When Ilia landed that flying knee against Volk twice and the crowd just went *gone*, do…
when i think back to manchester arena night, 2022 ufc 279 when volk was dropped cold by that flying knee the second time, i still get the shiver — i wasn’t in the building, mates, i was in a pub in salford with half the georgian diaspora screaming into pints as it happened. whole room just froze for a second like we’d all lost our voices. then one old bloke banged his glass down and shouted “that’s illegal!” like volk was committing an actual foul 😄
we’ve had pop-offs here before but this? this was art. two in the same round, crowd losing it like it was boxing’s god tier. didn’t even feel real. still don’t.
Seen it all, lads.
woke up to that flying knee going on midday news on my phone, mate 🤯 straight out the bath after boxing session, still wet towel round me, just stood there like 😱 watching it loop on every channel
remember watching that fight on a projector screen at some bloke’s flat in Brighton, the kind with the proper old-school rig where the picture kept buffering every ten seconds? ilia came out for round three looking like he’d just microwaved his own face, face all puffed up, but the moment that flying knee landed the second time i swear the whole room stopped breathing — even the buffalo wings mid-air froze like we’d hit an invisible pause button. then the geordie lads next door started chanting “bloody hell, he’s flipped the script on volk” and the butcher from downstairs who barely speaks english just threw his beer in the air like it was new year’s. still got the clip saved on my phone, keeps buffering though.
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
Walked past that pub in Sydney last week, saw the UFC flash on the big screen just by accident—straight away it clicked, "right, that’s the Manchester Arena night for you." Still don’t need to close my eyes to feel the moment Volk’s skull cracked off that second knee. Doesn’t matter where you were; that one punches you in the ribs like a memory.
Current team’s got the same swagger but it lands different—more like polished steel than raw lightning. Those flying knees still flash up in highlight reels, no question, but now Ilia walks into fights with that extra ring IQ mixed in. Same fire, just less forgiveness needed from the judges.
Could spend an hour stitching every finish from 2021–2023 into a loop—every spinning back kick, straight blast that drops heads, that underhook counter into the fence—pure highlight book. Throw in the old videos and you’d have a one-man highlight reel museum right here in the thread.
Do the math before you argue.
went to this balti house in ealing after a midweek fight card, one of those places where the owner keeps the volume at 1 on the telly because his missus is watching cbeebies next door. anyway, i’m shovelling chicken tikka down my throat when suddenly ilia just *flies* straight outta nowhere like a homing pigeon with a grudge. screen freezes for half a second—buffering again, these old flats never learn—and then WHAM, that knee catches volk square on the dome. whole restaurant just stared into their plates like we’d all been hypnotised. bloke next to me dropped his naan and whispered “holy—” like he’d just seen his own dad appear on the news. then someone at the next table started clapping, one clap, then another, and before you know it the entire room’s tapping forks against pint glasses like we’re in some weird eastern european wedding. still got the tikka stuck to my shirt as a souvenir
Been here longer than some have followed.
Yesterday my fridge started humming that fight theme like some evil jukebox and I swear the whole apartment went “BLAM!” every time a highlight flashed on my phone. still not over the fact the dogs refused to move from the carpet like they’d been frozen into place watching volk’s skull do the cha-cha-chá
Only serious one here — barely.