I watched a recent embedded for UFC 308 where he shook hands with Volk and then told the camera “it’s good to see Volk… it’s always respect. Always business, never personal”. That was cool.
I think theres a fine line between confidence/self belief, which helps, and delusion, which can cause complacency and an inability to reflect on your shortcomings so you can fix them.
So far we havent really seen Ilia put in a position where we can find out which one his is.
Tell you what though, if he actually does beat up and even stop Max, it’ll be pretty crazy. Could see a KO win over Max elevating his star power very rapidly.
He strikes me as being mentally tough. He apparently trains year-round, says he likes the feeling of being in shape. He has also gotten himself to world champion in a very tough division coming from a country that is not known as a hotbed of MMA (Spain) although he did have the Georgian wrestling background. Even when Volk landed a few and bust his nose, he remained laser focused. He strikes me as a very determined person.
I can handle some cockiness in fighters. It’s wife-beaters etc I don’t like.
Really looking forward to the fight. I like both guys. Just looking forward to what will surely be a great fight.