Jon Jones’ Legacy Under Threat as Alexander Volkov Throws Down Challenge for UFC Champ at Saudi Arabia

After rubbing the Saudi officials of the General Entertainment Authority the wrong way, Dana White indeed came up with some great fights for his second chance. The All-Russian co-main event UFC’s maiden Saudi Arabia Fight Night did not disappoint. Sergei Pavlovich and Alexander Volkov went at each other head-on, but it was ‘Drago’ who’d emerge victorious, following which he went on to issue a callout to none other than the heavyweight champion, Jon Jones.

Jon Jones is currently preparing to make his return for the legacy fight against 2-time heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic. He’s back in the gym training after nursing his shoulder injury. But as he prepares for Miocic, he may take notice of the words Alexander Volkov had to say following his win in Saudi Arabia. Let’s see what the Russian fighter had to say.

Alexander Volkov wants to fight Jon Jones

Yes, everybody wants to fight the big fish, Jon Jones and Alexander Volkov made a case for it after beating fellow Russian fighter and his former training partner, Sergei Pavlovich. He believes that his fighting style and ‘Bones’ fighting style would be a perfect match and he would love to butt heads with the champion inside the eight-sided cage.

“I am here all [the] time… Jon Jones will be [a] great fight for me. Like, big reach, big guy. I want to meet him in [the] Octagon,” Alexander Volkov stated during the post-fight Octagon interview. Furthermore, it appears that ‘Drago’ is thinking about a bigger picture here.

First of all, he insinuated that he’s fought for a long time and a title fight next may not be out of the question since he’s on a 4-fight winning streak. Secondly, fighting Jon Jones would be great for his MMA record. “It will be like really good for me, for like, for my legacy here because I fought a lot. I fought all my life. This will be a nice challenge,” Alexander Volkov added.

He may have made a great plea about wanting to fight for the title because he controlled the fight against Sergei Pavlovich, who is no easy opponent, to say the least since he has a 100% finish rate. Nevertheless, let’s take a look at how the fight went down.

UFC Saudi Arabia co-main event review

The fight started off with Alexander Volkov on the front foot as he delivered some leg and body kicks. Thereafter, Sergei Pavlovich gave his Russian counterpart a taste of his punches. Both fighters went toe-to-toe, trading strikes and sizing up each other for a perfect shot. Meanwhile, Pavlovich was busted open and was bleeding from the nose, and as the round ended, he failed to secure a first-round finish as he’d done lately.

It was the first time in the UFC that Sergei Pavlovich let his fight advance to the second round and he was clearly looking to land the death blow on Alexander Volkov when the round started. However, the latter held his ground and continued trading strikes with the KO artist, and rocked Pavlovich with a strong left hand, but that did not end the fight. The 32-year-old would get another bruise as he got a black eye.

Alexander Volkov seemed to be in control of the fight as the third round was a do-or-die situation for Sergei Pavlovich, and his corner wanted him to go for the finish. But he was having trouble getting closer to ‘Drago’ and he’d get rocked again with a flurry of strikes from Volkov. However, Pavlovich was relentless in his search for a knockout opportunity, but would later resort to a takedown attempt, which was shut down by Volkov seconds later. He tried his best to get the finish in the last 10 seconds but he couldn’t get that to happen, and Volkov won the fight via unanimous decision before calling out Jon Jones.

Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall tried to get that Jon Jones fight, but the undisputed champion didn’t seem too interested in it. But will he accept Alexander Volkov’s challenge? Or it could be that Jones is more inclined to face off with the phenom who is rising the charts fast and becoming the newest face of the UFC, Alex Pereira. Well, that only time will tell. Till then, share your thoughts in the comments below!