Chartier: Yair? He’s a calculated wild man. It seems like when he gets everything dialed in off the mats, he can do special things on the mats. What he did to Josh Emmett was very impressive.
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He’s so dynamic, so aggressive, and unpredictable, and I think that’s the biggest thing he brings into this fight. You know he’s going to be aggressive with a bunch of kicks, but what else is he going to do?
Path to Victory for Each Fighter
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?
Chartier: You can’t stand in front of Yair — if you become a predictable target, like Emmett did, he’s going to launch on you, and then anything can happen. The kicks, the knees, the chaos — you can get clipped with something, so you can’t be a sitting duck with a kid like Yair.
I think Volkanovski has got to use his footwork and his long reach, so he’s got to find that outside game, too. He’s got to pressure, but you’ve got to pressure with care because you can’t enter recklessly. I think Volkanovski has to mix in takedowns, use his footwork, and just pick his shots, like he always does. I do think when they get to the ground, Alex will have a pretty big advantage; a lot more than people think he will.
I think Rodriguez has to be aggressive and you have to get Volkanovski thinking about what you’re doing, make him react to that, put him on defense, because he’s rarely on defense. If he can come out aggressively like he did against Emmett, but be unpredictable, he has to keep moving, don’t be a stationary target for him, either.
