Craig Jones thinks Alexander Volkanovski puts an end to Sambo at UFC 294.
Volkanovski (26-2 MMA, 13-1 UFC) will step in on less than two weeks’ notice to rematch lightweight champion Islam Makhachev (24-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) next Saturday, Oct. 21 in Abu Dhabi.
Jones, a multiple-time IBJJF world championship medalist and 2019 ADCC runner up, isn’t sold on Sambo as a martial art, and hopes Volkanovski proves how ineffective it is by beating Makhachev.
“It makes him a man that disproved Sambo, and that will trump his legacy in the sport because we’ve wasted another martial art,” Jones told Submission Radio. “Most martial arts were killed in 1993. Somehow, Sambo has limped and lingered on to 2023. So Volkanovski kills Sambo, and we get to stop hearing about this Russian dancer.”
Jones received criticism for claiming that Makhachev doesn’t have good submissions, and thinks their first fight proved it. Makhachev had more than seven minutes of control time on Volkanovski at UFC 284, but wasn’t able to submit him. He won the fight by unanimous decision.
“The last fight, we spent a ton of time on submission defense,” Jones said. “Obviously, that’s a waste of time because as we learned, Islam doesn’t know any submissions. He just holds on to the back for 20 minutes. This time, we’ll probably get out of the body triangle. There was no submission threat at all, so Volk was just chilling, getting energy back, punching him in the head. This time, we’ll get out of that.”
Makhachev’s mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov once infamously sported a t-shirt which read, “If Sambo was easy, it would be called jiu-jitsu,” but Jones explains why he doesn’t think Sambo really exists.
“We’ve heard about catch wrestling. We’ve heard about Sambo. We’ve never seen it work,” Jones said. “If Islam gets a submission, that’s a jiu-jitsu submission. If he gets a takedown, that’s a judo takedown. If he shoots a double-leg, that’s a wrestling move. So for me, where’s Sambo? Sambo is a myth. It doesn’t exist.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 294.
