"He just decided to crash" - Alexander Volkanovski questions Charles Oliveira’s tactics, believes first-round KO with Ilia Topuria was avoidable

UFC featherweight kingpin Alexander Volkanovski believes Charles Oliveira's game plan against Ilia Topuria was flawed, and therefore Oliveira was knocked out in Round 1 of the UFC 317 main event.

Volkanovski, who has faced Topuria and suffered the same fate as 'do Bronx,' believes Oliveira had other options for victory. 'The Great' thinks the 35-year-old should have used wrestling and jiu-jitsu to advance the fight to the championship rounds.

But the Brazilian chose to strike with 'El Matador' and was a victim of the 28-year-old’s power-heavy hands. Appearing on the Flagrant podcast, Volkanovski said:

"I thought Charles probably had more other ways of winning. He probably should have avoided the crash, right? And he just didn't. He just decided to crash, and that’s why I picked first-round finish."

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Check out Alexander Volkanovski's comments below:

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Alexander Volkanovski wants Ilia Topuria's cardio to be tested

On the Flagrant Podcast, Alexander Volkanovski also talked about how Ilia Topuria's cardio needs to be tested, which Volkanovski plans to do if he and Topuria run it back.

While talking about the UFC 317 headliner, that saw Charles Oliveira attempting a heel hook, which 'El Matador' ended up reversing, and how, even those very few seconds of wrestling were starting to wear down Topuria, Volkanovski added:

"We want to see the gas tank. See what happens there because I thought Charles when he was taking him down and forcing the wrestling and the grappling, I felt like it was starting to wear on him a little bit. So even when he sort of ended up on top when they grappled, I don't know if you remember, Ilia gets up, and then he was just staying up and kicking him, didn't let him up. He waited and waited. 'I'm going to wait 30 seconds, kick his legs, get my breath back.'"

Check out Alexander Volkanovski's comments below (1:27:14)

Although 'The Great' wants to run it back with Topuria, the Georgian-Spaniard has no such plans.

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Edited by Subham