Search the Community

Troid 109 Preview: O'Connor vs Volkov http://i.imgur.com/fEUPiXR.png When the popular "Lucky" Liam O'Connor (15-6) stepped off The Island to join up with Mark O'Sullivan's Team Finland to attempt to have a successful career, post The Island many were predicted his stay in professional MMA to be a short one, yet he has continually proved the critics wrong every step of the way in his illustrious MMA career. Liam O'Connor went off the radar for over 6 months but eventually joined up with BEEF for their SlaughterSeason tournament which was made especially for Island fighters, with one round of fights the tournament was cancelled and O'Connor was left once more as a free agent. It didn't take long for him to be signed up again as he was signed up by world renowned organisation Umbrella Corporation, Igor Byhenikov's then business and he had another fight one month later. Unfortunately, again Liam managed only one fight, this time a loss albeit against his first opponent who never appeared on The Island. It wasn't until Grant Brophy decided to take a gamble and sign the ex-Islander for Troid (now Troid EP) that he really shined and what a gamble it was, with Liam's current record in Troid being a very respectable 5-1 and him being on the back of a 4 fight winning streak which has lead him to where he is now... a fight for the Troid Middleweight title. Ironically former Umbrella owner Igor Byhenikov, the man who first saw Liam's potential off The Island would eventually have one of his own elite fighters take on the famous Irishman. Standing across the cage from him on Saturday night will be Ilya Mstislav Volkov (12-3) one of the most feared Russian MMA fighters in the world at this time. Oddly enough Ilya is another former Umbrella Corporation fighter and is no stranger to big fights having fought in numerous title fights during his time with Epicity Productions. He was the reigning Middleweight champion when the Epicity Production and Troid merger took place and got an immediate title shot at the then Troid title holder Joe Smith (13-3), it was a tough battle between the two champions but it was Ilya that emerged victorious as the new Troid EP Middleweight champion. In addition to fighting for both Umbrella and Epicity, Ilya also had a spell with Insanity which is another one of the current big orgs at this time. He's currently on a 6 fight win streak, with 5 of those coming via KO/TKO. Ilya will be confident coming into this fight having won 6 fights in a row but Liam O'Connor is no stranger to over coming the odds having already fought in one fight during 2015 where he was a heavy underdog against Moses Diggs son "Unchained" Django Diggs (9-1). Despite many throughout the world feeling he had no chance at all, he proved everyone wrong and left Django Diggs screaming for him to let go of his armbar, the technique Liam has used to help him win 5 of his 12 professional MMA submission wins. The Liam O'Connor tactic as it's now been called has worked time and time again through Liam's career. If he gets a hold of you in the clinch, you better hope to God he doesn't pull guard and take you with him because if he does, he's going to apply a lock to one of your limbs and force you to tap quicker than you can say "OH SHIT". Ilya knows exactly what not to do, he wants to keep the fight on the outside, avoid Liam's clinch game and utilise his own gameplan. Ilya has the power to get a KO and we know Liam has been KO'd before in the past. Interestingly, Ilya's biggest weakness (at least at looking at his record) is against submission guys with 2 of his 3 losses coming via submission. This mouth watering match up has the potential to be an all-time classic. This is the biggest test of Liam O'Connor's career and a win here could potentially cement himself as one of the all time greatest Irish MMA fighters if he hasn't done so already, winning the Troid title would surely be the biggest achievement of his MMA career to date. Ilya has all the pressure on him, will he be able to cope with it? Or will he buckle under the pressure? Find out on Saturday night!