Coach Conversation | Ilia Topuria vs Max Holloway

Kyte: I feel like the only time we didn’t really see it was the third fight with Volk (Alexander Volkanovski) and who knows? Sometimes you turn up and it’s not your night, you’re not firing, and you can’t pull it out. He got beaten clearly in that fight.

Marshall: He got beaten in that fight, but maybe Volk is his kryptonite. Styles make fights.

Kyte: 100 percent, and up until February, nobody had beaten that dude at featherweight in the UFC, so it’s not like he lost to some scrub. He’s got four losses in the last 11 years: three of them are to Volk, who was the pound-for-pound No. 1 and the other one was he went up to lightweight and fought (Dustin) Poirier.

Marshall: On short notice.

Kyte: Yeah. And he lost the fight, but it was competitive.

Marshall: So he took a fight on short notice against the No. 1 contender, a weight class above, and lost a decision, and he lost three decisions to the best guy at featherweight that has ever done it? Got it.

So this is the guy we’re talking about, and if you’re gonna ask who is the second best featherweight to ever do it, it’s probably him.

Kyte: There are a lot of people who will be really mad when they read this that say, “You’re forgetting Jose Aldo,” but we’re not forgetting Jose Aldo. He’s terrific. He’s No. 3.

Marshall: He didn’t have the competition in the WEC that now exists in the UFC at 145 pounds. Not knocking him, but what we have now? The competition is so much better. I hate doing this because we’re knocking the third best ever to do it in that division.

Kyte: Right. He’s third. There have been how many, and he’s No. 3; relax. Okay, back to it.

When you say it’s those three things for Topuria — patience, power, and timing — what is it that makes them stand out? We see the power when he puts people out, but when it comes to the patience and the precision, it feels a little uncanny to me compared to a lot of these folks.

Marshall: Remember when Anderson (Silva) used to do it in the first round? He would do it with movement and he’d joke around a little bit, where Topuria just does it so much better.

Kyte: Everyone would love a 10-second knockout or a quick submission, but that’s not often how these things go, especially not at the championship level. Instead, it’s usually the competitor that has crafted the better game plan and did the better job of executing things inside the Octagon that comes away with their hand raised and the gold around their waist.

So, how does either man get it done on Saturday night?

Marshall: The path to victory? Max? Put that pace on him, dog! Put that f***** pace on him that just tends to break people; everyone except Volk. Everyone at ’45, but Volk.

Topuria? I think if Topuria wrestles too much he’s gonna get tired.

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Kyte: I agree. I think this is tricky. I’ve been trying to figure this out for a couple days now knowing we were doing this.

I think it has to be a real combo platter of things.

Marshall: I was about to say, “Catch him early with a big shot and make Max hesitate after that,” but Max is too much of a dog for that; he’s not gonna care.

Kyte: You would normally think exactly that — get him early and put him away somewhere in the next couple rounds — but Max has never been stopped.

Marshall: The reason I would say catch him early and hurt him is I don’t think he’s gonna put him away, right, but that would change how Max did the fight moving forward. But Max isn’t gonna change. Max doesn’t give a f***!

I think for Topuria, he has to do what he does and not get hit a lot.

Kyte: He needs to be the faster guy. It needs to be combinations when you get into those exchanges, low kicks always help, wrestle a little.

Marshall: What Volk did really well was he switches up his tempo and he switches up his stances, but that’s not Topuria. I don’t know. I’ve been thinking all weekend knowing I have to answer this question, and…

Kyte: It’s weird because he absolutely has a great opportunity to win this fight, but when you try to articulate it and lay it out, it’s tough because you don’t just wanna say, “He’s gonna knock out Max Holloway.”

Kyte: If there was one thing that was going to significantly impact how this fight plays out — that swings it in one direction or the other — what would it be?

Marshall: We don’t know if Topuria is a dog or not.

Kyte: There are so many questions about this kid. It’s great. I love it.

Marshall: We haven’t seen him tested. He’s had tough fights, he’s fought tough guys, but we need to see the dog in you.

Kyte: He’s one of those guys where he’s talking it, but we need to see it. Putting featherweight champ in the bio and then backing it up is some high-quality bravado, but let’s see it here, too.

Do you think Topuria has that dog in him? From what you’ve seen of him, do you think it’s there?

Marshall: He’s not Max Holloway, I will say that. What was his life like in Georgia? That’s what I need to know.

Kyte: He moved with his family to Spain when he was 15, after moving to Georgia from Germany when he was five.

Marshall: I’m leaning towards him having a little above the normal level of dog in him. I don’t know enough about his life so I can’t answer this question as completely and effectively as I would like, but when you look at the Khabibs of the world, when you look at the Dagestan guys, their lives were tough.

Matt Brown overdosed and died. “Cowboy” nearly died. It’s these life experiences, man.

Kyte: I’m so curious to see.

Marshall: Look at how many fights Max took to get to the title. Look at Anderson — he fought an entire career before he got to the UFC and got the title.

You look at some of these guys and again — maybe he does; he absolutely could (have that dog in him), but six fights before the title? One hard one and then the champ? They’re all hard, but they’re not all Top 10 guys.