The UFC earlier this week announced that Volkan Oezdemir would face Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson at UFC 227 on Aug. 4 in Los Angeles. Now, it seems Volkan can fully focus on the fight as the felony battery case against him was dropped according to his lawyer (via MMAFighting.com):
Volkan was arrested in August as he was accused of knocking out a man in a bar fight in Florida. He was charged with a third-degree felony. Volkan had to surrender his passport to the authorities. The case cost him a potential light heavyweight bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC’s Hamburg event. Now Anthony Smith will be “Shoguns’s” replacement opponent for the main event.
Volkan Oezdemir’s trail was scheduled to start on Monday and as per the spokesperson from the attorney’s office confirmed earlier that the case has been dropped, the prosecution will no longer pursue the charge. It seems the reason was that of lack of cooperation from the victim.
Now, Volkan Oezdemir will face Gustafsson at UFC 227 and the winner might get to challenge the current light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier. Both Volkan and Alex were defeated by Daniel Cormier at UFC 192 and UFC 220 respectively. Volkan Oezdemir last fought against Daniel at UFC 220 which he lost via second-round TKO. Prior to the DC fight, Volkan Oezdemir had an impressive run inside the Octagon with wins over Jimi Manuwa and Misha Cirkunov, finishing both fights inside a minute.
Can Volkan Oezdemir earn another title shot against DC? Let us know in the comments.
