Tomorrow night on the main card of UFC 310 we are going to see a big time heavyweight rematch with potential title implications. Former interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane (12-2) will look to pickup his second win over surging top heavyweight contender Alexander Volkov (38-10).
Back in 2018, Alexander Volkov appeared be seconds away from a UFC heavyweight title shot. He was fighting Derrick Lewis and had dominated Lewis for the majority of the fight. It would’ve moved him to 5-0, but in the last 20 seconds, Lewis knocked him out. After a 3-1 stretch, Volkov ran into Ciryl Gane and lost a five-round decision.
Since June 2022, Volkov has really turned the corner. He’s won four fights in a row and he continues to look better and better. In his last fight, he picked apart former title challenger Sergei Pavlovich. Now, he’ll have to get one back against Gane if he wants to secure a title shot.
This is Ciryl Gane’s first fight in over a year. The last time we saw Gane was at UFC Paris in September 2023 where he knocked out Serghei Spivac. Gane is one of the best heavyweights in the world, but he hasn’t been incredibly active. Since his interim title win against Derrick Lewis in 2021, Gane has only fought four times going 2-2. Granted the two losses were to Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou.
UFC 310 Prediction
What we’ve seen from Alexander Volkov as of late is a guy who is very sharp with his striking and he uses his size to his advantage. He knows when to close the distance and he also does a great job of using the clinch. That said, I think all of the things he does well won’t work that well against and opponent like Ciryl Gane.
I think Gane is going to be too fast on the feet and too hard to track down throughout the night. Gane is a much better technical striker and I think he’s going to outpoint Volkov throughout the three rounds. While Volkov has momentum and he has improved, I don’t think he gets through Gane at UFC 310.
Prediction: Ciryl Gane by Decision