The Great VS. T-City

UFC 266 Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski takes on Brian “T-City” Ortega to defend his belt a second time. This fight will most likely be a candidate for best fight of the year. This will be Volkanovski’s second title defense; his first was against Max Holloway in a razor thin split decision. Volkanovski is undefeated in the UFC and has been a dominant fighter. If he’s able to get the win over Ortega it will just add to his legacy and continue his reign as champion. This will be Brian Ortega’s second attempt at gold; his first outing was in a very brutal loss to the former champion Max Holloway. After that loss he took two years off and reinvented himself. His last bout was against Chan Sung Jung and looked amazing with better striking that was very crisp and sharp, he won in a 50-45 unanimous decision and deserved another title shot.

Alex Volkanovski will be the shorter fighter but will have the longer range and immediately beat up the legs of Ortega to leave him in his tracks. He might be wary of going for his takedowns since Ortega is a Brazilian jiu jitsu expert who’s a first degree black belt, However Volkanovski has been training with Craig jones who’s an International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation World No-Gi Champion including multiple belt titles in the Polaris Invitational promotion. If He does go for a takedown he has to watch his neck and limbs but if he is able to avoid the submissions on the ground he has a filthy ground and pound that will certainly do damage. I think Volkanovski took many precautions training for this fight. He’s going to make sure Ortega does not find his rhythm by applying a non stop pressure, throwing a lot of feints as well as not letting Oretega be aware of his next punch. He’s very good at creating chaos and never throwing the same combo two times in a row so he keeps things mixed up. After every combo he throws a leg kick and always trips up his opponent. With having the range he’s going to be able to keep distance and strike from the outside but I think he’s gonna do the opposite and get in the phone booth with Ortega and make it a dog fight.

Brian Ortega will probably try to push forward and keep Volkanovski on his back foot, not allowing him to throw big shots and create chaos. Ortega is very good at adapting in the middle of a fight and being able to pick up on his opponents next moves. I think he’s able to go anywhere in the fight because he has sharp boxing and clean elbows as well as being able to submit anyone in the division. I don’t know how long the fight will stay standing and if he gets put on his back from a take down he can definitely throw up a triangle and submit Volkanovski. I’m pretty sure Volkanovski is aware of that because out of Ortega’s 16 pro fights he has 4 triangle submissions making it a 25% chance of him getting another one. If the fight does stay on the feet the majority of the time I think Ortega will throw some short elbows when Volkanovski tries to run in or use his slick uppercuts to avoid takedowns. I think with Volkanovski being the shorter fighter it’s gonna leave his neck open when getting into close encounters with Ortega and he’s going to capitalize on it. Ortega has the best jiu jitsu Volkanovski has faced and can be very alarming and make him hesitant on using his explosive takedowns.

I can see the fight going many places but cannot imagine it going all five rounds. I believe these fighters’ style will create a finish. Will Volkanovski apply a pressure so great that Ortega cannot find his rhythm and get finished by doctor stoppage or TKO or will Ortega keep Volkanovski on his back foot and get a submission win or TKO by an elbow or uppercut.