Volkanovski vs. Topuria Prediction on February 17, 2024

Match info

The main event of the men’s MMA UFC 298 tournament, scheduled for Saturday, February 17, in Anaheim, California (USA), will be the featherweight title bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria, which will begin at Honda Center at 9:00 p.m. local time.

Meeting statistics

Right now, Topuria is ranked fifth in the ranking, while Volkanovski is the reigning champion. Bookies with sports betting bonuses in the form of free bets value the latter fighter as their favorite.

The current form of Volkanovski

Those who conducted in-depth analyses of Alex Volkanovski prior to, during, and following the two bouts with Islam Makhachev will regrettably state that it lacked significance for a considerable amount of time. Volkanovski lost both bouts to the Russian, but it’s important to remember that Makhachev feels comfortable in that particular division (the lightweight one), thus losses didn’t affect Volkanovski’s confidence in his own division.

The Australian is really good in the featherweight category; he’s the king there, he never loses, and in reality, there isn’t any competition that poses a real threat to him. All three guys ranked higher than Topuria (Max Holloway, Yair Rodríguez, and Brian Ortega) have already been defeated by Volkanovski. He successfully defended his featherweight title five times, including a third-round finish of Rodríguez in his most recent defense. We have a stance that his setbacks against Makhachev only made him stronger.

The current form of Topuria

Spain is where Georgian sensation Ilia Topuria resides, trains, and experiences his initial triumphs. He received an invitation to compete in the UFC in 2020, and he prevailed early in all but one of his six fights there.

It has to be stressed that his challengers weren’t the strongest kinds. For instance, while dominating the whole battle and eventually defeating Josh Emmett, Topuria was unable to finish the more or less serious fighters early. The Georgian took the champion on after this triumph, which gave him even more confidence. He now has the chance to back up his words with actions.

Comparison of Volkanovski and Topuria

Remember that the challengers to Volkanvoski were many times stronger than the challengers of Topuria when you check out the mere stats.

Match analytics

Not everyone thinks Volkanovski is the favorite and praises the Georgian’s abilities. They just fail to consider the fact that Topuria hasn’t yet experienced this kind of challenge and is unaware of what’s waiting for him in the cage. Volkanovski is an absolute professional; he maintains perfect order both on the ground and in the stand, hits hard, defends well, is calm and patient, possesses amazing reflexes, and, of course, vast experience. This level is entirely something else.

Indeed, the Australian had challenging bouts with extremely skilled opponents, but he consistently discovered a way to win (we exclude Makhachev from the equation because of his significant size and weight advantages). Although Topuria will put out a lot of aggressiveness, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to halt the champion; the outcome will be determined in the closing rounds. At that point, the Georgian fighter will probably struggle to live as it’s Volkanovski’s zone.

So, total rounds under 3.5 at odds of 1.92 on LV BET seem like a reasonable bet.

Results of the forecast

Successful forecast. Victory Topuria