Alexander Volkov appears to have the requisite time and the necessary wherewithal to make a run to the top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division.
A former Bellator MMA and M-1 Global champion, the 6-foot-7 Russian will collide with Tai Tuivasa in the UFC 293 co-main event on Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. Volkov enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back victories. He last competed at UFC Fight Night 221, where he needed a little more than two minutes to shoo away Alexander Romanov with punches on March 11. Tuivasa, meanwhile, climbs into the cage on a two-fight losing streak. He last appeared on Dec. 3, when he was on the receiving end of a 54-second knockout from Sergei Pavlovich at UFC on ESPN 42.
As Volkov and Tuivasa approach their looming battle Down Under, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
34: Years of age for Volkov, who was born in Moscow on Oct. 24, 1988.
24: Volkov wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 67% of his career total (36). His list of UFC victims: Romanov, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Alistair Overeem, Walt Harris, Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve. Volkov owns three other wins by submission (8%) and nine more by decision (25%).
135: Significant strikes landed by Volkov in his third-round technical knockout of Struve at UFC Fight Night 115 on Sept. 2, 2017. It established a personal high-water mark for the Russian that stands to this day.
15: Consecutive calendar years in which Volkov has fought at least once. In addition to his 1-0 record in 2023, he has gone 5-1 in 2009, 4-2 in 2010, 5-0 in 2011, 5-0 in 2012, 0-1 in 2013, 4-0 in 2014, 1-2 in 2015, 3-0 in 2016, 2-0 in 2017, 1-1 in 2018, 1-0 in 2019, 1-1 in 2020, 2-1 in 2021 and 1-1 in 2022.
187: Combined victories between the 10 opponents—Tom Aspinall, Ciryl Gane, Curtis Blaydes, Derrick Lewis, Cheick Kongo, Tony Johnson , Vitaly Minakov, Pat Bennett, Maxim Grishin and Akhmed Sultanov—who have defeated Volkov. They sport a .723 cumulative winning percentage at 187-70-5.
30: Years of age for Tuivasa, who was born on March 16, 1993 in Sydney.
13: Tuivasa victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 93% of his career total (14). His list of UFC victims: Lewis, Struve, Augusto Sakai, Greg Hardy, Harry Hunsucker, Cyril Asker and Rashad Coulter. Tuivasa holds one other victory by decision (7%).
250,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Tuivasa across his 13 appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Performance of the Night” four times and “Fight of the Night” once.
6: Sub-minute finishes on the Tuivasa resume, though only one of them has taken place inside the Octagon. He disposed of the aforementioned Hunsucker with punches 49 seconds into their UFC on ESPN 21 pairing on March 20, 2021.
.789: Cumulative winning percentage between the five opponents—Pavlovich, Gane, Sergey Spivak, Blagoy Ivanov and Junior dos Santos—who have beaten Tuivasa. The boast a combined record of 86-23.
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