The former Bellator heavyweight champion, Alexander Volkov, was disappointed when he learned he was not going to take on former UFC title holder Junior dos Santos anymore, at least not at UFC Moscow—as originally planned. After being removed from the card with a gnarly leg infection, ‘Cigano’ was quickly replaced by Greg Hardy, and the bout was dropped to the night’s co-main event.
Now, just hours away from his fight against Hardy, Volkov told Combate he is happy to still be fighting in Russia, rather than having his fight shifted to another card. However, he hopes to fight JDS in the not too distant future.
“At first, I was a little disappointed, but I kept going to the gym and working hard—in order to be ready for whoever the UFC chose as my new opponent. It didn’t matter who I was going to fight. I only learned who my opponent was when I received the new contract. I was really happy that my fight didn’t get transferred. Now I’ll have a chance to show what I can do. I hope I get another opportunity to fight Cigano again. He’s at the top of the rankings, and if I have the ambition to become a champion, fighting him would be a great opportunity.”
In his last outing, in October 2018, Alexander Volkov (30-7) suffered his first Octagon loss, a late KO defeat to Derrick Lewis—in a fight ‘Drago’ was winning up until the point of the knockout. Before that, the 31-year-old was on a four-fight winning streak in the UFC, with victories over Timothy Johnson, Roy Nelson, Stefan Struve and former champion Fabricio Werdum.
UFC Fight Night 163 goes down this Saturday, November 9th, in Moscow, Russia. The card is scheduled to be headlined by a featherweight bout between contenders Zabit Magomedsharipov and Calvin Kattar,
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