Russian heavyweight Alexander Volkov who won the co-main event of the evening at the UFC in Saudi Arabia Sergei Pavlovich commented on the unpleasant incident that occurred after the fight.
Immediately after the fight, Pavlovich pushed away Volkov, who tried to encourage his opponent and shake his hand. Previously, Volkov and Pavlovich were training partners and trained together in Moscow. Volkov, fifth in the heavyweight division rankings, defeated Pavlovich by judges’ decision, who before the fight was ranked third in the top 15.
– Why do you think Sergei did that?
“In my opinion, this was a horrible act; I would like to understand why exactly this happened.” Maybe he misunderstood something, but in that case that’s his problem, not mine. What surprised me was that for the first time in my life I heard Sergei swear; I had never heard that from him before. I still could, but not him. But there’s no problem on my part and I’ll let people judge it.
– What if you found yourself at the hotel now?
“If he attacks me at the hotel, I will call the police.”
– However, which of you was the first to fight?
“I heard about this fight from my trainer Ronnie. When he called me, he was sitting with Sergei Pavlovich’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, they are friends. And we all learned about it thanks to Dana White’s announcement. But when my coach in Moscow contacted Sergei’s team in the morning, according to them, Sergei had already been offered this fight. Even before the announcement. And Sergei said that if Volkov agrees, then I won’t give back either. And the UFC came to me with the words: “Sergey agrees if you want.” Ali approached me with a proposal to cancel the fight, but there was already an agreement on their part, and I do not consider this a refusal. Therefore, Sergei needs to resolve the issue with his team or write to me directly. And one more thing: it was Sergei who came to me for training, we helped him and I treated him like a comrade, wanting him to reach the belt. He was preparing for a fight with Lewis, and I copied Lewis’ style as much as possible. And he should have been a little more grateful to us and not put me in a situation where I could not refuse, ”reports the correspondent of , reporting Volkov’s words.
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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.