UFC Vegas 56: UFC Apex; Las Vegas
In an important heavyweight battle between seventh and eighth ranked fighters, Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Alexander Volkov it was a quick finish for the Russian. And with that Alexander Volkov holds his ground in the rankings.
His seventh main event slot matches where he sits in the rankings, at least for the near future. The 34-year old Surinamese fighter however may come next week find himself outside of the Top-10. Volkov, who’s been on an up-and-down track recently, fully admitted that Tom Aspinall was just the way better fighter when he got subbed by him in March. He came into this fight with the desire to start a new win streak, and only needed 2:12 to accomplish that.
Now out of his 35-career wins, 23 are by knockout and has 16-first-round finishes to boot. Post fight, he had no problem telling Paul Felder:
“I’m ready for any challenges”.
So perhaps that means running things back against Aspinall. Although, next month he has to get through Curtis Blaydes. Unless Dana White and the UFC truly just see the 6’7″ “Drago” as some sort of gatekeeper. Which actually isn’t a stretch, because since he finished Fabricio Werdum, it’s been a struggle against hotter and better talent. But how’d we get to this point?
Alexander Volkov Holds Ground, But Was It A Fast Stoppage?
When referee Herb Dean jumped in to stop the fight along the fence, one thing probably rang through MMA fans heads. At least Dean didn’t stand around and watch “Bigi Boy” get lit up. Dean over the last two-years seems to be in the middle of way too late stoppages, or way too early ones.
And this one may be one of the former. There’s no doubt it will be debated was it a just stoppage. Volkov used his solid kicking game to keep Rozenstruik at distance while they exchanged early. That led to Volkov applying some pressure backing Rozenstruik up along the cage. And with over 56% striking accuracy Volkov started opening up, eventually knocking Rozenstruik’s mouthpiece out. Which led to him starting to peel away. And that’s when Dean instead of calling time to retrieve the mouthpiece, waived the fight off.
And that makes you wonder just how fast White started shaking his head in his office in disgust.
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