Heading into UFC 321, it appeared that the heavyweight matchup on the main card between Alexander Volkov (39-11) and Jailton Almeida (22-4) would produce the next title challenger. There was a lot of hope for this fight.
However, the fight sucked and there’s really no way of dancing around that fact. In the opening round, Almeida used his dominant wrestling to take Volkov down. However, whenever Almeida got Volkov on the ground, it looked like he was afraid to do any form of striking.
He just held Volkov there and didn’t do anything with the position. Volkov ended up reversing things and actually landed shots to win the first round. The next two rounds featured Almeida mostly dominating with his wrestling, but again, he did nothing with his dominant positions. He simply just laid there and controlled Volkov.
He won the second round, but in the third round, there was a little striking. The only striking was in the clinch where Volkov landed some nice knees. Almeida landed multiple takedowns, but on the ground, the only striking was coming from Volkov off his back.
In the past, Almeida likely would have won the fight with his dominant wrestling. However, with an emphasis on causing damage, two of the three judges gave the fight and the win at UFC 321 to Alexander Volkov.
What’s next after UFC 321?
Alexander Volkov made it clear in his post-fight interview that he wanted to fight for the title next. Unfortunately for Volkov, the title fight ended in a No Contest which means that the UFC is going to run it back with Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane.
Honestly, that is the best outcome for viewers because nobody is clammoring for a Volkov title fight after what happened on Saturday night especially when you factor in what happened the first time he fought with Tom Aspinall.
With that, he’s going to need to try and get another win. There’s actually a perfect fight for him that’s out there that the fans could get behind and it would be a fun title eliminator. That’s a rematch with Derrick Lewis.
These two fought years ago and Volkov dominated the fight before getting knocked out in the final 30 seconds in a fight that turned Derrick Lewis into a superstar. Lewis is coming off back-to-back knockout wins and he wants to fight for the title again.
Seems to be the perfect time for the UFC to run this one back.
More about: MMA
