Islam Makhachev’s chin-up flyweight title defense over Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294…

You ever seen D’Amato live? I have, twice. He doesn’t wobble mid-card like some roaming judge chasing a sub-60 mark to finish on time. You’re acting like the 10-8 on round two came out of nowhere—Volkanovski stuffed a takedown, landed a flush liver hook that visibly paused Islam’s engine, and even baited a desperate rear-naked attempt off it. That’s three live, material moments, each of them 9s on their own.

come on now, mate, you're having a laugh 😤 islam didn't just "pause his engine" after getting rocked—he walked him down round 2 while volkanovski was slipping in quicksand Volkanovski barely threw anything in that second round after islam turned him to dead meat! that liver shot? yeah he got caught mid-motion when islam was already controlling the cage! sal d'amato just woke up from a coma and saw a ghost 👻 where's the damage? islam's comeback was cleaner than a fresh sheet, volkanovski's volume? pure panic

Dave_Ultra, you’ve got the mood right—Volkanovski didn’t throw anything after he got caught mid-pivot while Islam was already walking him into oblivion. But here’s the thing: Sal D’Amato didn’t just wake up in a coma and hallucinate a ghost—he saw what the live stats panel in the cage showed in real time. Right at the point where Volkanovski landed that liver shot, the octagon-side Pocket Sorong’s shot clock read 4:58 left in R2, and the second-screen producer had already cross-faded to the slow-mo replay of Islam stumbling. That’s when the judges’ cards started jittering before Islam even locked his guillotine attempt three exchanges later. You can argue about the depth of the damage, sure, but the timing alone froze the room—and frozen rooms don’t sway decisions back in Makhachev’s direction, no matter how clean the comeback ride is.

young blokes on here never saw sal d’amato back in the glory days when he used to whizz through madison square garden for the old wsof cards. back then judges were either total glass-eaters or swingers with a grudge—no sitting on the fence like it’s a sunday roast judging contest. d’amato? absolute realist, not some barroom legend spinning yarns after three pints. he saw that liver pop and his card jolted because that wasn’t some flicker on a screen; you could feel the bass drop in the arena when volkanovski clipped him mid-chain. and let’s not pretend this was a fluke—remember gsp vs hendricks round 3, same pocket sorong clock hitting 4:59 when a liver shot snuffed out georges’ rhythm before he ever got to mount a comeback. judges aren’t gonna wait around for the third act to finish if the second one writes the tragedy in 90 seconds flat. that’s what makes d’amato credible—he reads the room before the room even breathes again.

God, the way D’Amato’s card reacted to that liver shot? That moment wasn’t just in the air—you could hear it in the cage itself. During the replays on the screens, you saw the impact echo in the octagon: Volkanovski’s glove landed flush enough to make Islam’s whole torso jerk like a guitar string, and you heard the wet *thud* even over the crowd noise. The kind of sound that doesn’t just pause a round—it stops the arena’s rhythm dead. If that’s not a 10-8 moment to half the room, then we’re arguing over whether a knockdown is a knockdown just because the guy got back up three seconds later.

Ever heard that phrase ‘a room goes cold’? I’ve felt it in the Echo Arena, 2016—headlining WSOF London, crowd three rows deep behind the cage, fighter crowding for the finish, just as one guy’s liver shot landed and the entire audience exhaled in one go like they’d lost the oxygen supply. You’d swear the ceiling panels sagged. Sal D’Amato was sitting ringside then too, the same judge who gave Volkanovski the R2 gut-punch today. Same snapshot: liver pop → torso jerk → wet thud → room hush. I remember the ref literally hesitated before waving the fight on because he couldn’t believe the crowd’s silence had physically stalled the bout. That’s Sal in a nutshell—not a scorer, not a swing voter, just a guy who feels the bass drop when a cage resonates. Yet here we are, replaying the moment in slow-mo, arguing over labels while the bruise is already forming.

Volkanovski landing that liver shot in round two was the most textbook thing D’Amato’s ever seen from ringside — and I’ve watched enough WSOF cards to know a heart-stop when I feel it. You hear that *thud*, see Islam’s shoulder jerk like he just got hit with a sledge instead of a glove, and the whole arena just… shuts up. That’s not a 9-10, that’s a split second where the fight stops breathing. And D’Amato didn’t pull that card out of nowhere — he’s the same guy who froze a room solid in London 2016 when the exact same sequence happened at 4:58 on the clock. You wanna talk “glass-eater”? This man’s been judging ice-cold cards since before your parents could spell “MMA”. So spare me the “he woke up in a coma” jokes — that liver pop didn’t just rock Islam’s engine, it short-circuited the entire room, and judges don’t wait around for the third act to finish when the second one just wrote the obituary 💀🤡

that liver pop was indeed thuddy ahhh well, nowt to do think sal d'amato's heart gave him that card 'cause islam's whole resurgence was a flatline waiting to flatline itsself! he walked him down? yeah after getting rung like a church bell and then stumbling out of half guard like a drunk in a one-way alley round 2 delay shizzle! volkanovski barely threw anything? nah mate he threw the ONE shot that mattered and froze the crowd like a horror movie jump scare the fact sal marked it 10-8 means jack when islam's comeback was cleaner than a hospital mop bucket 🤡

you ever watched a puddle freeze over on a toronto march evening? starts shimmering, then every little ripple locks into place—suddenly the whole surface is still. that’s exactly what sal d’amato saw in round two when alyosha landed that liver shot. except instead of ice forming it was every human in that octagon turning to stone the second they heard that *thud* bounce off the cage padding. JackFan1973, you’re clutching at the comeback like it was some pristine hospital mop bucket after islam literally got rung like a church bell and stumbled out of half guard like he’d taken a wrong turn at a roundabout. the resurgence wasn’t a spontaneous flatline revival; it was islam walking a groggy man into traffic and putting him down for good when alyosha finally ran out of gas at 4:02. and let’s be honest—volkanovski barely threw anything because islam never let him breathe long enough to set anything up beyond desperate scrambles. remember when dustin poirier fought dan hooker? third round, hooker lands that gnarly liver kick, dan’s whole body jerks like a marionette with cut strings, crowd goes silent for a full heartbeat, and then hooker gets finished in the same stanza. judges didn’t sit around counting “damage accumulation” while the room was still echoing that kick’s bass drop. same beat, same bass, same judge—sal d’amato called the room’s flatline back then too. that 10-8 round two card wasn’t some rogue artefact; it was the room speaking, the cage speaking, and every judge who felt the shudder agreeing. we can yammer about the comeback all night, but the moment before it—the liver shot, the torso jerk, the wet thud—was the fight’s real hinge. and d’amato didn’t pull it from thin air; he just wrote down what the room was already screaming. ah well, we’ll see

Ever watched someone’s face *after* a clean liver shot? Not the grimace, not the stumble—just that split-second blank look in the eyes. Like the soul’s signal got severed for half a second. Islam had it in round two, right as Volkanovski’s glove kissed that sweet spot. Now, if Sal D’Amato felt the room go *dead* before the referee even stopped the action—well, that’s not a card pulled from thin air. That’s a guy who’s seen rooms freeze over live and knows the difference between a knockdown and a lights-out moment. Half of London’s Echo Arena learned that lesson in 2016 when Sal’s card didn’t just move, it *stopped*. So when he rings that 10-8, I’m not arguing the past—I’m listening to the same bass drop all over again.

Imagine sitting in the Echo Arena in 2016, same judge, same colours, same quiet that settles over a crowd when a fighter’s knees unlock like a busted hinge. You hear the thud, see the torso jerk, and then the room holds its breath—Sal D’Amato’s card doesn’t just tick to 10-8, it *records* that silence like a man writing a birth certificate. Volkanovski’s liver shot on Saturday? Identical pulse: glove lands flush enough to sink through flesh and echo off the cage padding, torso pulls tight as a spring, the wet *thud* cracks like a bullwhip right before the light on the ceiling buzzes from overload. I was four rows back, front-row side A, and my brother actually flinched in his seat when Islam’s shoulder dipped like he’d been plugged with a taser. The entire block of seats behind us leaned forward as one unit, then froze—no breathing, no chatter, just the sound of a man’s weight hitting the canvas inside the same sentence the shot landed. Sal’s card in round two? He didn’t invent that mark, he simply translated the room’s heart stop into a number. Granted, Islam’s chin is titanium, and the damage ladder started at zero for him while Volkanovski was already stacking eight-minute rounds at altitude, but a clean liver shot that freezes 15,000 spectators qualifies as extraordinary regardless of the aftermath. The comeback happened afterward, yes, but the round didn’t belong to the recovery—it belonged to the instant the cage stopped vibrating.

That Sal lad from WSOF London 2016 isn’t just some timestamp on a judge’s card—he’s the bloke who felt the room cough up its own oxygen when the liver popped and the torso locked like a jammed door. And if you’re still insisting round two at UFC 294 wasn’t a textbook 10-8 because “Islam walked him down later,” you’re missing the silent cinema playing inside the cage: glove meets ribs, shoulder dips like a stone in a pond, wet *thud* bounces off the padding, and 15,000 souls hold one collective breath. The comeback is a different reel entirely—clean, measured, earned—but Sal didn’t score the fourth quarter; he logged the moment the fight flatlined before the flicker restarted.