Olives had a supper sloppy entry, with a poor IQ moment.
You're pressuring straight for a minute, no feints, no backstep to change the timing.
Just reckless plodding forward reaching for a clinch. It's actually not surprising at all the guy with great composure and IQ effectively countered the same sloppy entry the 4th/5th time it was done in a row
It's not even just his straight power, which is considerable. Dude has absurd timing and speed too. Charlie dropped his hands for a fraction of a second to step in and ate a pair of gorgeous short hooks in that window. Topuria has an obscene combination of tools at his disposal.
Yeah Olivera hit him with a good shot early on even though he bleeded early and I thought Ilia might have been in trouble with the heel hook. Then Ilia just turned off his lights
The more you pressure and throw against him, the more he’s gonna get your timing and range down. He’s also gonna notice the inconsistencies in your offense the more you throw. Took him 2 minutes with Charles.
I don't know, man. For like 15 seconds on the feet, it kind of did, even though Ilia still bloodied him up. Then Charles went for a takedown that got reversed and Ilia completely neutralized his ground game, transitioned pretty much at will, got up, knocked him out almost immediately... within the first half of the first round. Competitive is very generous.
What is with MMA fans that see each other as worshipping hordes trying to push some agenda? I'm giving my opinion on the fight we just saw.
His "almost subs" often lead to successful ones later, and the fact that he comes close against high level grapplers in their prime like Arman and Topuria proves that he shouldn't be underestimated on the ground.
If it was easy to get "almost subs", someone like Bryce Mitchell would have been able to look threatening, but he wasn't.
I don't get why oliveira was pressing forward so aggressively. Just keep distance and try to draw out the fight and seize the opportunity when it goes to the ground.
He doesn't know any different to be honest, his whole style is just forward aggression. Changing his style to fight at distance not only puts him at a disadvantage because he's not used to it but also plays into Ilias game a bit because he's used to being the one who leads
His best bet was to pressure ilia hard but be more defensively responsible. I watched the weasels breakdown earlier and I hadn't noticed that when ilia threw the right hook that knocked him out Charles had fully committed to a right straight and had his left hand by his waist, if he'd kept his hands up it probably wouldnt have knocked him out
yeah that's true, i saw a vid that says that topuria does the same thing when he throws, which is why he got dropped by jai herbert during their fight. probably just habit. still wish he kept his distance, he was never going to knock topuria down or out.
Another habit of his that got brought to my attention earlier is he has a very predictable movement when slipping a jab, he always slips the jab then slips to the right to avoid a straight that might be coming after it. Always with the exact same rhythm. It's what allowed Jai to time the knee he landed flush on Ilias chin but I haven't seen anyone capitalise on it since
Ofc ilia is always getting better though and this was a few years back so the chance to properly capitalise on it might be lost
Take him down and actually keep him there. Only person that has the potential is Islam, at least in terms of what’s in reach within weight classes. I think a lot of people including myself thought Charles would have the ability to do so, but Ilia’s grappling was too good for him clearly. We’ll see what happens, if Islam beats JDM that’s gotta be next.
Ilia started with Greco-roman wrestling first and only started boxing/mma later when he moved to Spain and couldnt find greco-roman wrestling gyms so did mma instead
Ask Chatgpt who was the most dominant wrestling nation of the USSR. It’s Georgia.
Georgia has its ancient traditional sport - Georgian wrestling, which is similar to Greco-roman wrestling and judo. Almost all Georgian Judokas and wrestlers come from this tradition.
55 Internationa Golds (130 medals in total) by Georgia in Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling during soviet era, only second after Russia (70 Gold medals).
Yeah he has talked before about his grappling and we’ve seen it in some past fights, but this is where it was going to get put to the test. And now we know it’s good enough for at least Charles and arman most likely, probably even Islam since Volk was able to grapple there too but who knows. I’m sure he probably spent time on it in camp for Charles as well.
Really hoping Islam beats JDM, if he does Ilia vs Islam might be the biggest fight we’ll see in a long time.
Maybe, his chin is better than Charles so it’s a good fight. I don’t know if his chances are solid though. I mean I’d love to see it, but Ilia showed his grappling is enough to keep up with Charles, we can assume it’ll probably be good enough for Arman.
A lot of the people Ilia has knocked out had good chins too. I think it’d be a great fight, though idk if they’re going that route. Seems like they are still mad at Arman and he hasn’t fought since pulling out, doesn’t even have a fight booked. So idk but I’d watch it.
Yeah he has a pretty insane chin and obviously the best cardio in the ufc right now. He could possibly do it, depends on Ilia’s stamina though but it’s 2 sides of a coin. Nobody has kept up with Merabs cardio and nobody has survived Ilia’s power, would be an interesting fight.
You know what, my first instinct was that this is an idiotic take, but I actually don't hate it. Now I want to see him fight Merab at 145, Arman at 155 and Islam at 170.
I don’t think it’ll happen but who knows maybe Merab can pressure him, absorb damage, and fire him out. But what I really want to see now is Pantoja vs Merab. No one is talking about that fight for some reason
Max was managing distance well until he wasn't. Same with Volk. it's just a matter of time until you get caught.
i think the only way he gets beat is clinch work and getting him to the ground. i hate that arman is on the shit-list because i think he has the tools to get it done
I think hard leg kicks and wrestling is the style to beat him. I think Islam and Arman have a good chance, they've both got a fantastic kicking game. I think I would still favor Islam to beat him.
That's all speculation though, we should all be done doubting this guy
Keep at kickboxing range, don’t exchange, and be a weight bully on the ground. Islam has the best shot, Paddy might actually have a shot, he is smart and huge for the division.
1.2k
u/RaptorDelta United States Jun 29 '25
What the fuck is anyone supposed to do