re: UFC - Who headlines International Fight Week?

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We will see how he handles Charles.

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Line is now topuria -420. Olivera offense is good but his defense is awful. He gets dropped in every fight vs the top guys. Only way he wins is if he stuns ilia and gets in a sub.

Actually the more legit title fight would’ve been Ilia vs Arman. But Dana holds grudges so I wouldn’t be surprised if he lets Paddy leapfrog Arman for the next title shot.

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I don’t think Topuria is big enough.

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Volk 5'6. Arman 5'7. Topuria 5'7.

Khabib beat Conor, I would expect Islam to beat Topuria.

But Conor--'Nobody can take that left hand shot.' So it made you wonder, damn, what if he catches Khabib with one?

It's the same thing here, what if Topuria can catch with him one. Khabib was lucky enough to go his whole career without getting caught, Islam has been caught once.

I’m kinda fading on Oliveira. He was one of my favorite fighters when he had that incredible run of beating Chandler, Poirier, Gaethje all in a row. I thought he had a real shot at Islam and he wasn’t even competitive. Since then he’s lost to Arman, and beat an old Chandler and Dariush. He’s 35 now. Just have a feeling the end is coming. If he gets slept by Topuria it’s probably over for him. I could be wrong though, I thought the same about Volk against Lopes

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You should legit go back and watch that fight again. It ended in a hurry, but the 1st round was a lot closer than you might remember. I don't necessarily think Charles could put it all together and defeat Islam, but I wouldn't be shocked. The Arman fight (pretty much a draw) and the way he handled Chandler with relative ease tell me he's still ultra dangerous. He's a tough physical matchup unlike anything Ilia has faced.

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I don't know why Charles doesn't rely on his striking more. Gaethje said Charles hits harder than anyone--Gaethje gave a great description of it, he said it was like in a cartoon when they hook up someone's tongue to an electrode and zap them. Said his tongue was buzzing like it was hooked up to a super powerful battery.

Like Charles could probably be a knockout artist if he wanted. But Charles is so good on the ground that he keeps doing that thing where he pretends like a punch knocks him down, then waits on the ground for his opponent to walk right into his BJJ trap.

Islam was hip to it and too good for that.

I don't know, but as crazy as it is to say, I think the Islam fight messed with Charles' confidence. Maybe Islam was squeezing so hard that he felt like his eye was going to pop out of its socket or something. He tapped a ton of times real fast.

If Topuria can beat Charles, that would be an absolutely insane 3-fight run--Volk, Max and Charles.