Russians Sergei Pavlovich And Alexander Volkov are at the top of the UFC heavyweight division, and the league needs to remove one of them from the leading position, said ASA heavyweight champion Evgeniy Goncharov.
On Thursday, UFC director Dana White announced that Pavlovich and Volkov would face each other at the UFC tournament in Saudi Arabia on June 22. Volkov (37-10) enters the UFC on a three-fight win streak and ranks sixth in the rankings. Pavlovich (18-2) lost his last fight in November against Briton Tom Aspinall for the UFC interim belt. Before that, Pavlovich’s streak in the UFC was six early first-round wins. The Russian occupies third place in the ranking.
“I understood that sooner or later Volkov and Pavlovich had to meet. Two Russian fighters cannot fight for the UFC belt! Now both are at the top, vying for the highest spots, so one of them has to be pushed aside. From the UFC’s perspective, this is probably the right fight. From the point of view of Russian fans…and Alexander and Sergei themselves may not have wanted this fight. But here they had no choice.
I think the odds in this fight are 50/50, considering the guys have trained a lot and fought a lot together. They know each other a lot. In this fight, whoever is best prepared on a given day will win. And now, I repeat, the odds are 50/50. Sergey hits harder and Alexander is a more versatile fighter. This is a very interesting fight, I will watch it with pleasure,” Goncharov told .
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Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.