Much like last month, where Da’Mon Blackshear was the clear choice after hitting just the third twister in UFC history, tapping Volkov as the recipient of this honor here was obvious, as well, as the Russian heavyweight rolled into Sydney and tapped out Tuivasa with an Ezekiel choke from mount in their co-main event pairing.
Volkov has been more aggressive in his last couple outings and carried that into UFC 293, taking the fight to “Bam Bam” out of the chute and getting up on the scorecards after one. In a fun little bit of foreshadowing, the commentary team spoke throughout the contest about the amount of time and energy Volkov had been putting into working on his ground game since moving to Las Vegas, only for the towering big man to get the fight to the floor and go to work.
Because he has excellent striking and has primarily opted to keep things standing, folks forget that Volkov is a Brazilian jiu jitsu brown belt and that his long limbs make him extra tricky to deal with on the canvas. He was so comfortable and smooth once he dumped Tuivasa to the canvas, climbing right into mount and floating with the Australian as he defended, attacking the whole way through.
