Alexander Volkov!

[UpTehCooch]

Quote: Originally Posted by Find_the_Door

Volkov needs some serious buffing in the grappling department. Escaped numerous positions with Werdum on both top and bottom. Generally was a step ahead in that department throughout the fight and that's saying something considering Werdum is world-class on the mats. He also escaped numerous subs before ultimately knocking out Werdum. Displayed great takedown defense, clinch grappling and submission defense. Werdum needs completely reworked in the striking department - his striking again looked slow (not sure who thought he was fast to begin with). His chin gave out again. His Jiu-Jitsu was fantastic, but Volkov was just a step ahead defensively.

Settle down with that. His TDD was terrible. Werdum is old, slow, and isnt some NCAA wrestler but even he didnt have trouble putting flat footed Volkov on his butt. Even Francis would have stuffed those takedowns.

His footwork, cardio, and takedown defense should stay the same. But I agree with everything else. He needs a buff.

[AeroZeppelin27]

Quote: Originally Posted by DomNWO

But all of these guys got old, too. Belfort, Reem, and Bigfoot's physique changed greatly post USADA, and so did their performance (Reem adapted though, he's incredible). You can clearly tell they did PEDs, and they tested positive for PEDs/TRT. These other guys' positive tests were after their physical prime, and there's little evidence to suggest that their decline was because of TRT use, or that they were on PEDs during their prime. The substance that Lyoto was suspended for, from what I can recall, has no evidence of being performance enhancing, USADA just bans it because it's close to something that is performance enhancing (I'm not joking) . Silva has popped multiple times, but this was post his prime and there's an argument to be made that he started trying to juice to extend his prime past what it was (admittedly I would understand why you would think he did it in his prime, though). You can't just say "oh he popped for a thing, he's been doing it his whole career." Circumstances matter. To get it back on topic, I think we're just seeing Werdum decline in front of us. He, like all of the other guys mentioned, is getting old. Father time always wins.

Agreed, Werdum always strikes me as one of those guys whose biggest issue is motivation before the fight, his BJJ Iis that good he can kinda just fall back on it I think.

But in this fight, to me, he just looked like he was a bit out of shape. Werfum has never been a physical specimen but you can see his body fat is the main variable in his physique.

Whereas if he was jucing at some point I think we would've seen a Frank Mir Esq physique change between fights, where he went from chubby to pretty damn jacked to a degree that didn't seem natural between two fights, this was back between the Lesnar and Nog fights I think, or that time frame, anyway.

Though all those years of that Chute Boxe sparring has taken its toll on his chin I think, how could it not, those dudes throw down.

[UpTehCooch]

Quote: Originally Posted by AeroZeppelin27

Agreed, Werdum always strikes me as one of those guys whose biggest issue is motivation before the fight, his BJJ Iis that good he can kinda just fall back on it I think. But in this fight, to me, he just looked like he was a bit out of shape. Werfum has never been a physical specimen but you can see his body fat is the main variable in his physique. Whereas if he was jucing at some point I think we would've seen a Frank Mir Esq physique change between fights, where he went from chubby to pretty damn jacked to a degree that didn't seem natural between two fights, this was back between the Lesnar and Nog fights I think, or that time frame, anyway. Though all those years of that Chute Boxe sparring has taken its toll on his chin I think, how could it not, those dudes throw down.

Sparring with Wand is career suicide for sure. lol

[WarMMA]

Quote: Originally Posted by UpTehCooch

Sparring with Wand is career suicide for sure. lol

Lol for sure. I heard about a story one time about chute boxe where Wand and Shogun had a violent sparring session over a puppy. Shogun had a litter of pitbull pups and Wand didn't want to pay for one, so he offered to spar for one. Shogun accepted and rumor has it Wand knocked him out cold and won the puppy lol.

[xtremeba1000]

Is no one going to comment on the fact alexanders character base is "grappler" ?

[Dave_S]

Should he have stacked guard? Just played with him and he doesn't have it.