With Jon Jones no longer in the title picture, Alexander Volkov is ready to capitalize.
After holding the heavyweight division hostage for two years, ‘Bones’ walked away from the sport in June. As a result, Tom Aspinall was promoted from interim titleholder to undisputed champion and has since vowed to be something the weight class hasn’t seen for a long time — a fighting champion.
But if Volkov gets his way, Aspinall’s reign at the top will be a short one.
“It wasn’t really understandable what was happening in the division with heavyweights. Jon Jones retired, and something moved on, so maybe it’s time to come back, have a good fight, and maybe after, fight for the belt,” Volkov told MMA Junkie.
Alexander Volkov left frustrated by sketchy split decision loss in last outing
In December, Volkov came up on the wrong side of a controversial split decision against Ciryl Gane. Before that, ‘Drago’ was on a five-fight win streak, including a trio of finishes against Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Alexandr Romanov, and Tai Tuivasa.
“I have no problem with it right now,” Volkov said of the loss to Gane. “Emotionally, I had bad feelings from the fight. I did a lot. I trained a lot. It was a really hard camp for me. I had some injuries. I had some of my own problems, a lot of things. It was a rematch for me. It was in Las Vegas, where I live now. A lot of things put me in a bad position to lose here. After, I just stopped thinking about what I could do better this fight, what I should do better. … I think I did a good job, a good fight with him. For myself, I won.
“It’s a (fact) of course who won for real,” Volkov continued. “But for myself, I won. I got better in this fight. For sure, this fight gave me more opportunity to grow up, after this loss. Because if I won, I would’ve thought everything was good, everything was OK. ‘I’m not needing to train any more. I’m ready for the best of the best.’ But now, after losing, I started thinking about myself in a different way, how to learn more, and how to get better. I’m not worried about this loss any more.”
