Alexander Volkov: In the end, Overeem choked on his own blood

Towering former Bellator MMA heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov is on a two-fight win streak in the UFC, after TKOing Alistair Overeem in the main event of UFC Vegas 18 on Saturday night. Post-fight, “Drago” talked about what it felt like to hit Overeem, and what it felt like to be hit by him.

The very first blow shocked me,” said Volkov, as translated by UGer touch. “But it did not shake me in the spirit like, ‘Oh, God! What a blow.’ He just hit well. Then there were two more hits, but not at all as sensitive as in the first case. I was a little at a loss, since I could not implement the plan from the very beginning. I wanted to work more with my legs on the body, on the head, but he studied me well and successfully blocked all attempts. I only managed to hit with my leg. I had to reorganize to a more handheld work. I just did it more aggressively, pressed. I understood that the less I give him the opportunity to move and think, the easier it will be, so I tried to constantly throw punches. This led to this result.

“In fact, from the beginning of the first round it was hard for me. I even doubted myself. In my opinion, he came out in good shape and was waiting for my mistake. Several times I came close to being wrong. But in the end, I turned out to smash his face so that he choked on the blood.

“I don’t know if this can be seen in the video, but I felt like he was constantly trying to either sniff his nose, or something else. I heard that it was hard for him to take a breath. I remember hitting him hard and wondering how he stood on his feet. Naturally, in the second round, when he suffered a huge number of punches, it is difficult to say that he is not in shape. Put any person and hit him with 20-30 blows on the head. I think after this everyone will be out of shape. … Overeem was assembled, in tune, he prepared very well for me.

“If you look at it, he attracted many guys like me to his training camp: two meters tall, hitting. He studied me seriously. It’s just that Alistair didn’t calculate that I would with hit my hands so hard and sharply, breaking through his defense. And so, everything went according to his plan.”