“They Have to Change These Rules” – Rafael Fiziev Rips Exposed Islam Makhachev’s Win Over Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284

Sixth-ranked lightweight Rafael Fiziev is clearly among the top contenders in the division right now. And naturally, the fighter has his sights set on the guys ranked above him, and more so on the champion, Islam Makhachev. With a fight coming up against Justin Gaethje at UFC 286, the 29-year-old made an appearance on Submission Radio, where he talked about his opponent and also gave his opinion on the current champion.

Interestingly, Fiziev revealed his change of perspective on Makhachev after watching his last fight against Alexander Volkanovski, picking out the fourth round as a crucial point to his assessment. The 12-1 fighter even felt that the UFC needed to propose improved rules, in order to avoid scenarios where a fighter just uses his dominant position to win a round.

Rafael Fiziev on what he thinks of Islam Makhachev as an opponent

The Azerbaijani fighter, during his interaction on Submission Radio, revealed that Makhachev’s fight inspired confidence in him. Talking about finding loopholes in the Russian’s game, Fiziev accepted that the champ might have a few ‘minus’ points that could be exploited.

 “I see some of his minus, where he’s not strong, where he do some bad in the fight,…sometimes I see him and I think oh he’s so so strong everywhere and this fight I see like oh he’s so strong but not everywhere.” explained Fiziev.

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Considering that the sixth-ranked LW could find himself as a contender if he could beat Gaethje, Fiziev truly has to exploit any such bad aspects of the Russian’s game if they do end up facing each other.

Fiziev on Makhachev’s fight against Alexander Volkanovski; states there should be some change of rules in the UFC

Talking about the UFC 284 headliner, the 29-year-old had an interesting take regarding the fourth round of the fight. What Fiziev was pointing out was when Makhachev ended up controlling Volk and winning the round by riding his back, without putting any significant damage. He even felt that the promotion should change the rules in order to avoid such scenarios.

 “I‌ think they have to change some rules in the UFC, because if you take a position on the back side, if you take his back and …just control because you want control not attack it not make damage…that’s b******t man they have to change that.” expressed Fiziev. He then continued to emphasize on it saying that one can’t be gifted a round due to this, “they have to change these rules cannot give the give the win round just because of you staying taking back like this.”

Although it might sound a bit controversial to many, certain sections of fans do believe that control without damage should not have a significant impact on the scorecard. Despite this, judges usually favor giving the round to the controlling fighter even without much damage.

Rafael Fiziev is set to face Justin Gaethje at the co-main event of UFC 286, in what could be an explosive fight and its outcome could seriously decide the future of the division as well. Stay tuned.

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