We have a short notice matchup here with two UFC debuts but instead of everyone talking about the fighters, they are talking about the coaches. Ilia Topuria will be on one side of the cage coaching his brother while Volk will be on the other coaching his teammate.
This is a great matchup and has a few plot lines built in. i wish we had proper promotion here and this would've honestly been a great contender series main event. But here we are, buried on the prelims. Right now Ilia is a 4-1 favorite and talent wise that seems accurate, but once you factor in layoffs you can start to pick that apart. I do think Alexandre wins here. He is the better striker and the better wrester. Topuria is the pick here and I'm excited to see this go down.
Aleksandre Topuria
Aleksandre Topuria is famously Ilia Topuria's older brother. They look alike and honestly fight somewhat similarly. like his brother he is a high level wrestler who has been wrestling since a small child. Striking wise he has powerful and creative strikes. He isn't as technical as you would like but he meake sup for clean technique with power, pressure and a willingness to engage. He is a high paced guy who fights with a chip on his shoulder. You will see a lone loss on his record, but that can be taken with a grain of salt, not only was that 10 years ago, it was also up in weight.
Cody Thicknesse
Colby Thicknesse is a pretty well rounded guy and notably one of Alex Volkanovski's training partners. He is mostly a grappler who uses striking to close the distance and move to a clinch or the cage so he can work takedowns. His triking is very lose where he has low hands and bounces around. He can bring some power because of how he leaps in and throws heavy, but he is pretty wide and hittable. Overall a solid fighter with better grappling than striking.
