Alexander
Volkov
appears to have the requisite time and the necessary
wherewithal to make a run to the top of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division.
A former
Bellator
MMA and
M-1 Global
champion, the 6-foot-7 Russian will collide with
Tai Tuivasa
in the
UFC 293 co-main event on Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in
Sydney. Volkov enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back
victories. He last competed at UFC Fight Night 221, where he needed
a little more than two minutes to shoo away
Alexander
Romanov with punches on March 11. Tuivasa, meanwhile, climbs
into the cage on a two-fight losing streak. He last appeared on
Dec. 3, when he was on the receiving end of a 54-second knockout
from
Sergei
Pavlovich at UFC on ESPN 42.
As Volkov and Tuivasa approach their looming battle Down Under, a
look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this
point:
34: Years of age for Volkov, who was born in Moscow on Oct. 24,
1988.
24: Volkov wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
67% of his career total (36). His list of UFC victims: Romanov,
Jairzinho
Rozenstruik,
Alistair
Overeem,
Walt Harris,
Fabricio
Werdum and
Stefan
Struve. Volkov owns three other wins by submission (8%) and
nine more by decision (25%).
135: Significant strikes landed by Volkov in his third-round
technical knockout of Struve at UFC Fight Night 115 on Sept. 2,
2017. It established a personal high-water mark for the Russian
that stands to this day.
15: Consecutive calendar years in which Volkov has fought at least
once. In addition to his 1-0 record in 2023, he has gone 5-1 in
2009, 4-2 in 2010, 5-0 in 2011, 5-0 in 2012, 0-1 in 2013, 4-0 in
2014, 1-2 in 2015, 3-0 in 2016, 2-0 in 2017, 1-1 in 2018, 1-0 in
2019, 1-1 in 2020, 2-1 in 2021 and 1-1 in 2022.
187: Combined victories between the 10 opponents—
Tom
Aspinall,
Ciryl Gane,
Curtis
Blaydes,
Derrick
Lewis,
Cheick
Kongo,
Tony
Johnson ,
Vitaly
Minakov,
Pat Bennett,
Maxim
Grishin and
Akhmed
Sultanov—who have defeated Volkov. They sport a .723 cumulative
winning percentage at 187-70-5.
30: Years of age for Tuivasa, who was born on March 16, 1993 in
Sydney.
13: Tuivasa victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 93% of his career total (14). His list of UFC victims: Lewis,
Struve,
Augusto
Sakai,
Greg Hardy,
Harry
Hunsucker,
Cyril Asker
and
Rashad
Coulter. Tuivasa holds one other victory by decision (7%).
250,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Tuivasa across his
13 appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Performance of the
Night” four times and “Fight of the Night” once.
6: Sub-minute finishes on the Tuivasa resume, though only one of
them has taken place inside the Octagon. He disposed of the
aforementioned Hunsucker with punches 49 seconds into their UFC on
ESPN 21 pairing on March 20, 2021.
.789: Cumulative winning percentage between the five
opponents—Pavlovich, Gane,
Sergey
Spivak,
Blagoy
Ivanov and
Junior dos
Santos—who have beaten Tuivasa. The boast a combined record of
86-23.