Junior dos Santos wants a piece of rising heavyweight Alexander Volkov.
Volkov earned the biggest win of his professional mixed martial arts career last month. He knocked out former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum in the main event of UFC London. The finish earned Volkov a “Performance of the Night” bonus.
With the victory, Volkov was propelled up to the third spot on the official UFC heavyweight rankings. He is only behind Alistair Overeem, Francis Ngannou, and of course the champion Stipe Miocic. One more win could solidify Volkov’s status as the number one contender.
“Cigano” would like to put “Drago” to the test. In a recent interview with Combate, dos Santos expressed his desire to throw leather with Volkov (via Bloody Elbow):
“I had already closed a deal to fight Ngannou before all this happened. He could be an option, but I think he has another fight. A rematch with Overeem could be nice, but I think he has a fight, too. I also don’t think he’d take that fight. There’s Werdum, actually there’s not, he wouldn’t take it. But I think there’s Alexander Volkov, he’s climbing the division and has no fights scheduled. That would be a perfect match-up. I know he wants to fight for the belt, so I’ll give him that feeling of what it’s like to fight for the belt.”
Volkov is on the rise and riding a wave of momentum. He is on a six-fight winning streak, finishing three of his opponents in that span. “Drago” hasn’t suffered defeat since June 2015.
As for dos Santos, he has seen better days inside the Octagon. “Cigano” has gone 3-4 in his last seven outings. He has been stopped in three of those losses. The former UFC heavyweight champion hasn’t lost back-to-back bouts.
Who would you pick if Junior dos Santos and Alexander Volkov did battle?
