Paramount+) at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
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Muhammad thought Volkanovski fought the perfect fight when he defeated Lopes last year at UFC 314. He advises the champion to keep Lopes on his backfoot by utilizing his feints and jabs.
“Volk did a beautiful job of sticking to that jab, low kicks, controlling the pace of the fight, controlling the range of the fight,” Muhammad said on his YouTube channel. “I thought Volk basically fought the perfect fight against Lopes that fight. I think he had only one little slip-up where he got rocked. But other than that, I thought it was a super clean fight for Volk and one of his best performances. Can he do the same thing this time?
“Keys: I think Volk has to establish that jab again, get Diego going on his back foot, but not crazy how Jean Silva did against him where he rushed him. Volk is perfect at hitting the inside kick, that outside kick, the jab, shooting takedowns when he needs to or when Diego Lopes rushes in. Volk just can’t get caught into that chaos. He did get rocked that fight, and you’re still coming off two knockouts before that, right? We saw that his chin could hold up, and it did hold up the last fight, but you don’t want to keep playing with it because you never know when your chin is done.”
Muhammad wants to see Lopes test Volkanovski’s chin by going right at him from the start of the fight.
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“For Lopes, you can’t do what you did last fight,” Muhammad said. “I don’t know if it was your first title fight, nerves, didn’t know if you could go five rounds, but you didn’t do much especially in the early rounds. You’ve got to do what you’re good at. That’s bringing the chaos, bringing the damage.
“When you sit there and point to the ground and ready to go, when guys oblige you, you end up catching them. You’re going to be faster than Volk, maybe more powerful than Volk. Like I said, Volk got rocked in his last fight with you and before that, he got knocked out twice. So, it’s available, it’s there, but you’ve got to create chaos to get there.”
The former UFC welterweight champion ultimately went with underdog Lopes for one particular reason.
“My pick for this one, I don’t know,” Muhammad said. “I really wish Volk would have retired after the last one. It was a great win. Diego had a lot of hype. It’s just hard to fight somebody back to back. I don’t know if the motivation is going to be there for Volk because he fought a perfect fight against him in that last one. … You know that Diego is going to come better. I don’t know if Volk could come better, so I’m going to pick Diego in this one.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Belal Muhammad: Diego Lopes avenges loss to Alexander Volkanovski
