Alexander Volkov believes the UFC should create an interim heavyweight title with Francis Ngannou out due to an injury.
Ngannou entered his UFC 270 heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane with a knee injury and now, he’s set for surgery that will keep him out for several months. With that, Volkov, who’s headlining UFC London on Saturday, believes the promotion should book an interim title bout.
“I think an interim title would be quite a logical decision now because we frankly don’t know what will (happen),” Volkov said at UFC London media day. “But the only question is: Who will fight for this interim title? (Ciryl) Gane lost, and (Tai) Tuivasa only entered now as a third. Right now it’s very dark times even for UFC heavyweights.”
If the UFC does create an interim heavyweight title fight, many believe it would be Stipe Miocic vs. Tai Tuivasa. However, Volkov is in a pivotal bout and he believes if he can go out and beat Tom Aspinall it would do a lot for him.
But, in order for him to get into the interim title shot, he will need to beat Aspinall on Saturday. The Brit recently came out and said Volkov doesn’t know anything about him which the Russian says is not true as he’s well-prepared for Aspinall.
“He wasn’t an unknown fighter to me,” Volkov said regarding his opponent. “He has big names. He beat Andrei Arlovski. I was watching him during the fight and after this and thought he was an interesting opponent, a very hard one. I love this kind of fight when the young up-and-comer, powerful opponent is coming and forces me to evolve. This kind of fight is my favorite.”
Alexander Volkov is currently ranked sixth at heavyweight and is coming off a decision win over Marcin Tybura. The Russian is just 4-3 in his last seven but if he beats Aspinall it would be a massive win for him.
