Joe Lopez sees Alexander Volkanovski dominating Yair Rodriguez on the ground.
Volkanovski (25-2 MMA, 12-1 UFC) will attempt to unify his featherweight belt with interim champ Yair Rodriguez (15-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the UFC 290 headliner on July 8 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The only time Rodriguez really struggled on the ground is when he suffered a lopsided TKO loss to Frankie Edgar in 2017 in which he was bloodied and battered on the mat. Volkanovski’s head coach Lopez can see a similar situation when “The Great” fights Rodriguez.
“100 percent, I don’t think he’s ever met anybody that’s as strong as Alex and I think that always surprises people,” Lopez told The AllStar. “If Alex puts hands on him, he’s going to really rag doll him around, it’s just getting in there because he’s just likely to throw a knee or an elbow on everything else and we’ve been really working on that clinch game to avoid any damage coming in.”
Volkanovski has been working with City Kickboxing teammates such as current UFC welterweight Blood Diamond, who’s a long and lanky fighter with extensive experience in kickboxing. Although Lopez sees Volkanovski mimicking the success Edgar had against Rodriguez, he acknowledges that Rodriguez has evolved plenty since then.
“Nearly all the way through, the boys were just practicing his moves, his signature moves, so that they could apply it to Alex,” Lopez said. “They had to change their styles up a bit to sort of mimic his style because he’s very dynamic and very hard to mimic because he’s just himself you know. He’s really grown as a martial artist over the years. After he lost to Frankie Edgar, he really came back a completely different fighter.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
